The Prague Post Online: Police role in neo-Nazi concert earns ire

Watchdogs alarmed, but lawmen say statute forbids intervention Watchdogs have fiercely criticized police for not stopping a concert attended by hundreds of neo-Nazis and far-right sympathizers from five countries. By allowing the event to go ahead, the authorities sent skinheads a message that they can stage international meetings in the Czech Republic and go unpunished, says an official with Tolerance Civic Society, an association that monitors right-wing extremism. Prime Minister Stanislav Gross has voiced concerns and called for a report on the March 26 gathering of up to 500 people in Jablonne v Podjestedi, a north Bohemian town near the German border. The event was the largest of its kind in four years and featured bands from the United States, the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia, according to Tolerance Civic Society. Police said that they would have intervened had there been any public display of support for fascism but that they were powerless to act because the concert was a private event held behind closed doors. Although it is illegal to promote or publicly show sympathy for fascism, enforcing the law is problematic because it can be interpreted in various ways, particularly when it comes to what constitutes a public meeting.