The White House has condemned a neo-Nazi march in Ohio which took place over the weekend, after videos of masked men shouting racial slurs and carrying swastika flags were shared online.
“President Biden abhors the hateful poison of Nazism, antisemitism, and racism – which are hostile to everything the United States stands for,” a spokesman said on Monday, adding that the march was a “sickening display”.
The videos showed roughly a dozen people, dressed in black and wearing face coverings, marching through the streets of Columbus carrying flags with red swastikas on them.
Police briefly detained some of the group on Saturday but released them after determining no laws had been broken.
“Neo-Nazis… roamed streets in Columbus today, carrying Nazi flags and spewing vile and racist speech,” Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in a statement.
“There is no place in this state for hate, bigotry, antisemitism or violence, and we must denounce it wherever we see it.”
Police received multiple calls at around 13:30 on Saturday about the march, public safety dispatchers told the local CBS affiliate WBNS.
In some videos, members of the group can be heard shouting racial slurs into a bullhorn at people nearby.
Officers were also advised that the group may have been in a physical altercation with people in the area that involved the use of pepper spray.
No arrests were made during the incident on Saturday.
“The Constitution protects First Amendment activity, no matter how hateful,” Police Chief Elaine R Bryant said.
“We are bound by the law in enforcement of such activity,” she added. “No one in our community should experience intimidation or harassment.”
As no one was charged, the identities of those in the group have not been released.
The scene in Ohio’s capital city occurred one week after a similar incident in Michigan.
On 9 November, several masked men were seen waving Nazi flags and shouting slurs outside a theatre performance of The Diary of Anne Frank.
Oren Segal, vice-president of the Anti Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, told the BBC that there are “more and more groups that are marching with swastika flags” and they are doing so increasingly in smaller “more focused” groups.
“These relatively small and quick protests are designed to signal back to their online community… for this to be an example of these groups bringing their hatred on the ground,” Mr Segal said.
The ADL, which monitors white supremacist events around the country, said hundreds had taken place over the past two years.
