On Thursday in Dayton, the city of Springfield, its Mayor Rob Rue, and others sued the Blood Tribe, including its leaders Christopher Pohlhaus and Drake Berentz as well as unnamed members.
By David Swindle, The Algemeiner
Neo-Nazi groups and individuals promoting the Third Reich experienced opposition last week as politicians, communities, and law enforcement in Ohio and Australia responded to the promotion of genocidal antisemitism.
On Friday near a majority-Black neighborhood in Cincinnati, a group of 13 demonstrators wearing sunglasses, red face masks, and black clothes held two banners over an overpass between Evendale and Lincoln Heights.
One featured the phrase “America for the White Man” between a Nazi totenkopf skull symbol and a Nazi eagle. The second depicted a red swastika against a black background.
Six individuals also waved similar red-and-black swastika flags matching their outfits. Some in the group carried rifles.
Residents confronted the neo-Nazis, who call themselves “the Hate Club.” The masked men hurled racist slurs at them before piling into a U-Haul to flee.
Members of the community then flew their own banners on the overpass reading “love wins” and “all are welcome here.” The neo-Nazis had organized a previous demonstration in Columbus in November.
Lincoln Heights Village Council member Daronce Daniels told the Local 12 news station that “things of that nature don’t stand here, you know, that’s a symbol of hate,” and “we’re a community of pride and love.”
Daniels added, “I’m more proud [sic] than our residents for showing up and saying that, ‘Hey, we’re not going to allow anybody to come in and bully us in any type of way, especially in this moment.’”
Jamaal Howard, who lives in Lincoln Heights, said, “I’m fearing for my life, like I walk outside all the time, and now I have to be in fear just in case anything could happen.”
A video posted to social media showed that after the neo-Nazis fled the scene, residents proceeded to torch a swastika flag. “Burn that s—t up!” one man yelled. Others joined hands and formed a prayer circle.
“Messages of hate like this have no place in our region,” Cincinnati’s Mayor Aftab Pureval said. “It was shocking and disgusting to see swastikas displayed in Evendale today.”
On Sunday, a counter-demonstration took place with dozens of participants at the Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church.
“Any time you have a white supremacist, neo-Nazis come to the gateway of the historic Black community. Time is up. There’s nothing left right there. There’s no ground that is sacred,” said Reverend Julian Cook, the church’s pastor. “And to do it at 2:30 in the afternoon, when you know that babies are being dismissed from school. That is an act of terror. Clear and front and center.”
Cook spoke to WCPO News and sent a message to the neo-Nazis: “You will not win. You may try, but we have a history of being able to push past these things, as difficult as they may be. You will not win.”
In a statement, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati said, “We will not be intimidated. Our response to hate is to reaffirm our commitment to strengthening community bonds, advancing education, and advocating for a society free of antisemitism and all forms of hate and bigotry.”
Elsewhere in Ohio, government officials targeted a different neo-Nazi group which had allegedly stirred up hate in Springfield.
On Thursday in Dayton, the city of Springfield, its Mayor Rob Rue and others sued the Blood Tribe, including its leaders Christopher Pohlhaus and Drake Berentz as well as unnamed members.
The suit aided by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) charges Blood Tribe with “engaging in, and inciting, a campaign of harassment and intimidation, motivated by ethnic and racial hatred, against those who supported Springfield’s Haitian community in the face of Defendants’ racist attacks.” The officials have requested a jury trial to stop the group from further threats.
The filing says that “Blood Tribe and its members and associates unleashed a torrent of hateful conduct, including acts of harassment, bomb threats, and death threats, against Springfield residents who spoke out in support of the Haitian community.”
The hate group had appeared in Cincinnati during a jazz and blues festival in August where they waved swastika flags, gave speeches, and displayed guns.
The ADL describes Blood Tribe’s goals as “to normalize the swastika, usher in a resurgence of Nazi ideas, and ultimately build a white enthnostate occupied, controlled, and led by ‘Aryans.’
As a group, Blood Tribe subscribes to common white supremacist beliefs — white people are superior, stronger — with a heavy neo-Nazi emphasis, and a significant Odinist slant.”
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Australia on Thursday, law enforcement arrested and charged two men — Craig Elston, 51, and Charles Cameron, 44 — for displaying a Nazi flag, a crime in Australia.
Elston allegedly removed the flag from a backpack and showed it in public before his friend Cameron took a photograph of it.
Elliot Rowe, Cameron’s lawyer, told the court that his client “is a person of outstanding character, is a retired 20-year Australian Defense Force (ADF) veteran who holds no antisemitic views and is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.”
Elston pleaded guilty to the crime and now faces as much as a year’s imprisonment.
New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said in response to the crime that “something has gone terribly wrong given that these incidents have become an almost daily occurrence. The antisemitism crisis did not start with the firebombing of childcare centers and cars — it started with words and symbols of hate.”
Australia has seen a wave of antisemitic incidents in recent months, with police suspecting that international actors have funded the hate crimes with cryptocurrency payments.
The post From Ohio to Australia: Neo-Nazis receive pushback, lawsuits, arrests worldwide appeared first on World Israel News.