Way back in the 1970's the ACLU defended the right of American Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois (I know, that was a different ACLU.)
Here we go again - by way of Glenn Reynolds we come to a Washington Post editorial defending a woman arrested for harassing the local police by outing their "undercover" drug enforcement task force on her blog.
Clearly this is an outrageous abuse of police power that will enrage bloggers and pressmen across the political spectrum, right? Well, maybe - Ms. Strom has been in jail three weeks and this is the first I am hearing of it.
The WaPo alludes to a backstory but chooses to downplay it:
That was coy - the Southern Poverty Law Center had her on a 2003 intelligence report titled "Forty To Watch" which covered extremist groups:
Elisha H. Strom, 28 | EARLYSVILLE, Va.
Elisha Strom is about as close to a feminist as you can get on the American radical right. She has engaged in running battles with some leading neo-Nazis and others over their use of salacious images of women, and has managed to enrage many male members of the group her husband helps lead, the neo-Nazi National Alliance*.
Strom apparently joined the revolutionary right early this millennium, when she became the second wife of Kevin Alfred Strom, who was a key deputy to Alliance founder and leader William Pierce. Though the couple did not live on the Alliance's compound in West Virginia, they visited often from their Earlysville, Va., home, and Pierce is known to have developed a dislike for Elisha Strom's assertive ways.
Up until their marriage, Kevin Strom's personal Web site had carried a gallery of alluring photos of young girls, many of them scantily dressed, and running to shots of a teenage Brooke Shields atop a horse. That changed after the wedding, and today his site carries a gallery of far less alluring classical art, although it includes many nude paintings.
After Pierce died in July 2002, Kevin Strom was named to replace him as host of the Alliance's shortwave "American Dissident Voices" broadcast. In that post, he has been attacked by many racists as effeminate and weak (see Against the Wall). But neither those attacks nor the criticisms leveled at her personally have caused Elisha Strom to desist.
Today, she has her own Web site (elishastrom.com) that celebrates Renaissance art and classical European composers along with the raising of "elite white children" and her "favorite man of all," Kevin Strom.
She also runs the angrywhitefemale.com Web site. And she has engaged in running battles with two key Internet racists, Bill White (see The Gossip) of overthrow.com and Alex Linder (see Potty Humor and the Revolution) of Vanguard News Network (VNN).
When Linder, an Alliance member known for his misogyny, attacked her recently, Elisha Strom responded coolly: "Very much looking forward to meeting you again, Linder. My really awesome 'Fuck VNN' t-shirt is already packed."
Well, 2003 was a few years back, However, a bit of googling around convinced me of two seemingly-important factoids - Ms. Strom has fans and critics among the insane racist groups, and Tiger Woods is golfing just now at the final round of the PGA.
Presumably, her views on other topics do not justify the current police tactics. However, I suspect there is a much deeper story than the WaPo is telling us - off the top of my head, I wonder about a connection between some of the white hate groups and crystal meth, which would drag in the drug enforcement people.
It is certainly easy to see why neither the press nor the blogosphere has embraced her cause, up to now anyway.
And Tiger has slipped back into a tie...
Go TIGER!
Posted by: Jane will cause you pain | August 16, 2009 at 04:17 PM
Oh dear - the dreaded "enter this code or we won't let you post" thing has reappeared.
Posted by: Jane will cause you pain | August 16, 2009 at 04:18 PM
Reynolds calls the arrest "almost certainly illegal," but who cares about a crazy right wing feminazi? Crazy left wing feminazi Gloria Steinem was baking cookies and could not be bothered.
The transition to Tiger created a beauty spot at the end of the entry. You don't see that kind of writing every day. Sorta like a neat prize in a box of dry cereal.
Posted by: Frau The Schnauzer | August 16, 2009 at 04:38 PM
Eugene Volokh had a post on this a couple of weeks ago, with hundreds of comments, some of them quite remarkable. One commenter, who unfortunately got the last word there due to an ill-timed closing of comments, claimed to believe that Strom is in extreme danger of "going nuts in jail, getting raped into submission, or simply 'offed' by another arrestee in exchange for JADE leniency", but didn't think he was under any moral or ethical obligation to try to prevent this by helping to raise the rather moderate amount of funds needed to bail her out.
Posted by: Dr. Weevil | August 16, 2009 at 04:43 PM
My dad volunteered as an official at the PGA this past week. On Tuesday (a practice day) he was three feet from Tiger as Tiger left the 16th hole for the 17th. Kinda neat.
Posted by: Porchlight | August 16, 2009 at 04:48 PM
I actually read a good chunk of the early blog and the answer to why did this all happens can be found here where she claims to have suffered some sort of bad behavior at the hands of law enforcement and that there was a tie in to this particular unit. At the time, she was a witness for the prosecution in the trial of her husband. LE pushed and she decided to push back and it's been escalating on both sides for about two years now.
This situation looks murky from here but I would be careful of using information about this individual prior to her husband's trial. She might not be the same person at this point.
Posted by: TMLutas | August 16, 2009 at 05:47 PM
OT
if you were not paying attention, the Rangers took 2 of 3 from the Red Sox and for the moment at least, would be the wild card selection if it were based on results through today. Look out world, the Rangers are using three rookie pitchers and two rookie field players, all of whom are tearing it up. They will only get better as they mature.
First round opponent? Today that would be the YANKS!
Posted by: Gmax | August 16, 2009 at 06:35 PM
Holy cow! What an amazing PGA championship.
Simply amazing.
Posted by: Jane will cause you pain | August 16, 2009 at 07:04 PM
Jane,
We thank you for applying for a position at your local Red Lobster, but the wait staff feels you need a few more years of exposure to the real world before you develop enough maturity to bus tables at our establishment.
We wish you all the best in your current position as a topless squeegee girl for various I-90 truck stops. Please, don't give up on your dreams, aim high, and stay in contact!
Posted by: The Jane is lame, but mainly in the brain | August 16, 2009 at 08:18 PM
Every dog has his day, as the saying goes.
Today was Y.E. Yang's day.
He might have other days, too, the way he stared down Tiger on that last hole.
Posted by: ben | August 16, 2009 at 09:16 PM
Posted by: The Jane is lame, but mainly in the brain | August 16, 2009 at 08:18 PM
Huh?
Posted by: Porchlight | August 16, 2009 at 10:03 PM
Oh that's a guy named "eddie" Porchlight. He pretends to be a woman, loves Obama and spends his days making sexual remarks about people who disagree with him. Never an ounce of substance leaves his mouth. He does not believe the president talked about getting rid of granny and even called the NY times a liar today after reading TM's post which I posted elsewhere.
I invited him here to discuss it. Of course he is not bright enough to even locate the proper thread. I doubt he will be back, he's not bright enough to understand the big words.
Posted by: Jane will cause you pain | August 16, 2009 at 10:11 PM
Never an ounce of substance leaves his mouth. He does not believe the president talked about getting rid of granny
So he swallows everything from Obama.
Posted by: bgates | August 16, 2009 at 10:12 PM
He looks like a real winner, Jane. LOL.
Posted by: Porchlight | August 16, 2009 at 10:19 PM
I invited him here to discuss it.
I'm searching hard to imagine a positive outcome from this action, and am coming up with the null set. Is this some sort of charity work/outreach you engage in?
Posted by: Captain Hate | August 16, 2009 at 10:27 PM
Crazy White Women have no right to have opinions!
Posted by: RB | August 16, 2009 at 10:58 PM
OK, so you call Strom pond scum. Assume for a moment that she's not into drug running. What exactly has she done to be pond scum, other than to have bad ideas? (If the SPLC harps on her then she's probably harmless.) Or rather, if she's pond scum, what is a President who says he's not for single payer when he is? What is a President who nails an intern half his age then lies on TV to the nation? What is John Edwards? Jeremiah Wright? Bill Ayers?
Posted by: Bill | August 16, 2009 at 11:12 PM
--I invited him here to discuss it.--
Hmmm. Jane, you've been missing cleo or something, so you asked an even crazier, sexually confused dingbat here to entertain us all?
I have to agree with CH that eddie seems to possess a null set.
Posted by: Ignatz | August 17, 2009 at 12:36 AM
I think Reynolds is letting his dislike of police officers cloud his judgment again.
Posted by: Mars vs Hollywood | August 17, 2009 at 03:39 AM
What exactly has she done to be pond scum, other than to have bad ideas?
"Bad ideas" is a rather mild description.
Or rather, if she's pond scum, what is a President who says he's not for single payer when he is? What is a President who nails an intern half his age then lies on TV to the nation? What is John Edwards? Jeremiah Wright? Bill Ayers?
Pond scum -- or worse -- the lot of them.
I honestly don't get your point. Recognizing the scummy nature of Strom doesn't mean you can't recognize the scummy nature of those others.
(BTW, excepting the accusations of involvement in drugs, Strom and Wright are pretty much the same. The difference between the two is that Wright chose a socially acceptable form of racism, so he's living in a gated community while Strom can't make bail.)
Posted by: Rob Crawford | August 17, 2009 at 07:17 AM
Yeah, you guys are right, sorry, He ran away like a chicken anyway.
Posted by: Jane | August 17, 2009 at 09:08 AM
First they came for the racists, but I didn't speak up because I was not a racist ...
Whatever her views, if she has been unjustly arrested then people should write about that; it gives an opportunity to condemn any racist views she expresses too. If there is evidence of police abuse of powers to silence a critic then such writing is even more important.
Who knows, if enough liberal (I don't mean Liberal, I mean people who comply with the meaning of the word) people call out in support of Mrs Strom maybe she will be more inclined to listen to them when she is released. Maybe justice can be served and a racist persuaded to reconsider her views too.
Posted by: Richard | August 17, 2009 at 09:12 AM
perhaps the police actions weren`t legal. but there is no reason to sympathize with this crazy nazi chick or to support her by bloging.
Posted by: cap | August 17, 2009 at 09:40 AM
Au contraire. The police work for us. If they aren't following the rules, that's a problem. Crazy Nazi chicks blogging about drug enforcement really aren't. (And what's up with that Southern Poverty Law Center? Does someone pay 'em for that tripe? Don't they have anything better to do?)
Posted by: Cecil Turner | August 17, 2009 at 10:04 AM
If this woman is in jail because she did something illegal, so be it. If she's in jail because she had the audacity to spout something that goes against modern political correctness, that's a BIG problem. We DO still have freedom of speech in this country, right?
Posted by: mac | August 17, 2009 at 10:13 AM