Neo-Nazis claim to be victims of the Columbus march

Documents and video footage show that a group of neo-Nazis who marched through the Short North this month were not arrested because police determined they were not the aggressors in the brawl that broke out.

Body camera footage Columbus police released Monday shows neo-Nazis telling police they have never experienced a reaction like the one they received in Columbus. They said people pulled out guns at them and threw cans and vegetables along the way they marched, waved flags and shouted racist insults. One of the officers noticed that the men were “doused” with pepper spray.

The November 16 march was met with severe condemnation from City Hall and the White House, but no arrests were made. A group of Black men The next day he organized a counter-marchfollowing the same route in the Short North, bringing a message of peace. In a statement, Columbus police previously said they could not find sufficient probable cause to file any charges against the neo-Nazis.

Police initially made contact with the neo-Nazis during a chaotic scene on the sidewalk near Goodale Park around 1:15 p.m., according to a radio log printout from Columbus police. There, neo-Nazis, dressed in black and red clothes and carrying black flags with red swastikas, told the police that they were leaving because they were attacked. In the background, passersby shouted at people to take off their masks.

They told police they were marching because “our country is under attack and white people are being excluded.” Although they did not want to tell the police where they lived, they referred to previous marches in other cities.

Police said they received a report of people being sprayed with pepper spray and hairspray. The neo-Nazis claimed they were pepper sprayed first and did not incite any violence. Footage previously obtained by the dispatcher showed one of the neo-Nazis spraying something on someone’s faceand 911 callers said neo-Nazis pepper-sprayed people.

Several officers were present on the sidewalk at the scene, including many Black officers. One of the black officers tried to reason with the protesters, pointing out that they would definitely be confronted by people for shouting hateful things.

“I definitely think you have the right under the First Amendment to say this bullshit, but come on, man,” the officer said. “The Buckeyes are playing. Man, come on.”

According to police records and video, officers followed the neo-Nazis to a parking lot in Goodale Park, where they loaded into a U-Haul with Arizona license plates and drove out of town. Officers stopped the U-Haul to continue investigating the robbery report.

The recording shows that all neo-Nazis initially refused to provide identification documents. The driver, identified in a police report as a known white supremacist, produced a Louisiana driver’s license when police explained it was legal to do so. The neo-Nazis in the back of the U-Haul said they had no identification and refused to give their names or where they came from.

In June 2023, a man was charged with a crime in connection with an incident in which several people hung swastikas and other anti-Semitic banners on a bridge in Orlando.

Neo-Nazis have repeatedly asserted their First Amendment rights and accused police of detaining them for “speaking words.” They complained that they were told to hold their hands above their heads, saying they were losing circulation. One of them complained that he had to use the bathroom.

One neo-Nazi carrying a long fixed-blade knife at his hip was placed in the backseat of a police car after police determined his hands were too close to the knife. Another was armed with a gun. Officers determined that the driver was armed with pepper spray.

During the detention of the neo-Nazis, the police talked by phone with a witness to the confrontation. She said she was driving by when the incident happened and saw neo-Nazis approach a pair of Black men, asking them to “take a bow” and hurling insults at them.

The witness said that someone tried to grab the flag from the hands of neo-Nazis and a fight broke out. Her description of events coincides with what the neo-Nazis told the police – as the officers said in the recording, they released the man armed with a knife from the back seat of the police car and told the neo-Nazis they could leave.

The police report referred to the group as the “1844 Hate Club.” The driver is the only neo-Nazi mentioned in the report. The others were only identified as approximately 10–11 unknown white males.

“We do this all over the United States and we’ve never been attacked like this, man,” the driver told police from his seat in the U-Haul.

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