More than two dozen Nazi members march on Capitol
The protest lasted two hours.
Published Nov. 10, 2008
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Law enforcement officers patrol a security barricade erected on the grounds of the state Capitol on Saturday in Jefferson City as a small group of National Socialist Movement members conduct a demonstration on capitol steps. Dozens of citizens actively protested the neo-Nazi demonstration, while others attended a Rally for Unity at a local park.
About 50 members of the Detroit-based National Socialist Movement marched their way to the steps of the Missouri Capitol building Saturday to demonstrate their support for "an alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties for white people."
The group was originally planning to march in Columbia, where members marched last year to protest the School of Journalism. The Columbia Police Department turned down their parade permit request because of an MU football game scheduled that day, which police said would require all their resources.
The group waved hybrid U.S.-swastika flags, chanted racial and patriotic epithets and invited several of their members to speak to the crowd of about 100 onlookers. Many of the members' speeches were cut short by microphone failure with the crowd of Nazis waving their flags and resuming their chants of "USA," "sieg heil" and "immigrants go home."
The group blamed the economic downturn and increasing job losses in the U.S. on President-elect Barack Obama, the "brown tsunami" of illegal immigrants to the U.S. and "the Jew."
Anthony Kessler, a college student from Pennsylvania, joined several friends from Lawrence, Kan., and Kansas City to counter the Nazi presence.
"I'm here with a couple friends protesting the march trying to counter the ignorance and spread love and harmony," Kessler said between shouting bouts with the Nazis across a makeshift barrier of police tape and fences erected to keep the Nazis at a distance from the crowd.
Most members of the crowd had turned out to jeer the Nazis, citing curiosity and disgust as primary reasons for their attendance.
"It's saddening to know that they're people, too, and we're not supposed to hate them," Kessler said.
Nearby, a group of Jefferson City denizens explained why the rally was held in Jefferson City, and not Columbia, this year, saying they had organized a group of 150 people to brawl with the Nazis at last year's march, held in Columbia.
"Columbia kicked them the hell out, didn't want no more of what we had for them," said Storm Walker, while his friends Abe Walker and Tyler Whitler nodded approval.
Jefferson City police as well as representatives of the state police and the Department of Justice stood guard over the group's First Amendment rights at the march. A group of police in riot gear and a SWAT team escorted and regulated the Nazis as they made their march through the city and leading to the capitol building.
Several crowd members hurled insults back at the group and pushed against police barriers.
"I feel like if they weren't here, there could be a big fight," Jefferson City resident Traci Sinf said.
Jefferson City resident Alex Brondeo, who came to the rally with a "Nazis = White Trash Pigs" sign and a Jewish prayer shawl tied around his neck, agreed.
"If they weren't here, I'd shoot that motherfucker," Brondeo said.
The Nazis continued their protest for about two hours before disbanding along the same route through which they entered. Their speakers spoke about their country and the claim their European ancestry gave to American resources, pointing to individual minorities in the crowd and hurling invectives at them during their speeches.