Ohio leaders on Saturday afternoon condemned a group of neo-Nazis marching through a part of Columbus waving flags with swastikas.
Columbus Public Safety dispatchers told CBS affiliate WBNS on Saturday that they received several 911 calls around 1:30 p.m. about a group of individuals walking in the city’s Short North.
Video sent to the station showed nearly a dozen people wearing black pants, shirts and head coverings as well as red masks covering their mouths walking down the street. Three of the people carried black flags with red swastikas.
It was not immediately clear who was in the group.
Hours after the incident, Mayor Andrew Ginther issued a statement saying the city rejected the “cowardly demonstration” and “categorically opposes hatred and intolerance.”
“We will not allow any of our neighbors to be intimidated, threatened or harmed because of who they are, how they worship and who they love,” Ginther said in his statement shared on X.
City Attorney Zach Klein said in a statement on X that those involved in the neo-Nazi march should “take your flags and the masks you hide behind and go home and never return.” Your hatred is not welcome in our city. “.
“This is not who we are, and we will not tolerate or normalize this disgusting ideology in any form,” he added.
Gov. Mike DeWine said in his own statement that those involved in the incident were “spewing vile and racist rhetoric against people of color and Jews.”
“There is no place in this state for hatred, intolerance, anti-Semitism or violence, and we must denounce them wherever we see them,” he said.
Columbus Division of Police Sgt. Joseph Albert told WNBS that no arrests had been made, although he noted that many people had been detained and then released.
Columbus, Ohio’s largest city, is located about 45 minutes from Springfield, where the Columbus Dispatch reported that neo-Nazis marched in the streets this summer as the city became the focal point of misrepresentations on Haitian immigrants in the presidential election.
