A potentially volatile situation was held in check today, but tensions ran high on both sides as the national socialist movement tried to spread its message that an American Nazi party is needed.
More than a hundred protesters traded chants with the nearly 20 members of the Minneapolis-based National Socialist movement. Leaders of the movement did everything from stomping on and tearing a Mexican flag to giving the crowd the Nazi salute.
"We're here to test freedom. We're here to see if freedom does exist, because if we don't have the freedom to stand up and use whatever symbol of expression we choose then freedom no longer exists. We're here to see if freedom and the constitution does in fact exist," said Tim Bishop of the National Socialist movement.
When asked what he would say to people who believe the party is spreading a message of hate, Bishop said, "they're wrong. Everything that's pro-white is hate. And white people can have nothing in the mainstream for white people without it being called hate. You force white people into an extremist political position... you give us no other alternative."
"My grandparents are immigrants; a lot of people - just about everybody practically - has immigrants in their background. And the Nazis are violent, they're Fascists. They’re anti-democratic, and I'd like to see them not be able to speak. And if we talk loud enough, maybe they can't talk over us," said counter protester Ann Adams.
Members of the anti-racist network were among the counter protesters. And unlike last year’s Ku Klux Klan rally, DPS troopers made sure the crowds and protestors remained under control.
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