WASHINGTON, July 4 (Reuters) – On Saturday, hundreds of masked members from the white nationalist group Patriot Front marched through sections of Washington, D.C., ahead of the Independence Day celebrations planned for the evening, which have been criticized as divisive.
The group announced on social media that about 400 of its members had arrived in the capital. Reuters photographers witnessed hundreds of individuals in Patriot Front attire commuting on D.C. Metro trains.
Various social media posts and Patriot Front‘s Telegram channel featured videos of the group marching near the U.S. Capitol and Union Station, accompanied by drummers. They wore khaki pants, caps, blue shirts, white face masks, and sunglasses, carrying the group’s flag, Confederate flags, and versions of the U.S. flag, often chanting “Reclaim America.”
Around midday, members boarded Metro trains and disembarked at New Carrollton, Maryland, located in Washington’s northeast suburbs.
The Metropolitan Police Department of Washington is monitoring the Patriot Front‘s “First Amendment” activities, according to a spokesperson. There have been no reports of arrests, complaints, or calls for assistance related to the march.
The spokesperson said, “MPD recognizes the rights of individuals to peacefully express their views and remains committed to maintaining public safety and security for DC residents and visitors.”
Patriot Front, distinguished by its uniforms, face coverings, and flash-mob-style demonstrations, was established in 2017 following the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. It broke away from the Vanguard America white supremacist group, which was central to that protest, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A manifesto on Patriot Front‘s website declares, “Democracy has failed this once great nation,” advocating for a “hard reset” to return to the “traditions and virtues of our forefathers,” identified as European settlers.
Patriot Front attempts to present itself as mainstream while promoting “white supremacist and anti-immigrant ideological belief systems,” according to John Cohen, who has held various roles in counterterrorism and intelligence within the Homeland Security Department during the Obama and Biden administrations.
Cohen stated, “The fact that they feel empowered to engage in public demonstrations during Independence Day and other national holiday events provides a stark illustration of the issues this country is dealing with at this time as it relates to white supremacy.”
Luke Baumgartner, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, noted that while the group’s symbolism tries to evoke patriotism with the red, white, and blue colors of the U.S. flag, its logo uses iconography similar to the “fascio” logo of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party from Italy in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s.
“At the root, they are indeed a white supremacist organization that is basically campaigning through these public appearances, whether they are flash marches, flyering events, protests, banner drops over highways, trying to spread this message that America is a country by and for white people only,” Baumgartner said.
(Reporting by David Lawder and Jana Winter; Editing by Sergio Non, Rod Nickel and Franklin Paul)
