Cnn
–
Local residents confronted and chased from neonazi demonstrators by waving large flags tilted in a swastika along a road viaduct on Friday in Evendale, Ohio, which houses a historically black community that has endured a long history of racism.
Ohio white nationalist groups have recently become more and more cheeky to express hateful rhetorical and racist ideologies. Last November, Hate Club, a newly formed white supremacist organization, paraded in a neighborhood of Columbus, waving swastika flags and shouting racist insults.
A dozen neonazis, wearing all the black clothes and red facial masks that Columbus walkers also wore, were seen on traffic cameras waving the swastika flags. They had also pinned red swastika banners on the fence of the viaduct and a sign reading “America for the White Man”, according to photos shared with CNN.
The swastikas are a notorious symbol of hatred, anti -Semitism and white supremacy tracing the murderous heritage of the German Nazi party and the Holocaust.
In images documented by the subsidiary of CNN WLWT, people can be seen to the demonstrators while the police stood between them. Moments by confronting them, the neonazis quickly fell back, jumped into a U-Haul box truck and left the scene.
Officials of the application of the laws on places can also be seen inaugurate the demonstrators in the U-Haul truck and wave them to go.
Friday, police became aware of “the unexpected protest activity” around 2 pm on Vision Way overlooking Interstate 75, the Evendale police department announced in a press release. EVENDALE is approximately 12 miles north of the city center of Cincinnati.
“The demonstration, although very offensive, was not illegal,” said the police. “The event was short -lived. The demonstrators left the region by themselves. No other measure was taken by the Evendale police service. »»
Events organized or assisted by white supremacists in the United States reached a new summit in 2023, the anti-diaiffing league reported. Public rallies of white nationalists or people with Nazi flags have taken place in recent years in Nashville, New Hampshire, Boston, Virginia, Michigan and Washington, DC.
“We underestimate the dangers that the police do not even try to identify them. Who are they trying to protect? Because it is not us, ”a local resident told CNN Kachara Talbert, who confronted the demonstrators. “It could be another Hitler behind these masks. It could be a school shooter behind these masks. »»
The Vision Way viaduct connects Evendale to the village of Lincoln Heights, the first entirely black and autonomous city north of the Mason-Dixon line, according to the Cincinnati Preservation Association.
EVENDALE is also only two kilometers from reading, which was one of the thousands of white communities in the United States known as “sunset cities”, where local laws prohibited blacks and other people of color To go out after sunset to intimidate them to live in the region.
“The sign they published said” America for the White Man “and that makes me ask, what makes this group, which is literally from another country, think they are more right to America than me and my parents? ” Said Talbert. “This country was made of black blood, sweat and tears, so why do these colonizers feel so comfortable?”
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Bureau responded to the scene and helped defuse the situation “and ensure that no one was injured,” said Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey in a statement.
“Lincoln Heights residents are naturally upset,” said the press release. “We continue to work with the community and emphasize that there is no room for hatred in the county of Hamilton.”
The mayor of Cincinnati, AFTAB Pureval, also published a declaration on X condemning the incident and declared that he was “shocking and disgusting to see swastikas displayed in Evendale today”.
“This is not what we defend, and it will never be what we will defend,” added the mayor. “Haine messages like this have no place in our region.”
CNN contacted the mayor, the governor of Ohio Mike Dewine, the Evendale police service and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Bureau for additional comments but have not received an answer.
The declarations of the officials and the police have turned upside down the local residents who declared that the lack of efforts to hold the responsible racist demonstrators will allow them to return and send a message to the Americans that they do is acceptable.
“Their statements are talking about how hatred has no place here, but no justice has been done. These are terrorists we are talking about, “said Talbert. “Seeing the flag represented here and seeing the police stand there in what looked like unity, not a disgust, made us feel that what the Nazis represent are ok.”
The news of the display of demonstrators spread quickly throughout the city while the photos and videos were shared all over Facebook. One by one, dozens of residents, including Talbert, showed up to form a crowd that did not hesitate to approach the neonazis and draw one of their flags, which they then burned.
“Anger and rage has just overcome me. I literally arrived in about 15 minutes, “Talbert told CNN. “The Nazis lacked respect for my family, my line, my inheritance. I took it a lot personally. I needed to be there to shoot down this flag and I needed to push these people from our community. »»
While they were approaching neonazis, the demonstrators, who, according to Talbert, wore firearms, called them in the n-word.
A video published by an unknown account on Facebook obtained by members of the local community showed what seemed to be the demonstrators on Friday using the word N and other derogatory languages to refer to the approach of the residents who came Face.
“Look at the n *** ers to come,” said a masked demonstrator, because several others echo the racist insult. Another says: “The cops will give us an escort to Freddy’s car”, and another replies “f ** k yeah”.
Talbert said that the chaotic confrontation lasted a few minutes before the demonstrators run hastily in U-Haul.
“Members of my community torn the flag from their hand and burned it, we spit it, and if necessary, it could really have become ugly,” said Talbert. “We will not hesitate to protect our community. And after the show they organized, each black community you can think will appear 100%. »»
The absence of action of the police to question and obtain the identity of the demonstrators was an “insult” to the community, said Talbert, who, according to her, saw the same police service questioning the inhabitants and minors for simple and non -dangerous offenses like gathering on the sidewalks.
“I have looked at black men all my life in this community to be tracked and detained without probable cause,” she said. “But I haven’t seen rubber bullets that day. I have not seen anyone get shot on it, as during the Matter Black Lives demonstrations. I haven’t seen any gas. The calm of the police as a whole, the way he stood in front of them, it made us very upset. »»
Shya Smith, another resident of Lincoln Heights who confronted the demonstrators after they called him “N-Mot B * TCH”, told CNN that his community thought that President Donald Trump and his administration gave the White nationalists The confidence necessary to present themselves without fear of being punished.
“It is so overwhelming to see how a group of extremists who promote hatred can protest` peacefully ” while openly transporting rifles just 700 meters from a primary school, “she said.
“And it’s a slap in the face to watch the police protect them while predominantly fears of the African-American district for their safety and well-being.”
Despite fear, anger and pain that resolved by the community following this reprehensible incident, it is an unshakable love and an inflexible unit that emerged in response, sending a clear message to the demonstrators filled with hatred: their behavior is not welcome here.
Throughout the next morning and afternoon, local residents and neighbors of neighboring cities gathered in the same viaduct, this time holding signs and solidarity posters, one who said: “My father fought the Nazis, just like me.
As they did, three cars belonging to the peaceful demonstrators broke their rear authors by unknown authors, according to Kim Lachance, whose car was robbed.
“I came here because I couldn’t sit down and do nothing for a longer time,” Lachance, who grew up in Lincoln Heights during desegregation, said in CNN from the parking lot where his car had been vandalized. “We have to retaliate.”
Lachance held a sign that said “love” when two women have passed and stopped their cars to go out to make him hug.
“They were crying because they said yesterday that they had a broken heart so much,” said Lachance. “We have to take care of our communities, especially those that have gone through things like this and continue to go through things like this.”
The presence of white supremacist groups in Ohio is not new. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the University of Dayton, organized gatherings in the state and met in cities like Westerville, where the group created a bastion.
“When you have years and years of oppression and you have Nazi supporters in power, as police officers, judges, that is what these people feel confident to do something like that “Said Talbert.
“America must get up and stop this madness, because it will only get worse and it will become dangerous.”