Protests Disrupt White-Supremacist Meeting at Library
Police were called to Clifton (N.J.) Public Library’s Allwood branch March 21 in response to a brawl between five protesters and about 15 members of the League of American Patriots, a white supremacist group. No one was arrested and while one man claimed to have been assaulted, he did not file a complaint.
The group had met at the library’s main branch at least twice before without incident, although it had reserved rooms under the name “Polish-American Issues Forum,” the Bergen Record reported March 25. Library Director Christine Zembicki told the paper she didn’t know that the group had misrepresented itself until after the fight.
Zembicki said that she would review the library’s policy on community room usage, but that she could not ban groups based on their beliefs. “If we’re going to restrict anybody then we’re going to have to restrict everybody,” she said. “If it was a discussion group, they certainly have the right to talk about what they want to talk about.”
In a blog posting on its website, the league said that it continued its meeting at another location and has “already settled on a secure venue for our future metro NY area bi-monthly meetings.”
Posted on April 10, 2009.