A white supremacist group from Texas marched through DC on July 4. Here's what to know

[LetMyPeopleVote]

I am disappointed but NOT surprised that the assholes who marched in DC were from Texas.

Link to tweet

A Texas-based white supremacist group staged what appeared to be its largest public demonstration to date over the Fourth of July weekend, marching through Washington, D.C., in a brief, coordinated display before dispersing before noon Saturday.

The Anti-Defamation League said masked members of Patriot Front marched Saturday through the nation’s capital in what it described as a “flash demonstration” timed to the country’s 250th Independence Day celebrations. Videos shared on social media show the group marching in formation while chanting “Reclaim America.”

The ADL estimated Patriot Front's previous largest public demonstration drew about 200 participants but said this weekend's march appeared to be substantially larger.

According to the ADL, Patriot Front carefully plans its demonstrations to attract attention while limiting counterprotests, avoiding law enforcement intervention and controlling the group's online messaging.

Texas has a number of hate groups and sundown jurisdictions (places where any non-whites need to be out of before sunset). I am still disappointed and sad at this.

[SSJVegeta]

1. You could already tell not everybody there is white

...who's gonna tell them?

[ThreeNoSeep]

2. No sundown towns by formal ordinance remain but

There are some communities with racist concentrations that are effectively the same thing, just enforced by community consensus and cops turning a blind eye to vigilantes or enforcing DWB situations.

[walkingman]

3. This is not new, as the Texas Tribune reported in 2023....

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/21/texas-hate-crimes-extremists/

Extremists have turned Texas into a hotbed for hate, report finds

The report blames an “alarming rise in extremist ideology and activity” on white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups that are active or headquartered in Texas.

The report specifically noted the presence of white supremacist groups such as Patriot Front, which is based in the Dallas area and has repeatedly marched in major cities across the country, including this summer in Austin. Patriot Front was founded by Texas resident Thomas Rousseau after 2017’s deadly neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was responsible for roughly 80% of all white supremacist propaganda incidents nationwide last year. The group also was present at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Waco this year, and 31 of its members were arrested near a 2022 Idaho Pride event on conspiracy to riot charges.

This follows years of warnings that extremist groups have been emboldened by the Republican Party and its amplification of things such as “great replacement theory,” a white supremacist conspiracy theory that claims there is an intentional, Jewish-driven effort to destroy white people through immigration, interracial marriage and the LGBTQ+ community.

That conspiracy theory — and corresponding violence — has been bolstered by frequent depictions of immigrants as “invaders” by major figures such as Tucker Carlson and Gov. Greg Abbott. Before he set fire to an Austin synagogue on Halloween 2020, Franklin Barret Sechriest wrote in his diary that “no invader is innocent.” And, after a gunman, hoping to fight the “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” killed 22 people at an El Paso WalMart in 2019, Abbott vowed to stop using such language to describe immigrants. He has since resumed his use of “invasion” rhetoric.