A 2002 rally by neo-Nazi group the National Alliance (Flickr Creative Commons).
A lawyer hired by the city of Baltimore to defend police officers in court has long-standing connections to a neo-Nazi group, but insists that his “crazy ideas” do not affect his work.
The New York Daily News reported Thursday that attorney Glen Keith Allen is a longtime supporter of the National Alliance, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “explicitly genocidal” and which is characterized as a hate group.
Allen admits he joined the National Alliance because, “I was in the U.S. Army from 1978 to 1982 and I had some pretty awful experiences with black people there, to be honest.”
While he is not currently involved in the Freddie Gray case, Allen has defended the Baltimore Police Department in court, notably in a current lawsuit brought by Sabein Burgess, a black man says he was wrongfully convicted and spent 19 years in prison before being released in 2014.
[…]
In spite of Allen’s insistence that he left the National Alliance in the 1980s, he was still paying membership dues in 2003. The 65-year-old attorney also attended a Holocaust-denial conference in 2007, but denies that his views affect his work for the city in any way.
“I have an unblemished record in 30 years of practicing law…I have the highest ethical standards and zealous representation of my client, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the city,” he told the Daily News.
The Anti-Defamation League said that the National Alliance “dehumanize(s) both blacks and Jews, depicting them as threats to ‘Aryan culture’ and ‘racial purity.’”
Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents show that Allen is a donating member of the American Eagle Party, a fringe right group led by a man named Merlin Miller who says that Israel planned the 9/11 attacks in cahoots with the U.S. government.
“Should I be fired from the city of Baltimore because I have crazy ideas about 9/11?” Allen said.
I think you should be relieved of your position because you’re a nazi, Mr. Allen. Apparently, this doesn’t bother the city of Baltimore or cops in the least. It would certainly bother me, but I guess cops are tossing away any pretense of a standard these days.
UPDATE: Mr. Allen has been relieved of his position with the city. You can read about it here.
Via Raw Story.
He should be relieved of his position if his professional conduct in that position can be shown not to adhere to the standards of the profession. If he’s correct when he says his record is unblemished (and that can be checked), what he gets up to on his own time is his own business, surely?
To be clear: I’m NOT endorsing his repellent personal opinions or affiliations. But to suggest he should be fired for them is Orwellian. Assholes still have a right to work.
You can be “relieved” of your position by being fired, or by being disbarred. Being fired from a contract (which is what I read Caine as advocating), would seem sensible in this case, as there is reason to suspect the potential quality of his work in the case for which he has been hired.
Beyond that, it would depend on the policies of his firm, and (potentially) bar association.
Storm troopers being defended by a Nazi. It seems the logical choice.
Especially since the facist’s pay is coming from taxes paid by the people he loathes and is arguing against.
As I read that I dreaded seeing that the lawyer was one of my classmates or someone I knew. Not that I associate with lawyers.. Ugh.
Fellow travellers. What disgusting people.
I see Caine has updated the OP with the news, Baltimore terminates contract with attorney accused of neo-Nazi ties:
Yea! Go, SPLC!