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- Both Mayor Craig Greenberg and the NAACP condemned the Patriot Front march, calling it hateful and unacceptable.
- The Patriot Front march featured Confederate and Three Percenter flags, riot shields, and masked members shielding their faces.
- In Louisville the group likely violated ordinances, including a 1983 mask ban, prompting citizen confusion over enforcement.
- Raymond Burse and the NAACP asked businesses, organizations, and officials to publicly condemn the march and unite the community.
Among the many, many downsides of Donald Trump’s second term is white supremacists getting way too comfortable with letting their racist flag fly. Members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front felt the Fourth of July weekend was perfect for marching through downtown Louisville.
According to WAVE, both Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg and the NAACP swiftly spoke out against the Patriot Front march on Sunday. “Words are not strong enough. For decades, the NAACP has been dedicated to fighting against racial hatred and division fomented by groups like this,” Raymond Burse, president of the Louisville NAACP, said on Sunday. “It’s unfortunate that this group felt comfortable enough to display its venom and ignorance on a Louisville city street. It will never be tolerated.”
Mayor Greenberg condemned the march in a social media post on Saturday. “Earlier today, a white supremacist group briefly marched downtown. I strongly condemn this group, their message and their activity. While the rest of our city is celebrating our country’s freedoms this weekend, they are focused on hate and have no place in our city or anywhere else,” Greenberg wrote.
Patriot Front is a white supremacist organization that formed after the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally in 2017. A cursory look at their manifesto reveals such gems like “An African, for example, may have lived, worked, and even been classed as a citizen in America for centuries, yet he is not American…The same rule applies to others who are not of the founding stock of our people.”
Wow, they totally don’t sound like every other weirdo white boy with internet access, poor social skills, and way too much time on their hands.
Patriot Front’s Louisville march had men waving Confederate flags, Three Percenter flags, and carrying riot shields. While they were bold enough to go out marching, they drew the line at showing their faces, as video of the march reveals all the Patriot Front members wore masks and sunglasses.
It’s moves like that that go to show how weak these men really are. If you want to really show off how tough you are, take the mask off and stand 10 toes on your beliefs. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg had the same energy, telling the members of Patriot Front, “If you’re so proud of your beliefs, show your face,” during an interview with LPM News.
Patriot Front apparently violated several city ordinances during their march, including a 1983 ban on wearing masks in public. Louisville citizens voiced concern and confusion as to why the ban wasn’t enforced during the Patriot Front’s march.
“We have not been enforcing the mask ban ordinance on people that are exerting their First Amendment right, whether it’s this hateful, disgusting group or other groups that are wearing masks as well,” the mayor told LPM. “We may revisit that, but for right now we haven’t done that.”
The Louisville chapter of the NAACP called on more local businesses to speak out against the Patriot Front march. “I guess what I would ask for is for every organization, every business, every elected official in our city to make a public statement condemning what has taken place to signify that, as a community, across all those groups, we’re unified and not wanting or accepting what took place yesterday,” Burse said.
Patriot Front has conducted several similar marches over the last few years in cities across the country. Earlier this year, a judge ordered the group to pay musician Charles Murrell III $2.7 million after they yelled racial slurs and assaulted him during a 2022 march in Boston.
Patriot Front wasn’t the only white nationalist group making headlines over the last week, as California police arrested another member of the transnational white nationalist group “Terrorgram Collective” for doxxing several federal officials in order to solicit their deaths.
This all comes in the wake of the Southern Poverty Law Center revealing hate groups have actually gone down over the last year. This should be good news, but who are we kidding? This is America we’re talking about. Of course, the only reason hate groups have gone down is due to white nationalist beliefs becoming so normalized in the mainstream, it’s removed any need for them to organize.
Oh, America. Never stop doing you. (But seriously, for the love of all that is holy, please stop doing you. I am so, so tired.)
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