White nationalist Patriot Front group heckled after trying to join anti-abortion march
‘You’re hijacking a pro-life movement! Who the hell do you guys think you are?’ one marcher yelled at the white supremacists
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Your support makes all the difference.Members of the far-right group Patriot Front tried to join an anti-abortion march in Chicago, but were met with a chilly reception.
Dozens of men from the white nationalist group, dressed in their trademark khakis and masks, were caught on video amassing near the anti-abortion March for Life protest on Saturday. They appeared to be offering their support, carrying shields, upside-down American flags, and a banner reading “Strong Families Make Strong Nations.”
The March for Life protesters weren’t interested.
“You’re hijacking a pro-life movement!” one marcher yelled at the white supremacists. “Who the hell do you guys think you are?”
“ You guys are an embarrassment!” another shouted. “Put the shields down!”
“You’re a bunch of f***ing clowns who never grew up!” a third marcher opined.
The Patriot Front members appeared to take the abuse stoically, standing in place. If they responded, their words were not audible in the videos.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Patriot Front is a “white nationalist hate group” that evolved out of an earlier group called Vanguard America. That group splintered in 2017 after one of its members, James Alex Fields, fatally drove over a counter-protester during the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Patriot Front is an image-obsessed organization that rehabilitated the explicitly fascist agenda of Vanguard America with garish patriotism,” the SPLC says. “Patriot Front focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism that can be easily distributed as propaganda for its chapters across the country.”
The group believes in an explicitly racist ideology, denying the citizenship of non-white Americans.
“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 group’s manifesto says. “He is, as he likely prefers to be labelled, an African in America. The same rule applies to others who are not of the founding stock of our people as well as to those who do not share the common unconscious that permeates throughout our greater civilization, and the European diaspora.”
On Saturday, March for Life participants flatly rejected this group’s support.
“Don’t turn this into a mess!” one marcher shouted.
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