Deaf Gahan assures the community there is no swastika sticker problem, then putters off to attend another ribbon-cutting. In the wake of Gahan's usual hypocrisy, let's take a closer look.

Yesterday was the day after.

HRC says: See a swastika sticker? Don't destroy the evidence -- call the police.

An NA Confidential reader commented.

I hope this is just a step one and not all that they plan on doing.

It's helpful to recall that American Vanguard white supremacist recruitment posters were appearing in New Albany all the way back in February of 2017.

In a disgusting sign of the times, white supremacists have landed in New Albany.

There is no known record of Jeff Gahan commenting publicly about this. Then, as the Courier-Journal notes ...

In August 2018, authorities reported multiple cases of swastika-related vandalism on a New Albany-Floyd County school bus and in front of the Azalea Hills retirement community. Police did not investigate the incidents as a hate crime.

More recently the social media discussion of swastika stickers dates to around late October of 2018.

In a late phone call, Mayor Gahan addresses our swastika sticker problem.

Gahan remained silent throughout. Now it's different, and suddenly Our Shining Eminence needs to be seen as a leader.

That's because it's an election year: "Mayor urges Indiana hate-crimes bill after swastikas, stickers appear." Seems that Gahan has spent the past 24 months building up a full head of steam to boldly and heroically ... contradict the testimony of citizens attending the Human Rights Commission meeting two nights ago?

The New Albany Human Rights Commission addressed the issue Tuesday evening after reportedly "hundreds" of hate speech stickers were seen throughout the city over the last couple of months.

Mayor Jeff Gahan said police have seen much fewer than "hundreds."

"To date, two incidences have been reported to police dealing with approximately 8 stickers and those matters were investigated immediately," Gahan said.

Of course, there's the recent non-history of the Human Rights Commission itself. Gahan beams with a play-actor's pride at his creation, leaving out the important part where he kneecapped it into oblivion several years back rather than allow the first sign of autonomy to challenge the tumescence of his own widening personality cult.

In January of 2017, we reported this: "CM Phipps, we're mystified as to why the New Albany Human Rights Commission is moribund."

During the appointments phase of this evening's city council meeting, President Pat McLaughlin (4th District) asked Greg Phipps (3rd District) about the council appointments status of the Human Rights Commission.

According to the ordinance, council and mayor each appoint members to the HRC, and then the four pick the fifth.

Phipps waved him off, briefly indicating that the HRC seems dead, with no meetings for the past 18 months and no apparent interest. McLaughlin was more than happy to move to the next commission, and that's all we know. It isn't much.

In 2018, with the municipal election season looming and Republicans taking the initiative on the HRC's re-enablement, it was time to start pretending again.

In the final analysis, the overarching point has nothing to do with any of the HRC appointees, save for (Warren) Nash's inexcusable presence, because Gahan's and (Adam) Dickey's objectives with their mismanagement of the HRC has not been to represent the community’s diversity.

It has been to assure their continued control of a “human rights” product in pre-packaged, controllable form.

Welcome to Jeff and Adam's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test -- hypocrisy-flavored, please.

Progressives, pay heed. The HRC's comeback needn't have occurred, because it shouldn't have neglected, and once it became necessary, your own party's leadership has politicized it again; if Dickey and Gahan don't get what they want from the HRC, they'll smother it a second time.

What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own.

Don't let Dickey and Gahan speak for you. They may be "Democratic" in the sense of a two-party duopoly, but they're by no means "democratic" in any meaningful way.

In closing, this observation from a Facebook friend.

NAPD (Chief Bailey) is full of it, because many concerned people in New Albany tried reporting these stickers every time, and they told us to stop calling them! They weren't concerned about it until it made them look bad for not having already acted once the story was finally picked up by the local mainstream media.

Alt media has been talking about this issue for 6+ months. No one cared! The human rights commission didn't even get involved until late 2018, when the stickering had been near-CONSTANT for months at that point. At least they finally did something, but they also got a nice pat on the back for solving BUPKIS.

This isn't over. This hasn't changed. Why did that feel like the last we hear of it? This city's officials can do better. The local media can do better.

The people of this town deserve better than this.

Is this enough for you? I mean... honestly.

Is it?

Let's be realistic. Gahan, Dickey, Bailey, Nash -- they're not going to stop pretending. They're incapable of viewing this issue apart from their own "big fish, little pond" political considerations, and we need to stop pretending they'll even try.

It's top-down control for them -- always has been and will continue to be -- and grassroots activists opposed to these tangible manifestations of white supremacy have little choice; they must push back simultaneously against the swastika bearers and the public officials who seek primarily to neutralize testimony differing with their Disney-fried civic facades.

Tell us YOUR experiences. This space always is available to those wishing to speak about whatever our pillars are reluctant to hear.

HRC says: See a swastika sticker? Don't destroy the evidence -- call the police.

Nürnberg, 1945.

The New Albany Human Rights Commission's Jennifer Ortiz shared the following at her Facebook page following the HRC meeting earlier this evening.

New Albany Residents:

Today, the Human Rights Commission held a public forum to discuss the recent string of Nazi Stickers in our town. Based on discussions at this meeting, the Chief of Police and the HRC ask that anyone who sees Nazi stickers around town please take the following steps:

1. Do not remove the stickers as the Chief stated we need to preserve evidence. These stickers are considered vandalism.

2. Contact NAPD at 812-944-6411 (not 911) and report the incident and location to law enforcement. The police will document the incident and remove the stickers.

3. If you are unable or unwilling to contact police, please take photos and email them to the New Albany Human Rights Commission at humanrights@cityofnewalbany.com. Please note the date of the incident and the location.

4. You may also email Chief Bailey directly at cbailey@napdin.net

Feel free to share this post widely.

I didn't attend and cannot elaborate, but this seems sensible.

New Albany's HRC and the Southern Poverty Law Center on countering the Alt-Right, extremism and white supremacy.

New Albany's HRC and the Southern Poverty Law Center on countering the Alt-Right, extremism and white supremacy.

It's a "movement" of sorts -- each
morning after breakfast.

It's good to see a Human Rights Commission in New Albany being pro-active about anything; the first iteration of the revised HRC a few years back was gracelessly knee-capped by Jeff Gahan and Shane Gibson, and the suppression was abetted by Greg Phipps for reasons as yet unknown.

Public forum to address recent swastika stickers in New Albany, by Brooke McAfee (Where Tom May Keeps Roaming and Roaming)

NEW ALBANY — On multiple occasions in past months, residents noticed the appearance of swastika stickers in downtown New Albany and other areas of the city. Although she didn't see the stickers herself, resident Jennifer Ortiz said she stopped running with headphones because she no longer felt safe as a person of color.

"I don't know who this person is. I don't know if they actually believe those ideologies, whether they are trying to scare us or whether they're just trying to make a scene," she said. "I don't know what their intent is. I know I've changed my behavior. I can assume that various people from various groups might have changed their behavior, and they might not feel comfortable in this town anymore."

The New Albany Human Rights Commission is presenting a special forum at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the third floor conference room of the City-County Building to allow residents to voice their concerns regarding the pro-Nazi stickers, which were first noticed in downtown New Albany in September.

Very soon Ortiz likely will learn the follicle-deep "depth" of Gahan's and Gibson's commitment to human rights. They'll tolerate the HRC's advocacy during an election year in order to demonstrate to self-styled "progressives" that something's being done, when we all know nothing will come of it, because the mayor himself cannot acknowledge swastikas, drug addiction or homeless people without contradicting the laughable aura of infallibility he's cloaked himself in (see "New Clothes, Emperor's for more information).

Meanwhile the experienced and sensible Southern Poverty Law Center has a pamphlet expressly designed for the college and university experience, but it's not difficult to see how the advice applies to everyday life in the city.

Substitute "citizen" for "student", "City Hall" for "college leadership", and so on. I don't know the exact answer when it comes to dealing with white supremacists, but there are numerous starting points therein (following is a condensed version).

---

The Alt-Right and Extremism on Campus

An old and familiar poison is being spread on college campuses these days: the idea that America should be a country for white people.

Under the banner of the Alternative Right – or “alt-right” – extremist speakers are touring colleges and universities across the country to recruit students to their brand of bigotry, often igniting protests and making national headlines. Their appearances have inspired a fierce debate over free speech and the direction of the country.

Behind the provocative, youthful and sometimes entertaining facade of the alt-right is a scrum of white nationalists and white supremacists – mostly young men – who hate diversity and scorn democratic ideals.

They claim that “white identity” is under attack by multicultural forces using “political correctness” and “social justice” to undermine white people and “their” civilization. Characterized by heavy use of social media and memes, they eschew establishment conservatism and promote the goal of a white ethnostate, or homeland.

As student activists, you can counter this movement.

In this brochure, the Southern Poverty Law Center examines the alt-right, profiles its key figures and exposes its underlying ideologies. We also recommend ways to deconstruct and counter its propaganda, mount peaceful protests, and create alternative events and forums when alt-right speakers are invited or come to your campus.

---

WHAT TO SAY, WHAT TO DO

When an alt-right personality is scheduled to speak on campus, the most effective course of action is to deprive the speaker of the thing he or she wants most – a spectacle. Alt-right personalities know their cause is helped by news footage of large jeering crowds, heated confrontations and outright violence at their events. It allows them to play the victim and gives them a larger platform for their racist message.

Denying an alt-right speaker of such a spectacle is the worst insult they can endure.

While there’s nothing wrong with peaceful student protests against a hateful ideology, it’s best to draw attention to hope instead. Hold an alternative event – away from the alt-right event – to highlight your campus’ commitment to inclusion and our nation’s democratic values.

What’s more, take action to inoculate the campus against such extremism before these speakers appear on campus. The following steps can help prevent your college or university from being exploited by the alt-right.

THE TIME TO DEAL WITH THE ALT-RIGHT IS BEFORE IT ARRIVES ON CAMPUS.

RESEARCH THE ALT-RIGHT’S HISTORY AND VIEWS.

MEET WITH CAMPUS GROUPS TARGETED BY THE ALT-RIGHT. ENLIST THEIR SUPPORT.

APPROACH THE HOST GROUP INVITING AN ALT-RIGHT SPEAKER TO CAMPUS.

CULTIVATE A COMMUNITY OPPOSED TO BIGOTRY.

ASK THAT THE COLLEGE LEADERSHIP DENOUNCE THE APPEARANCE.

MAKE A YOUTUBE VIDEO – OR TWO – ABOUT THE ALT-RIGHT.

IF THE ALT-RIGHT APPEARS ON CAMPUS, ORGANIZE A JOYFUL PROTEST AWAY FROM ITS EVENT.

ABOVE ALL, AVOID CONFRONTATION WITH THE ALT-RIGHT SPEAKER AND SUPPORTERS. The alt-right thrives on hostility, and hate feeds on crowds. Video footage of an altercation will only provide cover for the speaker, who can claim to be a victim. As hard as it may be to resist yelling at alt-right speakers, do not confront them. Do not debate them. Do not resort to violence, in speech or deed. As this publication makes clear, there are many other ways to challenge the beliefs of this movement.

"It's not about immigrants, it's about ideas."

A bit of thought provocation on Super Bore Sunday.

"Anti-abortion extremists are domestic terrorists."

If we spend our days fearing Muslims halfway across the planet, we won't think to look in our own backyards. Opposed to violence? Then the opposition needs to be uniform.

Anti-abortion extremists are domestic terrorists: They have created fear among providers that something violent can happen to any of them at any time, by David Cohen and Krysten Connon (Al Jazeera)

Part of Kristina Romero’s job as the regional director for several reproductive health clinics in the South, some of which offer abortion services, is to drive one of the clinic doctors to and from work. That way anti-abortion extremists can’t identify the doctor’s car.

One day, as Romero left her home, she saw a big poster with the doctor’s picture in a bullseye. There were more: The posters started in front of her house and continued along the entire route she took to get to the clinic.

To Romero, the posters were not only threatening to the doctor, but also to her. That they lined her route to work was a clear sign that anti-abortion extremists had followed her. The message, she explained, “was for me to be scared. It was for me. There’s nothing in my experience with the protesters that stands out more than that morning when I got up to go get the doctor and saw the doctor’s picture all over town.”

This is just one example of what abortion providers face in America today.

Today's featured Tribune letter: "Is money the only reason they practice medicine?"

Read retired physician Ed Ryan's thoughts, and envision Healthblogger sipping tea in a tricornered hat.

Health fascism, healthism, and other purely amateur renderings from an unpaid homeboy.

I’ve been asked to explain my previous references to “health fascism.”

To the best of my recollection, I first encountered this term in the late 1980’s. I believe I read it in The Nation, as used by Alexander Cockburn in one of his “Beat the Devil” columns.

To Google “health fascism” is to find numerous British Isles references. To judge from the Wikipedia entry on “healthism,” the latter carries equal weight, too. Here's an excerpt.

(Petr) Skrabanek: the threat of health fascism

According to Skrabanek, "healthism" begins when the government begins to use propaganda and coercion to establish norms of health and begins to attempt to impose norms of a "healthy lifestyle." All human activities are weighed in the balance of their real or imagined effects on health: all human activities are divided into "healthy" and "unhealthy", prescribed and proscribed, approved and disapproved, responsible and irresponsible, based on this measure.

In Skrabanek's view, "healthism" goes hand in hand with what he calls "lifestylism", another neologism, which Skrabanek uses to describe the view that most diseases are the result of unhealthy habits or behaviour. Skrabanek notes that while "lifestylism" is ostensibly founded on a basis of mathematics and statistics, it nevertheless has a strong moralistic flavour. Skrabanek cites a British epidemiologist, Geoffrey Rose, as expressing the belief that most people live "unhealthily" and constitute a "sick population". But since (according to Skrabanek) this message would lead to a fatalistic rejection of the lifestyle doctrine, it must be recast to be socially and politically acceptable, quoting Rose for the view that the "sick" society must be re-educated in its "perception of what is normal and acceptable."

Ultimately, Skrabanek claims that "healthism" either leads to, or is a symptom of, incipient totalitarianism. Skrabanek claims that healthism justifies racism, segregation, and eugenic control; for the healthist, what is "healthy" is moral, patriotic, and pure; while what is "unhealthy" is foreign, polluted, and impure. The doctrine of "lifestylism" suggests that state actions to prescribe what is healthy or forbid what is unhealthy are limitless in scope, and offer no grounds for privacy.

That’s a lot to digest. Luckily, I believe the following comment, made on councilman John Gonder’s blog earlier in the week, actually makes the case for the existence of “health fascism” with little additional testimony required.

I freely admit to being condescending toward smoking ban opponents and their "reasons" because I have facts and evidence on my side and they have none.

That's even more frightening than second hand smoke, don't you think?