routinely paraded at the Dallas State Fairground.
After the Klanbake hubbub and the 103 ballots taken at the Democratic convention of 1924, delegates discarded Wilson’s ku-klux son-in-law and Whiskey Al Smith and finally nominated two prohibitionist fanatics. The KKK felt betrayed by the Democratic party.(link, link) After racially-tinged massacres of nonwhite “scabs” in Herrin, Illinois, Klan popularity ebbed, and the Klan threw its support to Herbert Hoover, the White Quaker Great Dry Hope in 1928.
When the Increased Penalties Act and income-tax indictments convinced investors a Depression was coming in 1929, Hoover was still popular. Texas judges began to wonder if legislation banning “other organizations” from wearing masks hadn’t been too hastily enacted. Here is a news account from October 30, 1929:
ANTI-MASK LAW PARTS AT FAULT — COURT TERMS DISGUISING VAGUE — Part of the anti-mask law which governor Dan Moody wrote while Attorney General was invalidated by the court of criminal appeals this morning which found the measure faulty. The ruling resulted from the reversal of an eight-year sentence assessed against Cain Anderson, wealthy Harrison County farmer. The case, tried in Van Zandt County, was sent here for a new trial. Anderson was originally convicted on a charge of entering the home of J.H. Richardson in Harrison County. It was alleged that Richardson and his wife were taken from the house and flogged by a party of men. The part of the law stricken out by the criminal appeals commission of the Supreme Court was the portion which do with… disturbing the residents. The court held the law vague in that it was hard to ascertain whether or not residents were disturbed….
STOCKS SOAR ON SWEEPING RALLY — TRADING AGAIN AT FAST CLIP — BY JAMES L. KILGALLEN New York, Oct. 30 — Stock prices rallied at the opening today in the wake of yesterday’s hectic… (Austin Statesman 10/30/1929 1)
Texas prohibitionist judges could not believe that people would be disturbed by a gang of wealthy Ku-kluxers dragging them out bed for a midnight whipping, and struck down the uppity and presumptuous mask law. Prohibition raids on homes, bank accounts and brokerages meanwhile began the Great Depression and total collapse.
Twenty-two years later those mask laws were again embroiled in controversy.
Another fanatical prohibitionist judge, this time in Kentucky, recently signed a search warrant sending Louisville narcs masquerading as ordinary thugs out to kick in the door and loot Breonna Taylor’s apartment. The lady’s boyfriend was disturbed enough to open fire and actually wing one of the robbers before they riddled Breonna with gunfire, whipped out license-to-kill badges (complete with Qualified Immunity™) and arrested the survivor they’d disturbed, Kenneth Walker. This case bore a strong resemblance to the March, 1929 murder of a housewife in Aurora, Illinois:
FATAL ZEAL: In January one Boyd Fairchild, Dry snooper, reported to the Illinois State’s Attorney a purchase of liquor at the home of one Joseph De King, 38, in Aurora. For this information he was paid $5. A “John Doe” warrant was sworn out. Last week Deputy Sheriff Roy Smith, fat, officious, went to the De King home with the warrant. De King refused to let him in. Smith returned with three more deputies. They surrounded the house, threw mustard bombs, rushed the door. De King was clubbed into unconsciousness. Lilian, his wife, was at a telephone, screaming “Help! Help!” to their lawyer. Smith fired a shotgun loaded with slugs point-blank into her abdomen. She wilted to the floor, dead. Gerald De King, 12-year-old son, flipped up a revolver, sent a bullet plowing into the fleshy leg of Deputy Sheriff Smith. Later a gallon of weak wine was found.
Said Sheriff Smith from his hospital bed: “I wish there was no such thing as prohibition. I’m through with it. Try to enforce the law and see what happens.” (Time 4/8/29 69)
Mattingly–Louisville’s heroic no-knock lady-killer–is now nuisance-suing the gallant survivor for [get this!] inflicting emotional distress. Not a word so far about the judge–empowered to send deadly force into private homes to enforce superstition and pseudoscience–being held liable. His listening to and enabling the mendacious meddlers was what started the bloody mess in the first place.(link)
This pattern of sclerotic Antebellum political gangs using the initiation of deadly force to “solve” non-problems with violence has gone on long enough. On the ballot you now have the ability vote for Jo Jorgensen, Libertarian, to end all men-with-guns substance prohibition and help protect the economy from another Great Depression. Think about that while you listen to what the GOP and Dems are saying about each other.
This is your 12th chance to vote Libertarian or sanction coercion. Which will it be?
Make your vote MATTER for a change! Listen to what our opponents say about each other and remember all that on election day.
She’s with Us!
Brazilian Sci-fi from 1926 featuring the usual beautiful daughter of a scientist touting prohibition and racial collectivism in America’s Black President 2228 by Monteiro Lobato, translated by J Henry Phillips (link)
Find out the juicy details behind the mother of all economic collapses. Prohibition and The Crash–Cause and Effect in 1929 is available in two languages on Amazon Kindle, each at the cost of a pint of craft beer.
Brazilian blog…
The Looter Kleptocracy has evidently pressured media companies such as WordPress to make blogging as difficult as possible before the election. Twelve million libertarian votes would go a long way toward removing new impediments to blogging and restoring the usual formatting tools.
libertariantranslator 