Over the weekend, neo-Nazi organizations rallied around Orlando, Florida, chanting antisemitic and racist rhetoric and trashing LGBTQ Pride banners.
Videos posted online on Saturday went viral and showed Neo-Nazi gangs marching through north Orlando while carrying swastika flags and chanting “Heil Hitler” and “We are everywhere.”
Members of the Order of the Black Sun, a local Florida neo-Nazi network, were seen performing the Nazi salute and ripping up pride banners outside Disney World before the march through the streets of Orlando. Since Disney joined the political war with DeSantis over his controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law, the theme park has been a target of hate organizations.
One video was published by Florida representative Anna V. Eskamani, who ominously said it was more evidence of the far-right extremism developing in Florida. It showed a group walking near the town’s central Cranes Roost Park.
The far-right activist and one-time Congressional candidate Laura Loomer also posted a video of the Orlando demonstrations, in which she claims members of the Goyim Defense League (a hate group) yelled antisemitic obscenities at her.
The video featured prominent white nationalist Jon Minadeo and the head of the Neo-Nazi Blood Tribe, Christopher Pohlhaus.
Pohlhaus, a member of the far-right all-volunteer military organization Azov Battalion, was featured in a video saying he would vote for Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024 because he supports Ukraine, while another group endorsed Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The event was reminiscent of a June rally for DeSantis when hate groups converged on the theme park brandishing Nazi flags and placards.
The Anti-Defamation League had reported that Neo-Nazi organizations in Florida were preparing a protest during the Labor Day weekend.
This week’s Neo-Nazi rallies in Florida follow the racially motivated shooting deaths of three African-Americans at a Dollar General store in a black section of Jacksonville by 21-year-old Ryan Palmeter.
Officials say Palmeter had firearms marked with swastikas and left “many manifestos” describing his hate of black people.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has issued formal travel advice against visiting Florida.
