On Saturday afternoon, neo-Nazis wearing masks Marched through the Short North district of Columbus, OH, carrying swastika flags and chanting racial slurs, antisemitic slogans, and white power.
The neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe has been active in Springfield, OH, over the past year targeting the city’s large Haitian immigrant community, and one of its members was removed from a city council meeting for making threatening statements.
Governor Mike DeWine condemned the neo-Nazis in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday night.
“We will not tolerate hate in Ohio,” DeWine said. “neo-Nazis — their faces hidden behind red masks — roamed the streets in Columbus today, carrying Nazi flags and spewing vile and racist speech against people of color and Jews. There were reports that they were also espousing white power sentiments. There is no place in the state for hate, bigotry, antisemitism, or violence, and we must denounce it whenever we see it.”
Several videos of the neo-nazis began making the rounds on social media Saturday afternoon.
The group was reported to appear armed, according to police dispatch, and the police responded to an incident where a member of the group used pepper spray or mace on a passerby.
Community leaders in Columbus quickly condemned the neo-Nazi marchers. Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin laid some of the blame for the marchers on the rhetoric of the President-Elect. During his campaign, he vilified Haitian immigrants in Springfield and repeated false claims that Haitian immigrants were eating neighborhood pets.
“I’m sorry the President-elect has emboldened these creeps,” Hardin wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This community rejects their pathetic efforts to promote fear and hate. Columbus will always stand with those they seek to intimidate.”
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a statement on X. “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.”
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther also said in a statement on X, “Together, we reject the cowardly display reported in the Short North earlier today, and we will continue to monitor the situation in partnership with the Columbus Division of Police to ensure the safety and security of our city.”
The American Jewish Committee of Columbus released a statement to the Columbus Dispatch.
“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.”
