Francis G. Slay Quotes

There is no American right to loot stores, or to burn buildings, or to fire rifles from the rooftops. That is crime—and crime must be dealt with forcefully and swiftly, and certainly—under law.

Shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting any stores in our city.

A rioter with a Molotov cocktail in his hands is not fighting for civil rights any more than a Klansman with a sheet on his back and mask on his face. They are lawbreakers, destroyers of constitutional rights and liberties and ultimately destroyers of a free America.

The kind of violence, looting, destruction that we saw from a handful of individuals in Baltimore, there's no excuse for that. That's not a statement. That's not politics. That's not activism. That's just criminal behavior.

As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.

The last thing the Department of Homeland Security is about is infringing on anybody's constitutionally protected rights.

I used to buy into a former Supreme Court justice's argument that you can't scream fire in a crowded theater. Well, I think you can.

Even though some in our government may claim that civil liberties must be compromised in order to protect the public, we must be wary of what we are giving up in the name of fighting terrorism.

Liberty of public association; or the security with which malcontents may communicate their sentiments, concert their plans, and practice every mode of opposition short of actual revolt, before the executive power can be legally justified in disturbing them

This administration and the people of Chicago have never condoned brutality at any time, but they will never permit a lawless violent group of terrorists to menace the lives of millions of people, destroy the purpose of this national political convention, and take over the streets of Chicago.

... nobody's constitutional rights include the right to reside and do business on a battlefield. There is plenty of room elsewhere for him to exercise his rights.

I do not intend to take a position, which, if maintained, would abridge the freedom of discussion or restrain the liberty of the press. But I do contend that every principle of political justice, nay, every principle of humanity, demands that discussions shall not be persisted in, when it is manifest that their inevitable consequence is to render insecure … lives and property

A demonstration sometimes doesn’t stop with expressing opinion….it moves to incitement to violence and then to violence

Constitutional rights must always come before sensitivities.

The speech at issue are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature that they present a clear and present danger that they would bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.

If our Constitution is destroyed, if our right to free speech is denied, then we have the right to use whatever means necessary to survive and advance our position.

Political agitation, by the passions it arouses or the convictions it engenders, may in fact stimulate men to the violation of the law. Detestation of existing policies is easily transformed into forcible resistance of the authority which puts them in execution, and it would be folly to disregard the causal relation between the two. Yet to assimilate agitation, legitimate as such, with direct incitement to violent resistance, is to disregard the tolerance of all methods of political agitation which in normal times is a safeguard of free government.

We completely uphold the right of freedom of assembly. But there is always that important balance between security and freedom of expression in countries undergoing circumstances like ours.

The First Amendment rights, everybody has them.

The American people must be assured that no federal agency can trample their First Amendment rights.

People have the right to protest - that's what democracy is all about. I have no problem with people exercising their democratic rights.

There are many avenues to peacefully protest, but those rights don't extend to illegal actions, breaching security perimeters, and threatening police officers.

You can't come up and attack someone because of free speech.

If you buy the flag it's yours to burn.

It is now well established that the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas. ... This right to receive information and ideas, regardless of their social worth, ... is fundamental to our free society.