David Duke, Former KKK Leader, Ordered To Leave Czech Republic

PRAGUE — Czech authorities have released former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke from detention and ordered him to leave the country.

Police spokeswoman Katerina Rendlova says Duke must leave the Czech Republic by midnight Saturday after he was detained on suspicion of denying the Holocaust.

Duke was in Prague on an invitation from a neo-Nazi group to promote the Czech translation of his book "My Awakening." Police took him into custody Friday on suspicion of denying the Holocaust, which is a crime in the Czech Republic.

Prague's Charles University also banned Duke from giving a lecture there Friday. He was scheduled to give lectures over the weekend in both Prague and the country's second-largest city of Brno.

Comments

[Kaos911]

There are no "Former" Klansmen. A leopard doesn't change it's spots.

[ywcachieve]

They say is he a former "Klans leader". They don't deny that he is still a klansman.

[Boboday555]

Thankfully Dukes will only slither back to one of the confederate states.
Its not like he's REALLY returning to America!

[Boboday555]

Wait a minute, that means he slither back here to America!
Thanks a lot Czech Republic.

[ywcachieve]

Exactly. We don't want his ass either....­lol

[faretheewell]

Do we have to take him back? I mean, can we just send him to some desolate island and let him go?

[SoccerNana]

How about Somalia?

[ThatOne4Me]

that's a great idea :-)

[Bude]

Get out of town by sundown. Please, don't send him back here. How about say,......­... Cuba!

[ywcachieve]

How about Siberia!

[Hawker1]

Duke and his like have the freedom to speak - this is his right and we must defend it. It is our duty to respond with truth in force and it must be well researched and presented - unlike the easy and unsupported accusations hate mongers make. Ignorance breeds hate: Remember - Oklahoma (lest we forget) was home grown. For what failed and ignorant purpose?

As those who would speak "truth" we are required to work harder than our opponents - we need to compel those who hear the easy road of bias and ignorance with swift, energetic ripostes using hard facts that make people think and consider. This route is hard, unlike the easy hate of Glen Beck, Sean Hannity and other high-viewership, non-thinkers that overwhelm our political discourse.
The Czech Republic has done the right thing as required by their law. Our task is harder - we must be up to the task.

The problem with ignorance is it is so very tiring - endlessly so, it seems.

[liberalrebuttal]

Uh, you know what ? I am really getting sick of these defenders of racism. Especially people who's lives are in no way effected by it. But what really urks me is not only are you defending his right to be a bigot, you want other countries to defend his right to spread hate ?. No. I don't think so. He's in another country. It's their Laws. We don't get to change their Laws just because people like you think bigots have the right to be bigots anywhere in the world.

[iyamchazz]

What irks me are the snakes who hide behind freedom of speech
in order to spew hatred and bigotry, and who, if they were given the
chance, would deny freedom to all who disagree with them.

[ywcachieve]

Thank you!

[believethelie]

I am surprised HP has not blocked your reply, Lets get a few things straight. There are people in America TODAY, who would gladly muzzle anyone against the war in Iraq, and would call anyone a traitor (still punishable by death in the US ) for their words.

So who is a bigot? You? maybe you are a bigot because you want to call others bigots simply because you do not even agree with their observatio­ns......

Once upon a time it was a crime to be a free black man in this country , and it is still hard to be a free black man in this country...­.. Pulling a Stalin style smack down on Klans members feels like a great idea, but it ain't the American way.... period....

Just because torture seems to be helpful, this is still America, we don't torture and we defend freedom of speech.

[joeyfoto]

I've spent much of my life saying things that people do not want to hear... things that I believe and believed to be right. Many times our government would have liked to shut me up, but could not because of the first amendment right to free speech. It it the only right in the Bill of Rights that we have left. It would be foolish of us not to defend it.

When it comes to David Duke and his confreres, we have the opportunity to use our free speech. Mr. Duke, you have the right to speak in America but you have nothing to say. Welcome to the USA.

David Duke, you and your fellow holocaust deniers, racists and anti-Semites are cowards, losers and liars. You don't have to go away, we know how to deal with your miserable drivel here.

[InfosolutionWiz]

The Czech Republic have no tolerance for racist hate mongering! WELL DONE Czech Republic!

[iyamchazz]

Yes me bredren!

[barrycourage]

From the U.S. Dept. of State on the Czech Republic:

The constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respected these rights in practice and did not restrict academic freedom. An independent press, an effective judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to ensure freedom of speech and of the press. The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction.

The law mandates prison sentences of six months to three years for persons who deny Communist crimes or the Nazi Holocaust. Speech inciting hatred based on race, religion, class, nationality, or other group affiliation is also illegal and carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78808.htm

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The anti-Nazi fascists kick out a pro-Nazi fascist.

After the Holocaust and decades of struggle to free itself from Communism, it is understandable that the Czech Republic would want to take strong measures against neo-Nazis and bigotry. However, to compromise political free speech is to defeat all free speech. It is like using torture to protect a republic that bans torture in principle and law. Further, government censorship does not accomplish its end and neither does torture. People will say what they want or not say what they don't want to reveal.

Fascism just begets fascism.

[Shzron1946]

Yes, but to allow someone to propagate lies, in fact to participate in flagrant misinformation is not the same thing. The Holocaust is not the product of someones imagination or opinion. It is history. To deny it is to spread an untruth. You know, like how the Bush Administration still insists on the fact that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or that there was a connection with the Iraqi government and Al Qaeda before the war. Denying proven facts does harm to the people. David Dukes would harm the Czech people by denying that the Holocaust occurred.

[iyamchazz]

Well said!!

[barrycourage]

How would he harm the Czech people?

They and their ancestors lived through the Holocaust and struggled against Communism. They know the proven facts, much better than most people in the U.S. Your position assumes that the Czechs can't think for themselves.

The fact in itself that the Czechs have a law banning Holocaust denial indicates how well they won't deny history. For one thing, it indicates that Holocaust education for their children is and has been a top priority. Moreover, it says that anti-denial forces are extremely powerful in the country, so much so that they have prevailed in curtailing free speech.

If David Duke spouted lies in an academic forum it would help the Czechs: Students would see a smarmy sociopathic political opportunist in the flesh. Duke's appearance would be a benefit to their education.

[Parrothead]

When did Duke get out of prison? He's a throw back to the times when women could not vote and old white men ruled everything those days consisted of the rebel flag church bombings and murder, The Czech Government should put David Duke on the terroist watch list.

[reno1190]

usa should

[Durango]

Throw back to the time state sponsored terrorism was used to defend the racist policies of the Southern states.

good point about the terrorist watch list. How did he even get into the Czech Republic?

[sb250guy]

Duke is a repugnant reptile but I still don't understand laws like that. Of course the Czech Republic is allowed to make their own laws. As an American, I just think you either have freedom of speech or you don't. With free speech you get a lot of stupid things being said but, in the end, I'll take it.

[Parrothead]

Yeah you "GET" freedom of speech as long as your not on active duty in the military. The very freedom we were "fighting for" in Vietnam was taken away and military personell could not openly speak to the press. When you embed a reporter into a unit you cut him/her off from comparing note with other reporters and limit his/her contact with their news organization. Also the troops that surround the reporter are usually hand picked to keep their information to a low limit, last to go last to know. In Vietnam the unbridled field reporter sent back stories with out the DOD sensoring them, which opened up a can of worms and people started asking "why are we (The USA) here".
This time it didn't happen that way, instead of having free roaming press asking questions in places that weren't carefully staged/cleared the DOD made it sound like hey we'll let you ride along in different units and be where the action is (YEAH, RIGHT!) that worked out like a lead balloon.

[Durango]

I think if you lived for 7 years under Nazi occupation you might begin to get it.

I agree with you as to America.

But I would not presume to tell the Czechs what to do about Nazi's.

[sb250guy]

Fair enough. I understand and accept your statement. As I said, The Czechs can make their own laws. We all can still benefit from good robust discussion.

[IDIOTA]

I think that it is strange to have a law against denying history. I am not saying that I disagree with it; I just don't get it. It leads me to believe that there are a lot of Czechs that would deny history if there weren't such laws.

We rewrite and distort all of time, sometimes unintentionally.
\

[jlab]

This is going to be an endless discussion between Europe and the US in which we may have to agree to disagree.

Maybe there will come a day when we can clearly see which way of dealing with this works better. We have an antiracism-law in Switzerland, which the right rails against with the utmost rage. I guess the idea is to protect uninformed (young) minds from being contaminated. Does it work? All I know is that it doesn't feel too bad to scare some hatemongers into watching their mouths.

[Virginia Plain]

I agree.

There are also too many people eager to believe ANYTHING that reinforces what they believed in the first place.

[IDIOTA]

In the US we would like to forget slavery, but there are no laws against denying it. We just mention it less and less in the our history books. And eventually people will not see it as important or they will forget about it entirely because -- I hope -- race won't matter as much as it did during slavery or now. In Europe, it seems, there is a palpable fear that certain atrocities WILL be repeated unless there are laws that prevent denial of such actions. I guess that the Europeans know themselves well enough to deem this necessary.

I must say, though, that the 13th Amendment did not outlaw slavery in the US, so maybe it could happen again. Some say that our prison system proves that it is still here, and that system is going to the private sector (and the only consistent boon to the California economy). And our Supreme Court, in June 2007, overturned the 1954 Brown decision, so we are retrogress­ing...

[newyorkid]

detained on suspicion of denying the Holocaust.

[cherrycola]

How about a debate between holocaust deniers and holocaust believers?

[foofoobunny]

why?

[americanalien]

I must say, this David Duke guy looks a lot like your average Republican.

[jcole]

He is a republican, he ran for some office under the republican banner some years ago.

[NealHib]

Just the kind of guy you want praising Rush.

[reno1190]

he was a elected congessman

[abbeyroad]

Dookie's mug looks like cheese & onions.