Besides out-generaling the treacherous Confederates and putting down one rebellion that split the country, Grant also was an advocate for an important law after the war: the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.
President Ulysses S. Grant asked for the law after the rise of the KKK following the Civil War, and it was passed within a month with broad support. The law targeted Klan activity, making it illegal to use force, intimidation and threats to prevent people from voting, serving on a jury or testifying in court. The law specifically makes it illegal to “go in disguise upon the public highway or upon the premises of another” and allows victims to sue perpetrators in civil court.
Grant’s administration then used it to almost completely dismantle the KKK in America for years, bleeding them dry with civil suits.
That sounds like a good law. Maybe we should go after the Republican party with it. But for now, I’ll settle for the fact that it’s being used to dismantle openly Nazi-affiliated groups, like those that rioted in Charlottesville.
More than a dozen of the nation’s most prominent white supremacists and hate groups conspired to intimidate, harass or commit acts of violence during 2017′s deadly Unite the Right rally, according to a jury that also decided the men and their racist organizations should pay $26 million in damages.
The 11 jurors couldn’t come to an agreement on two federal conspiracy claims, but they found that every defendant — including former alt-right leader Richard Spencer, rally organizer Jason Kessler and Christopher Cantwell, dubbed the “crying Nazi” after sharing a video of himself weeping — was liable under Virginia law.
“We think that is a resounding verdict today and frankly a good sign for the future on the remaining counts,” plaintiffs attorney Karen Dunn said, referring to the allegations that the men conspired to commit racially motivated violence and failed to stop it — accusations her clients might pursue again in a future lawsuit.
Twenty six million dollars. $26,000,000. That’s got to sting, and there’s the threat of further suits. Good work, Ulysses.
The lawyers who accomplished this worked hard and made personal sacrifices to corner these rats and bring them to justice, so good for them, too. When lawyers and judges fail, we get results like we’ve seen recently, with murderers walking free. This group did not slack in their duties.
They can’t think about what will happen if they aren’t successful. They see this case as not about one incident, but about all right-wing violence in America. Unchecked, we end up with more events like Charlottesville, and like the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
So, it’s all on the line: democracy, the ability of people to live without fear.
Plus, Spitalnick pointed out that they’ve already made it harder to be a Nazi in America ― or, at least, more expensive. Spencer has no attorney because he’s out of money. Defendants can’t raise money because they’ve been deplatformed from fundraising sites. White supremacist group Vanguard America has been ordered to pay $16,000 for disobeying court orders in the case.
It’s a slow bleed of access and money until what was once the dapper face of terror, illuminated in fire, is revealed for what it always has been: nothing more than hatred.
So raise a glass to President Grant on Thanksgiving Day. His legacy lives on.
Well done indeed. Now to reverse the authoritarian conservstive take over of judge p oisitions in your country and there may be a glimmer of hope.
Here’s the thing: They don’t care.
If anything, this verdict is only going to deepen their narrative of white victimhood. The “ZOG” dragged this poor patriots and defenders of The West into a kangaroo court where the Jew-run media distorted the great truths they were defending with there communist lies. They won’t pay a penny if they can avoid it, and they’ll answer this verdict with more terrorist acts using the firepower they’ve spent decades amassing.
The only thing that WILL work against these fascist scum is to start treating them as the terrorists they are. Fuck the ACLU and the Posse Commutates Act. Drop Hellfire missiles on Proud Boys and Three Percenter meetings. Send Seal Team Six to pay a visit to Richard Spencer, Nick Fuentes, and Tucker Carlson, and a certain other public figures I could name. Send troops into their militia camps and wipe out everyone there. Be sure you do it openly and proudly. Send the message to America that if you are a fascist you are going to die.</>
I think you’ll suddenly find the American people a lot more animable to the social and economic progress the Left seeks once you make that fact clear to them.
Whoops! Sorry about not closing that italics tag.
Akira @2:
What a proud boy you are!
@2. Fuck the ACLU indeed. The original “BUT…BUT…TEH FREEZE PEACH” organization. I wonder if they’re still proud of themselves for protecting Nazis and underage porn peddlers.
@4
What would you prefer? Doing it in secret or claiming fighting them is some “unnecessary evil.”
Then again, I suppose you’d rather die on your hill of liberalism and do nothing, expecting that rational, compassionate unicorns human beings will be peacefully swayed into doing the right thing?
Sorry, that “unicorns” should have unicorns.
UGH! I am so angry I can’t even HTML right!
unicorns@6:
That you look into anger management.
@6. Which is more likely? People admitting to themselves that they’ve been on the wrong track and reevaluating their approach or people assuming their own perfection and blaming everyone else?
Consider the responses I’ve gotten here when I’ve raised the prospect of the former.
What’s the right track, Susan? Identify and annihilate the enemy? The enemy would agree with that policy.
@ 10
Yeah, the trouble with that thinking–like all of modern liberalism–requires slow, plodding reform. It also requires something that liberals refuse to do: The very “indoctrination” and “social engineering” that the right wing accuses them of. To get the outcomes you want, you need to control the culture just as much as you need to control the economy. If you want a nation that wants racial and sexual equality, then you MUST officially vilify racists, sexists, homophobes, etc.. Instead, even under supposed “liberal” administration, the government remains “neutral” on bigotry among its citizens.
But the clock ran out on that option long ago. The gates have broken down and the barbarians are already pillaging the city. You’re not going to stop them with civil suits anymore than you are going to do it by appealing to the “better angels of their nature.”
@ 11
Broken clock… right twice a day…
I think the lesson of the Charlottesville is not what you think it is. Don’t bomb them, don’t murder them, instead…rip the guts out of their financial and media support. A $26 million judgement is an effective insecticide. Now if only we could get the so-called “liberal” media, like the NY Times, to stop pandering to them.
Just how big is this demographic?
Every country has some extreme crazies, but they are too few for many nation-level politicians in EU countries having anything to gain by pandering to them.
(The Brexit madness and the huge following of Marine LePen are exceptions where extreme populism have had staying power. As for Hungary and Poland, they do not have a long democratic tradition )
Speaking of deranged kooks, a certain party that voted against the infrastructure bill is already taking credit for it.
There was an influential group of historians, one at Columbia, who were friendly to the Confederacy. They built up Robert E. Lee at the expense of Grant. Grant was a better general and a much better man. Over the last twenty years or so, this history has been corrected.
@12. The journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step.
But there aren’t enough hardened revolutionaries to make your plan work. So both revolution and appeasement are dead ends. The trick is to use the great mass of total idiots in this country as they are but to our own ends.
What was the point of all these sociology degrees and Terry Pratchett novels if we can’t figure out how to hustle rubes dumb enough to think Trump was a good president?
@15
How big is that demographic? They had a pretty thorough count of America’s fascist population around this time last year. It was around 74 million.
@12
Why walk when you can fly?
As I said, there are at least 74 Million fascists in this country. That’s not going to stop them from voting. It’s also not going to stop them from taking up arms, which, when last I checked they have A LOT of.
We’ve also got states with fascist governors openly defying the federal government and removing civil rights from minorities and women. They’ve got armies (i.e. National Guard) at their beck and call.
In related news: At least SOME good news: The jury found Ahmaud Aubery’s murders guilty. That’s how you deal with white supremacy. .
@20. Because you don’t have a plane?
Goes both ways, though. In some ‘red’ states and counties/cities, the “in disguise” was being used to arrest BLM protesters thoughout 2020’s summer, even though their main reason for being masked was covid-safety. (and even though the most ‘anonymous’ and ‘disguised’ were the thugs that showed up out of nowhere that we STILL don’t know who they were, like the thugs all in formation at the Lincoln Memorial around the time of Trump’s pissing on a liberal church photo-op.
So, you want to round up and prosecute 74 million Americans to show them that they are the violent and intolerant ones?
NitricAcid @25: No, he wants to kill them. A sort of final solution.
@26 i was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt as to the severity of his solution.
@27: Hmm, let’s see;
@2:
@21:
What doubt are you referring to?
Rob Grigjanis @28
Now, now, it is possible he only wants these 74 million fascists interned in camps where, no doubt, they will be able to make themselves free by labor.
Really, it is very rare that I hear someone who is more of an extreme leftist than I am. I am extreme in how I would ultimately like to see our economies, cultures, and societies change, but I at least think that these changes would be good for everyone. Even today’s rich and privileged would benefit from living in a society where everyone was comfortably housed and fed, had access to as much education as they could stand, and each individual had a chance to grow and become something amazing. I’m the leftist the Republicans warn us about.
Nevertheless, I don’t thirst for the blood of people who disagree with me, and I don’t think indoctrination camps are the answer. I do sympathize with the fear and outrage of what is happening to the Republican party. It may well come to fighting and I will do my part. That said, there are certain allies I could do without.