On Sunday, Anchorage Assemblymember and Alaska State Commission for Human Rights Commissioner Jamie Allard defended Alaska vanity license plates “FUHRER” and “3REICH,” arguing on Facebook that the words are innocuous translations of German terms for “leader or guide” and “realm.” The word Fürher is strongly associated with Adolf Hitler, who served as Führer of Germany from 1934 to the end of World War II in 1945, and who presided over the Holocaust. The term “Third Reich” was the Nazi Party’s official designation for its fascist regime. Both terms are heavily incorporated into neo-Nazi and white supremacist subcultures in the United States and abroad.
The situation leading to Allard’s comments began on Friday, when prolific Alaska Twitter user Libby Bakalar posted a photo of the “3REICH” license plate and requested that someone file a complaint. Shortly thereafter, Representative Sara Hannan (D – Juneau) replied that she had initiated a complaint and had inquired about why the plate has been approved by the Alaska DMV.
I wrote and requested that this license plate be revoked. I will follow up to clarify how it made it through the approval system. #akleg #stophate
— Representative Sara Hannan (@RepSaraHannan) January 23, 2021
Alaska statute prohibits “patently offensive” vanity license plates. Per Section 2 AAC 92.120, the State will not issue a vanity plate that includes:
(4) symbols in a combination that demeans an ethnic, religious, or racial group, or that is otherwise vulgar, indecent, or has sexual connotations; any combination known by the department to have a sexual connotation or to be patently offensive to a person of ordinary sensibilities will be considered vulgar or indecent; any combination known by the department to be patently offensive to an ethnic, religious, or racial group will be considered demeaning to that group.
Later on Friday, Suzanne Downing published an article about Bakalar and Hannan’s Twitter posts in Must Read Alaska. Downing describes Bakalar as an “internet sensation who specializes in vulgarity,” and reports that Bakalar had also been made aware of a “FUHRER” license plate. Downing explains the meaning of the term “Third Reich” and the connotation of the word “Fuhrer,” and speculates that both plates may merely be references to the names of Alaskan individuals.
According to State records, both the “FUHRER” and “3REICH” license plates are registered to a 2005 Hummer H2. It is unclear whether the plates are registered to the same vehicle or to different vehicles. The Landmine was able to find a social media account that matches the name of a person who appears to be the registrant for both license plates. The individual is not named either Fuhrer or Reich, and uses an image of a Templar knight as the account profile photo. In recent years, imagery of the Knights Templar has been widely co-opted by alt-right and right-wing extremist groups.
Anchorage Assemblymember Jamie Allard defended the “FUHRER” and “3REICH” license plates in a comment on Downing’s article, claiming that the words are harmless and that “the progressives have put a spin on it and created their own definition.”
Allard doubled-down on Sunday, writing from her “Jamie Allard – Assemblywoman Chugiak – Eagle River” account that she had requested a complete list of banned plates from the State. Allard continued that she had sent a note to former President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who is Jewish, about the appropriateness of the “3REICH” plate.
Writing from her personal account on Sunday, Allard speculated that her defense of the controversial license plates would result in “lively” testimony at the Tuesday meeting of the Anchorage Assembly.
These hurt feeling snowflakes need to find a hobby..
And Libby Bakalar? ..
she needs to crabbing.
My hobby is speaking out against Nazism and its defenders (also skiing, water polo, and building model aircrasft)! What’s yours, pseudonymous one?
Sound like a hateful Nazi sympathizer….
One thing that isnt hard.. dont be a Nazi, dont want Nazis, NO to Nazis.. its not difficult…
You’re not a big guy, you’re small and vile.
And you’re the Eviction next / dump trump ignorant leftist troll from ADN, so go play in the highway and leave this to the adults.
Who cares about a stupid license plate? Freedom of speech! Looks like DMV/State allowed it anyway. I saw a license plate that said Hoochy…Maybe I should email Murkowski and sue the State and cry to my mom.
Congratulations on being just as obtuse as Allard. The issue here isn’t so much that the DMV issued the plates as it is that a sitting Assembly member and member of Alaska’s ***Human Rights Commission*** went on public record pretending that license plates celebrating Naziism are NBD.
Allard was giving further argumentative examples to what we already know is the bottom line. The State issued the plates
And as such is protected. You are daft and assuming the rest. How are the plates celebratory?
By the way Defending free speech is
important to human rights. So I give Allard a 👍 for that.
Another Nazi sympathizer self-identifies
Uh no. I was arguing for free speech and for people who get offended over some stupid license plates to stfu.
Seriously? Free speech means the government can’t prohibit the expression of ideas by private individuals or groups, not that the government is compelled to print whatever words you want on your government-issued license plate.
Yeah, I already said the DMV can revoke the plates if they choose. I don’t have to agree with it. if I had a bumper sticker on my car that said Fuhrer, that would be my right to do so.
The DMV already revoked both these plates and planely states racism is not allowed on license plates. They are investigating how they were allowed through in the first place.
The plate went viral when people were bringing it to the DMVs attention since it violated their EXISTING rules. Ignorant people like you and Allard felt like chiming in and defending a Nazi for no reason other than to stir shit.
I don’t give a damn about the plates owner. He likely is racist. That’s not the point. Stirring shit, especially when people have grown accustomed to being biased and offended about every little thing they see and hear is what’s wrong. She’s not defending Nazism. She defending free speech. You only perceive her as defending naziism. It’s likely Allard doesn’t know or give a shit about the plates owner either and
EXACTLY!
You’re as small and vile as the other Nazi above
This seems to have very Maria Athens energy behind it. Looking forward to the inevitable anti-semetic voicemail.
When they came for 3REICH and FUHRER, I said nothing because I was not Nazi scum.
When they came for WHITES, I said nothing because I was not white trash.
When they came for TRUMP2, I said nothing, because Orange Man Bad.
But when they finally came for my inoffensive custom plate, there was nobody left to give a damn.
Exactly!
When they revoked racist license plates like 3REICH, FUHRER or maybe WHITEPWR, which by law were never supposed to issue in the first place, I said nothing. Actually that’s not quite true. I did say *something,* namely “Congrats to that idiot who was asleep at the switch, for finally waking up and doing his job.” No one revoked WHITES because there’s nothing offensive about that word, especially for a vehicle owned by a family named White. No one revoked TRUMP2 because that particular racist, unlike his crazy uncle Adolf, is still much too popular in Alaska to ban. If I… Read more »
Assembly Member Allard writing to Robert Reich to ask whether Nazi license plates are OK has to be the Anchorage Assembly cringe event of the year. And that is saying a lot this year.
This is what happens when politicians start reading too much Must Read Alaska.
the DMV can do whatever they want, they issued them. maybe I’ll get a plate that says ‘douche’ which also means to shower.
I get it though., calling a duck, a duck but are these plates truly offensive OR are you the one that is subjectively offended? The plates don’t “celebrate” anything. They’re in bad taste is all.
this is why cancel culture thrives, cause everyone’s offended by everything!
Cancel culture already dealt with nazism, it was called world War 2. Trying to excuse this spits in the face of the 552k US casualties in the European theater.
Calling troops who fought the Nazi’s a cancel culture spits in the face of those same casualties.
Nope, they cancelled them right to hell. You’re on the wrong side of this argument bud. Who ever allowed those plates through needs their job canceled also
Okay children.
And what argument would that be Tony?
ACKSHUALLY, it was communists that effectively did the grunt work in canceling Nazis, along with evil really bad awful Hitler himself with his military blunders that resulted in over 5 million German casualties on the eastern front.
That would be fitting
Getting a license plate that says douche would absolutely be fitting for you
It appears in some circles that Jamie Delfiero Allard claims to be fluent in “Deutsch”. If this were indeed the case and if she wanted to make an honest point, she would acknowledge that references to the Nazi period and the singular noun attributed to Adolph Hitler are anathemas to most Germans, who actually are fluent in their language. The noun “Führer” harkens back to Nazi-ism and the “bad old days”. These days, that word is used (best or mostly) as a compound noun meaning “some kind of leader”. Here’s an example: Oppositionsführer (zB: Aleksei A. Navalny)
Did the attorney that got canned and marooned in Bethel for the “shitgoblin” post really say she “can’t even”?
So you like Nazis too, eh?
How about “Arbeit macht frei” as a plank in the Alaska Republican party platform? After all it is only a German phrase meaning “Work sets you free” or “Work makes one free”. What harm in that symbolism or message?
There’s nothing wrong with it. Even though many symbols may have an objective meaning outwardly, they are all subjective ultimately. Even the swatstika symbol itself was used by some Native Americans and still is today. Unfortunately,I imagine people on this board would call them Nazi’s too.
Thank God the troops in the landing craft on D-Day or those that liberated the concentration camps didn’t think like you – that there is “nothing wrong” with that particular slogan.
Plates are in bad taste. Plates were revoked by dmv. That’s their choice, it’s their plates. If I had bumper sticker that said 3Reich or Fuhrer, that would be my right and I personally would have to deal with whatever backlash. Not worth it to me. But that is my choice. I do not support or agree with Naziism at all but in the public realm, I have freedom of speech so long it’s not illegal. If I were ever to see a license plate that said 3Reich, I would simply shrug and be a little surprised the DMV issued… Read more »
“All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Felix Revera is going to be recalled.
He can go back to cock assing at Mad Mernas again.
Well done.
We already knew you were an ass.
You’ve shown what an ass you are.
Are you speaking from experience Romeo?
I believe in FREE SPEECH. But I also know WORDS matter… American HISTORY books are full of these words, AMERICANS DIED fighting the FUHRER, Innocent men, women, & CHILDREN were gassed, starved, executed, experimented on and wiped out of existence. I doubt that most of civilization thinks of ( FUHRER = FREE SPEECH ). As an assembly woman she should know this. She can make all the excuses she wants. She can say it doesn’t really mean this or that, and keep the plates. These WORDS put on vanity plates are not inventions of the liberals ( as she try’s… Read more »
Kathy, I can’t MAKE out wtf your POST is SAYING. Yeah, words matter. Is that your point? And yes, books are full of words and Nazis are evil and lots of people died. I really hope you’re not a school teacher.
Anyone that thinks these license plates are acceptable and any one on that side of the fence…. y’all need tinfoil hats and clown shoes, you f@#$%ng inbred racist clowns
What’s the deal? Why is there any argument here? Do ya’ll not believe in free speech!? Who cares about some stupid plates? You are all triggered “Karen’s” did these plates hurt you in any way? Guess what?… feeling offended is totally subjective. Where is the line drawn. Who the hell cares about license plates. Get the hell over it! Otherwise you are a cancer to America
The deal is that this is a government representative that is supposed to represent ALL her constituents, not just the racists. Who cares? Decent human beings do.
She’s not condoning racism. She’s supporting free speech! Everyone just gets soooooo offended. Did that license plate rob you of your rights? Did it steal your property or harm anything but your own ego? Or did it simply “trigger” you? Likely did. Where does it end. Let’s just get rid of all customized plates. In fact, let’s not speak loudly in public. We could offend people by being LOUD!
Btw. Decency is relative., that’s why there are political parties, organizations, churches or any other membership groups you can think of. not the public realm, unless it is illegal!
Education in America sucks!
Link below is another stupid example of ignorant liberals. What ya’ll don’t realize that is if everyone were liberal, you’d all be cancelling each other. It’s a virus!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ex-obama-aide-san-francisco-removing-names-schools-covid-crisis
Thank you Jamie Allard!
You should credit the person who took the original photo