Video Shows Neo-Nazis Yelling Racist Slurs While Marching Freely Through Columbus, Ohio

Once again, a Trump administration has brought with it a trend of emboldened white supremacists who are taking to the streets and showing the world what it really means to “make America great again.”

Over the weekend, a group of about a dozen people neo-Nazis wearing all black with red facemasks and carrying black flags with red swastikas marched through the Short North area of Columbus, Ohio, shouting racial slurs at Black people and people of color, shouting antisemitic nonsense about Jewish people, and, of course, shouting about white power as if Donald Trump’s election doesn’t still demonstrate that white power is the most powerful power in America.

MORE: Beyond Texts: Suspected Racist Hate Crimes Surge After Trump’s Election

Videos of the demonstration have gone viral all over social media and now Columbus officials are condemning it, but that’s about it. One thing modern white supremacists seem to understand is if there’s no physical violence involved, the First Amendment gives them the right to make America 1930s Germany again, minus the genocide, of course.

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From the Columbus Dispatch:

Police responded to a report from a caller who said that one of the people in the group sprayed pepper spray or mace at a passerby. Callers also reported the group was using racial slurs toward people of color on the street, shouting about Jewish people and white power and appeared to be armed, police dispatchers said.

In a statement early Sunday, police said there were no arrests after officers were dispatched at 1:20 p.m. to North High Street and East Lincoln Street “on a group of individuals dressed in all black and armed with firearms holding Nazi Swastika signs,” Sgt. Joe Albert wrote.

Officers were advised the group may have been in a physical altercation with civilians in the area.

“Shortly after officers arrived on scene, the group left the area without incident,” Albert wrote. “Officers stopped a van the group left in a short distance away to investigate the potential assault that may have taken place.  Many of the individuals inside the van were detained, however, it was later determined that an assault did not take place and all of the individuals were released.”

So, as far as the cops knew, none of the perpetually aggrieved white men covering their cowardly faces with masks and carrying guns for show had committed an actionable offense. This essentially means all Columbus leaders can do is issue a stern but pretty hollow warning to white supremacists that “hate has no place here” and that they should leave the city and never come back — not that they can do anything about it if they do.

“The vile display of hate by a small band of masked neo-Nazis in the Short North is another sad example of the bigotry that we have witnessed across the country,” American Jewish Committee regional director Lee C. Shapiro said in a statement. “AJC is grateful to the Columbus police for acting to quell this unauthorized march and for city officials’ forceful response to this act of cowardice. We cannot allow agitators to stoke fear in a city where diversity and tolerance is one of its hallmarks. Hate has no place in Columbus. Not now, not ever.”

Gov. Mike DeWine declared in a statement, “There is no place in this State for hate, bigotry, antisemitism, or violence.

“We will not tolerate hate in Ohio. Neo-Nazis — their faces hidden behind red masks — roamed streets in Columbus today, carrying Nazi flags and spewing vile and racist speech against people of color and Jews,” the statement continued.

City Attorney Zach Klein took to X to join the chorus line of officials condemning the Nazi march, tweeting, “To those involved in the neo-Nazi march in the Short North today, take your flags and the masks you hide behind and go home and never come back. Your hate isn’t welcome in our city.”

Different variations of “hate has no place here” is also what officials across the U.S. were saying when Black people immediately began receiving racist texts about making slavery great again just after Trump’s win. Certainly, there were officials in Jupiter, Florida, who had condemned the Nazis who joined Eric and Lara Trump’s boat parade in support of their MAGA patriarch during his campaign for the presidency (you know, when Republicans weren’t claiming, without a lick of evidence, that they were undercover liberal agitators).

White conservatives would have us believe it’s either a coincidence or conspiracy that Nazis, KKK members and other assorted white supremacists keep showing up to Republican campaign stops and running for various offices as registered Republicans. They would have us believe it’s just by happenstance that they keep marching and demonstrating in support of GOP leaders while waving around bigoted banners that easily reflect Trump-era GOP policies. They want us to believe there’s no real correlation between MAGA and the surges in hate crimes and suspected hate crimes that always appear to coincide with a Trump win.

One thing we know for sure is that, while officials across the nation keep saying, “Hate has no place here,” everything about the results of Nov. 5 says otherwise.

Sad!

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