ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — Neo-Nazis converged in Orlando on Saturday as members of the white supremacist and antisemitic groups carried flags with swastikas, performed Hitler salutes and shouted out hateful slogans, according to multiple reports.
One group appeared outside the entrance to Walt Disney World, according to the New York Post. The others gathered at Crane Roost Park in Altamonte Springs. Among the bigoted messages they chanted was the phrase, "We are everywhere."
Despite that assertion, the Anti-Defamation League, who warned about the demonstrations last week, said that the march only included 51 people, about one-third of the turnout the ADL was anticipating from monitoring the groups' recruitment efforts online. And even that amount would not have elevated either of the groups beyond fringe status.
"It took months and months of fundraising, recruiting, and other activities just to get maybe around 150 people to show up," said the ADL's senior director of investigative research, Carla Hill, shortly before the day of the march.
Public condemnation
Even though the turnout was low, the extremely hateful rhetoric and the increasingly bold public appearances of hate groups were enough to sound alarm bells.
"We call on public officials at the federal, state, and local levels to stand up and clearly denounce this hateful activity. We cannot allow for hate and extremist beliefs to become normalized in our society," the ADL said in a statement.
Some public officials denounced the demonstrations.
State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, D-Orlando, posted photos and video of the neo-Nazi groups on her social media page saying, "Nazis in Altamonte Springs at Cranes Roost Park screaming “we are every where” — absolutely disgusting stuff and another example of the far right extremism growing in FL."
Former State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Bartow, also called for unity against bigotry.
According to NBC News, the Orange County Sheriff's Office also condemned the actions of the neo-Nazi groups in a statement released on Sunday.
"We know these groups demonstrate in high profile areas in order to agitate and incite people with antisemitic symbols and slurs," the sheriff's office said. "The Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplores hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate. What these groups do is revolting and condemned in the strongest way by Sheriff Mina and the Sheriff’s Office. They are looking for attention, and specifically media attention."
Looking for media attention
Reporting from Rolling Stone seemed to confirm the sheriff's assertion as members of the Nazi groups appeared to welcome cameras and reporters. One member in particular, the leader of the hate group Blood Tribe, appeared to be leading hate-filled chants on video and telling reporters that the gathering was "just the beginning."
"We just have to start a fire. We’re the kindling. Once we set the fire, we get the fire hot, then we get the rest of our brothers blazing," the man said.
After the rally, a clip began to circulate online about him complaining on camera about a number of personal problems, including his wife being unfaithful to him.
And although a clip of the leader declaring on camera at the rally that "Biden's better than Trump because he sends rockets to Ukraine," prompted some social media users to spread conspiracy theories about the neo-Nazis either being left-wing pro-Biden demonstrators or that the whole thing was staged by the federal government, the ADL confirms that the man founded Blood Tribe from followers of his white supremacist podcast in 2020 and from connections made in subsequent years with other white supremacist organizations.
It is worth noting that white supremacist Richard Spencer tried to make the same claims of support for Biden in 2020 in a move believed by some to be an attempt to harm Biden's candidacy by association. At the rally on Saturday, some neo-Nazi demonstrators were carrying DeSantis flags and declaring their support for Ron DeSantis, according to Rolling Stone's reporting.
The rally came one week after a racist with a swastika carved into an assault rifle he legally acquired shot and killed three black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, authorities there said.
