Using history to move forward the public dialogue on free speech and social justice.

Free Speech Round-Up 10 | June 23, 2020

Today in free speech news, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam tries to shut down anti-racist protesters and an interesting op-ed in the Washington Post condemns police censorship.

Virginia Governor Northam Cracks Down on Protesters at Lee Monument in Richmond

For the past 25 days, protesters have demonstrated day and night against police brutality in the city of Richmond. Many of these protests have been around the statue to Confederate general Robert E. Lee on the city’s infamous Monument Avenue, a street full of such monuments to Confederates. Protesters have demanded these statues be taken down, a demand to which Governor Ralph Northam has agreed, though which has been delayed by the courts. On Monday, June 22, local and state officials suddenly issued an order banning demonstrations around the statue at night. Protesters have, unsurprisingly, ignored this order to silence their demands.1

What is instructive about this situation is the reason why state and local officials have such authority to bar gatherings at this specific monument. They have this authority because former Governor Terry McAuliffe instituted a temporary order – that then became a permanent one – barring such gatherings in the wake of the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and a subsequent rally at the monument in Richmond. That is to say, restrictions set up ostensibly to restrict the free speech of white supremacists is now being used to restrict the free speech of protesters demanding racial justice.

The one group in Virginia that most vocally opposed such restrictions was the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which on Monday put out a press release condemning the recent enforcement of the order. Yet, in the wake of the violence at Charlottesville, the ACLU in Virginia received a great deal of backlash from those on the Left accusing them for the violence at Charlottesville and decrying their support for the First Amendment. Former Governor McAuliffe went so far as to attempt to deflect blame for the entire debacle onto the ACLU.2 The basis for these accusations was that the ACLU sued the state to allow protesters to gather at the park in Charlottesville they wanted to make a point about, rather than where the State Police wanted them.3 If the ACLU had not interfered, supposedly the violence at Charlottesville could have been prevented. Yet, in standing up for free speech, and against the arbitrary ability of the police to move protest sites, the ACLU was trying to create a precedent. Such a precedent failed, and the result is that the same law used to restrict the speech of neo-Nazis is now being used to restrict those fighting for racial justice.

When Claire Gastanga, the Virginia ACLU’s Executive Director attended a panel at the College of William & Mary in October of 2017, she was shouted down by protesters, chanting such slogans as “ACLU, free speech for who?”4 I think that’s an excellent question. Given the Governor’s decision to enforce the monument speech restriction against protesters, I would say free speech for everyone, or very soon there will be free speech for no one.

Washington Post Editorial Condemns Police Censorship

In an editorial for the Washington Post assistant professor of English Aaron Hanlon discuses the hypocrisy of those who condemn political correctness, yet ignore police censorship and condemn any criticism of them.5 Hanlon mentions interesting factoids to this effect, such as efforts by police and police unions to stifle the N.W.A. song “Fuck tha Police.” On one occasion, the police in Detroit shut down an N.W.A. concert just because they were offended at the song.6 It also bears mentioning that the police, as actual agents of the state, are far more effective censors than any stripe of politically-correct online commentator. This is sometimes lost in a discussion over free speech that blurs the wide distinction between actual state censorship and people online responding to criticism.