Masked neo-Nazis carrying swastika flags marched through Ohio’s state capital of Columbus on Saturday.
Police made no arrests but they did detain some individuals – at least one member of the group was heard chanting a racial slur.
The individuals were also “armed with firearms,” according to the Columbus Police Department.
“We will not tolerate hate in Ohio,” said Governor Mike DeWine in a statement. “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 colour and Jews. There were reports that they were also espousing white power sentiments.”
He proclaimed: “There is no place in this state for hate, bigotry, antisemitism or violence, and we must denounce it wherever we see it.”
Andrew Ginther, the mayor of Columbus, said: “We will not allow any of our neighbours to be intimidated, threatened or harmed because of who they are, how they worship and whom they love.”
On Sunday, community leaders led a unity march. Rev. Derrick Holmes serves as senior pastor at Union Grove Baptist Church.
“I really want a counterweight to what happened yesterday,” Holmes said. “And really of just the mind that hate doesn’t get to have the last word, that injustice doesn’t get the last word, that bigotry doesn’t get to have the last word.”
The incident came a week after another group of masked individuals were seen waving Nazi flags outside a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Howell, Michigan.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement that President Joe Biden “abhors the hateful poison of Nazism, Antisemitism, and racism,” which he called “hostile to everything the United States stands for, including protecting the dignity of all our citizens and the freedom to worship.”
“Hate directed against any of us is a threat to every single one of us,” Bates said. “This sickening display comes during a tragic rise in Antisemitic rhetoric and violence that is a crises the American people should all come together against. That is why President Biden launched and continues to act on the first ever national strategy to fight Antisemitism in American history.”