Opinion: Want to show bigots you oppose them? Don’t show up to their protests

To the editor: I fully agree with your position that we must respect free speech, however heinous it might be. I also think we should make sure that members of the law enforcement community are adequately prepared when they know a hate group is descending on them. (“Hate speech is loathsome, but trying to silence it is dangerous,” editorial, Aug. 18)

That said, the best advice for those wanting to fight the extremists is not to attend their rallies. They know that if they can provoke counter demonstrators, they will receive more media attention and more support from bigots.

Those wanting to make a statement should definitely hold events, but they should be entirely separate. The candlelight march at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville on Aug. 16 was far more effective than going toe-to-toe with anti-American haters.

Barbara H. Bergen, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Thanks for standing up for free speech and assembly in your editorial. “It is in fractious times like these that we must hold firmest to constitutional principles” — so true.

Canceling speeches and marches out of fear of what “might happen” soon evolves into getting lists of people who attend protests to quell what “might happen.” Meanwhile, what is happening is that our freedoms are eroding.

Recently, speeches scheduled at UC Berkeley by Ann Coulter and Richard Dawkins were canceled after people loudly objected to them. If an event is likely to spawn violence, then plan for sensible crowd control and charge the presenters a premium to help pay for it. But don’t cut off speakers entirely.

We need to be able to protest when we want to. I protested Donald Trump’s rally in Anaheim in May 2016. Some people were arrested, but I got to hold my “Dump Trump!” sign and have my say. It felt good.

Laura Brown, Pasadena

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To the editor: I was utterly repulsed by your reference to “the melee in Charlottesville … where extremists on the right and left clashed.”

Anti-fascism is not “extremism.” It is the core value that hundreds of thousands of Americans fought and died to protect during World War II. Your erection of this “false equivalency” is as repulsive as the president’s “on all sides” remark.

As a retired attorney and lifelong student of the law, I support the free speech rights of even those who hold abhorrent views, but that right must be balanced against the threat to public safety of an armed and crazed mob of Nazis, Klansmen and other white supremacists.

Ernest A. Canning, Thousand Oaks

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To the editor: Free speech is achieved orally or through written words. Marching with weapons and torches has nothing to do with free speech. It’s about intimidation and bullying and should be carefully limited.

I may be free to own a pet; that doesn’t give me the right to stand outside your house all day with a brace of pit bulls and barking dogs.

Beth Ruben, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: I commend The Times for your thoughtful, restrained, and principled editorial. You remind us that free speech, regardless of how repulsive it may be, is guaranteed by the Constitution.

Those who oppose someone else’s speech have the same freedom to argue against it, but their opposition cannot take the form of violence.

James Huckabay, Santa Monica

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