Chilling footage shows white supremacist group Patriot Front marching through DC
Members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched through Washington DC on Sunday.
Videos of the group show a pack of roughly 150 masked men in uniforms carrying upside-down American flags and shields.
Police were seen escorting the right-wing demonstrators.
In video of the demonstrations, hecklers could be heard taunting the marchers.
The group has made previous appearances in Boston, Indianapolis and Idaho, where 31 members of the group were arrested inside a truck and found with a plan to start a riot at a Pride event.
The group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), formed in 2017 after the infamous “Unite the Right” gathering of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a member of a far-right group called Vanguard America ran over counter-protester Heather Heyer.
White nationalist hate group Patriot Front marched toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, chanting "life, liberty, victory." Approx. 100 men in masks
(video: @rawsalerts) pic.twitter.com/qT5Fjq6I8q— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 13, 2023
After Heyer’s killing, a group split off from Vanguard to form Patriot Front.
Masked fascists with white nationalist group Patriot Front were escorted by Metropolitan Police today throughout the National Mall in Washington DC.
The group generally shows up unannounced to other groups' protests or holds their own without seeking permits in an attempt to… pic.twitter.com/pIoxwPriFq— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 13, 2023
“Patriot Front is an image-obsessed organisation that rehabilitated the explicitly fascist agenda of Vanguard America with garish patriotism,” the SPLC has said of the group, adding that it “focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism that can be easily distributed as propaganda for its chapters across the country”.
The Anti-Defamation League describes the group as specialising in vandalism, racist propaganda and “flash demonstrations” meant to intimidate marginalised communities.
According to a study released in March by the ADL, there has been a 38 per cent increase in white supremacist propaganda efforts in the US, the highest number ever recorded by the organisation.
