South Plainfield mayor denounces white supremacists who crashed Labor Day parade

Cheryl Makin, MyCentralJersey.com
·2 min read

SOUTH PLAINFIELD – Mayor Matthew Anesh disavowed any borough connection to a group of white supremacists who crashed Monday’s annual Labor Day parade.

"A group unknown to me, the Governing Body, and probably virtually all of South Plainfield tried to enter the parade," Anesh said in a statement posted on social media. "The group was not part of the parade and was not a registrant of the parade. The South Plainfield Police Department intervened and treated this protesting group as just that, protesters."

Members of the New Jersey European Heritage Association (NJEHA), identified by a banner that three masked participants were holding, began marching along the route of South Plainfield’s 63rd Annual Labor Day Parade, positioning themselves at the end of the line of registered parade participants.

The group of about five men, all wearing matching tan pants, white t-shirts, baseball-style caps with an emblem, American flag-style neck gaiters and sunglasses, were flanked on either side by police in vehicles. One member was seen videotaping and photographing the group's actions.

NJEHA in Central Jersey in 2019:Hundreds turn out in Princeton to rally against white supremacy

In a video posted on Twitter by a parade viewer, several others could be heard telling the NJEHA marchers they were not welcome here.

"I want to thank the Police for intervening and keeping the day's activities safe for our residents and not allowing Labor Day to be marred by this group," Anesh said in the statement.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the NJEHA is a small, New Jersey-based white supremacist group that "espouses racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance under the guise of 'saving' white European peoples from purported imminent extinction."

Typically, the group, created in 2018, spreads its "hateful propaganda" online and by distributing fliers in Central Jersey, according to the ADL, but has organized and participated in white supremacist rallies and demonstrations in the state and elsewhere in the country.

The borough's Labor Day parade made its return after a four-year absence.

The event was canceled in 2021 because of Hurricane Ida and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, just hours before its planned step-off, the parade was cancelled after an explosive device was found near the parade route. A borough man later pled guilty to two counts of possessing a prohibited weapon, a destructive device, and one count of tampering with evidence.

email: cmakin@gannettnj.com

Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: South Plainfield mayor decries white supremacists at Labor Day parade