We learned it in high school, if not earlier, how the Bill of Rights protected our rights as the citizens of a free republic. The First Amendment to the Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The hand-written copy of the proposed articles of amendment passed by Congress in 1789, cropped to show just the text in the third article that would later be ratified as the First Amendment.

Over the course of our history, the Supreme Court has ‘incorporated’ most of the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, to include protections for the people from actions by states and local governments, and Americans alive in the 21^st century are all used to the concepts of freedom of speech.

We have, sadly, noted how some of our major media sources are no longer so adamant about protecting our First Amendment rights.

Now comes The Philadelphia Inquirer, with a very slanted article about how some people have exercised their freedom of speech, and freedom of peaceable assembly, and how horrible it is!

Watchdog groups warn that Patriot Front’s march through Philly reflects increasing recruitment, activity in the region

The white supremacist group arrived in Center City late Saturday and clashed with a handful of counterprotesters.

by Vinny Vella, Aubrey Whelan, and Jonathan Lai | July 4, 2021

Armed with shields, smoke bombs and banners touting “Reclaim America,” a white supremacist group marched through Center City late Saturday into early Sunday, clashing with a few counterprotesters before leaving as abruptly as it arrived.

A Philadelphia police spokesperson said Sunday that there were no arrests or reports of vandalism from Patriot Front’s demonstration. The group of about 150 marched down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway toward Penn’s Landing, where members had parked a few rented Penske trucks.

Note that: though the three article writers used the word “armed” in the lede,^[1]In journalism, the lede is the most important paragraph in an article, designed to inform the reader quickly and encourage him to continue to read the piece. as though the Patriot Front’s demonstration was a massive paramilitary movement, the Sturmabteilung marching down the streets, beating up commies and Jews. Yet, the Philadelphia Police, always on the lookout for firearms carried illegally, made no arrests, nor were there any reports of vandalism.

That would make their march very different from the Mostly Peaceful Protests™ by antifa, #BlackLivesMatter and the other leftist demonstrations of last summer. The very #woke^[2]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading Inquirer certainly supported those marches, and fired Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Stan Wischnowski when he dared to say that the buildings threatened by the marchers mattered, too.

Still, organizations monitoring extremist groups and hate speech are troubled by the appearance of a large contingent of Patriot Front members in such a public manner on Independence Day weekend. They say the group — which traces its roots to the violent 2017 riots in Charlottesville, Va. — has become increasingly active in Pennsylvania in recent months, and is staging actions such as Saturday night’s march in Philadelphia in an attempt to spread its message and bolster its ranks.

Shira Goodman, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Philadelphia chapter, said Patriot Front has embarked on an aggressive propaganda campaign, distributing leaflets, posting stickers, and spraying graffiti throughout the Philadelphia suburbs and Lehigh Valley, as well as conducting flash mob-like meetings with their members that they later post on social media to use as a recruitment tool.

Go further down, and you will find allegations, all made by the counter-demonstrators, that the Patriot Front members were violent:

Given the holiday and hour of the march, Center City was mostly empty. However, the few bystanders who did encounter the group of Patriot Front members argued with them, in some cases leading to reported blows.

Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, a writer, organizer and activist, recounted being among 10 to 15 counterprotesters who followed the Patriot Front members, shouting at the group members that they were not welcome in Philadelphia.

Muhammad said the group was entirely white men dressed identically in khakis, black T-shirts, white face masks, and combat boots, carrying hard plastic shields that read “Patriot Front.” Muhammad said the group began tossing smoke bombs and, under cover of the smoke, hit and kicked counterprotesters. Muhammad told of being hit in the knee with a shield during the scrum.

So, the Patriot Front demonstrators, who outnumbered the counter=protesters by roughly ten-to-one, cleverly hid their actions and assaulted those “shouting at group members”, in a manner that the Philadelphia Police wholly missed. Of course, Mr Muhammad blamed that on the thoroughly racist Philadelphia Police:

Muhammad said Philadelphia police were on the scene but did not intervene as counterprotesters and Patriot Front members fought.

“It’s obvious that, when Black folks and people who are our accomplices and allies organize in the streets, they are met with a different kind of response from police,” Muhammad said.

And, of course, even someone who said that he saw no violence, felt that they were violence waiting to happen:

“It felt like they were marching in a very energized way,” (Eric) Gilde said. “I saw nothing violent, but I feel like you could tell that there was a lot of aggression behind what they were doing, and I was happy that we were not close to them.”

The Inquirer article was journolism^[3]The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term … Continue reading at its finest, a wholly one-sided account of a story.

The three article writers who uncritically printed Mr Muhammad’s claim that the Philadelphia Police did nothing should have known that it was a lie, because the Inquirer already published the evidence of it. The photographic article had this picture:

Philadelphia police stop several Penske box trucks on Columbus Blvd at Race St. in Phila., Pa. shortly before midnight on July 3, 2021. Patriot Front protestors demonstrated in Center City. The trucks were stopped by police on Columbus Blvd. and when officers opened the rear doors they discovered the protesters inside. The men had their hands up as they exited the trucks, all were searched and eventually released. ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer. Click to enlarge.

There were several other photos showing the Philadelphia Police intervening, but this photo, and its caption, is the most important. The police searched “all” of the Patriot Front demonstrators, and apparently didn’t come up with a single illegally possessed weapon. If the cops had found such, the person with the weapon would have been arrested.

Despite marching peacefully, certainly more peacefully than the leftist demonstrations of last summer, the Patriot Front was thoroughly hassled by the Philadelphia Police, in ways they did not treat the leftists last year. What probable cause did the police have to detain and search the demonstrators? Note that in this photo, there is a bit of scuffling between the Patriot Front demonstrators and counter-protesters, but that the Patriot Front members are on the defensive, backed up against a fence.

There was no other article in the Inquirer on the demonstration, no counter to the one-sided and hostile article originally cited.