The United States park police force and the chief prosecutor of the District of Columbia were accused today of “gross injustice” by Ben Strouse, chairman of the regional board of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
Mr. Strouse pointed out that the authorities tolerated Nazi provocations but prosecuted Jews. The ADL chairman charged officials with “misguided” interpretation of their responsibilities.
In a public statement, Mr. Strouse protested that “for six months now, the American Nazi Party has been permitted to engage in vile public threats and insults on the streets and parks of our nation’s capital. It has been guilty of disorderly conduct. It has constituted a public nuisance.”
Mr. Strouse said that “now we have witnessed the disgraceful spectacle of the park police arresting and the corporation counsel prosecuting the innocent victims of the Nazi provocations.”
He termed the Jews arrested “people who have naturally and righteously reacted to these public threats and insults in a normal American way.”
The ADL chairman said “these officials, in our view, have shown a misguided sense of their responsibility and have committed a gross injustice.”
The chief prosecutor of the District of Columbia at an arraignment hearing today ordered a Jew held for trial on July 12 for annoying Nazi leader Lincoln Rockwell by “talking loud” while Rockwell was delivering an anti-Semitic harangue at a public rally. The defendant, 22-year-old Larry Selinkin, of Providence, R.I. was criticized by the public prosecutor, Clark King, who made the decision to press charges.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
