NOTE: I will expand a bit on the NSM's Columbus City Hall event later this week in this same article. (All photos by the author)The National Socialist Movement (NSM) paid Columbus a visit on September 23. 45-50 Nazis, skinheads, Klansmen and assorted hangers-on converged on City Hall Plaza to spread their peculiar brand of “patriotism” and "Christianity" to the masses. But the only masses they encountered were 50 local protesters. and about 75 Columbus City Police, diverted from the OSU-Penn State game, to keep Nazis and Cowtowners separated by chain link fences, a cordon of riot-geared troops, and the mounted patrol.
Advertised ostensibly as an“anti-immigration,” demonstration, Nazi speakers left no cowpie unhurled, attacking Hispanic immigrants (legal and illegal), blacks (“niggers“ and “tarbabies),“ Jews (they own the media) , and “homosexuals,” a word that slithered off the collective tongue like snake oil running through a tent meeting. A Lady Nazi, paused during her soliloquy on Hispanic kidnappers, rapists and pedophiles to complain that American men who don’t open doors for women anymore. All of this was met by a din of drummers and protestors shouting “Nazi douche bags,” and “Fuehrer fuckers.” During “Sieg Heil” moments, protestors responded with “Seek Help! Seek Help!” When two Nazis ripped up an Israeli flag a man in the protest pen responded by waving a strip of a NSM flag he’d ripped off from the Nazis earlier.
The NSM bills itself as the largest neo-Nazi organization in the US. Founded in 1974 by remnants of George Lincoln Rockwell’s storm troopers, today it attracts a younger crowd of skinheads and unrepentant Hitler worshippers. Unlike its chief rival, the National Alliance, NSM has no problem working with Klans and other white power groups. Speakers urged cooperation among racist organizations to meet the goal of a white America.NSM, located in Minnesota, says it has Ohio units operating in Covington, Fremont, Kenton/Lima, Lewisburg, and Cincinnati but many on the city hall steps appeared to be from out of state. NSM’s October 15, 2005 rally in Toledo created a rock-throwing melee that ended in looting, vandalism, and the burning of a neighborhood bar.
NSM's “25 Points of American National Socialism” is an amalgam of racism, anti-capitalism, universal healthcare, living wage, and the nationalization of anything that can’t be nailed down. Only those with “pure White blood” need apply. Warning that NSM and its Klan friends intend to elect members to public office, speakers promised the Bush administration, “If you don’t do your job, we’ll do it for you.”I was unable to attend the NSM post-event "press conference" on the other side of town, but it appeared that most of the press was going elsewhere anyway. I also missed the meet and greet later in the day which NSM described as a bonfire and barbeque.
PICTURES
I took over 100 pictures, mostly from inside the press pen. Unfortunately, the chain link fence distorted the view for many of them.
A patriot.
Drumming the Devil out of town
A few horses
Protest pen
Inside the protest pen
Lady Nazis: It's the immigrants' fault! Men won't open doors for us.
Sieg Heil!--Seek Help!
The cordon
Fashionistas
FLA: Future Legislators of America
Ripping up the Israeli flag
Packing it in
BYE BYE!
