Washington residents and visitors who walked through the city this Saturday (4) were surprised by an act of white men, their faces covered with balaclavas, who marched in military formation to the sound of a drum.
The group carried symbols linked to the Patriot Front movement, which defends racist values, such as white supremacy, and which emerged after the “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville in 2017, according to the Southern Poverly Law Center, which studies hate groups in the USA.
They left the Arlington Memorial Bridge around 4:30 pm (6:30 pm in BrasÃia), passed the Lincoln Memorial and crossed the entire National Mall, an esplanade where there are several national symbols of the country and which leads to Congress.
The line-up had about 200 members, dressed similarly: dark blue jacket and beige pants. Part of them carried metal shields and leg protections. They carried US flags, in the original version and with adaptations, such as a design with the stars at the bottom. They also featured two tracks, with the phrases “Victory or Death” and “Reclaim America” ​​(Reclaim America). They shouted these catchphrases a few times, but they marched in silence most of the time.
The scene recalled the invasion of Congress on Jan. 6, when right-wing groups and supporters of then-President Donald Trump took a similar route, crossing the Mall to the Capitol. They broke into the building and tried to change the election result by force, but they failed to reverse the Republican’s defeat. That day, there were five deaths.
This time the activists marched, surrounded by police, who escorted them along the way. Agents aboard bicycles and vehicles were around the march all the time. Activists stopped two blocks from Congress, and the group leader, who wore a cowboy hat, tried to deliver a speech with a megaphone. Part of the passersby who followed the scene began to hiss and shout slogans, such as “fascists”, “Nazis” and “shut up”, which muffled the sound of the speech.
The protesters then lit flares that gave off smoke in red and blue, causing spectators to scatter. In the midst of this, the police urged bystanders to stand back and cordoned off the area around the activists. From a distance, it was almost impossible to hear the speech, which lasted a few minutes and spoke of recovering America. The masked group posed for photos with Congress in the background and then marched back down the Mall. There was no record of incidents until early evening.
Security around Congress was tightened after the January 6 invasion. The federal government has also created more actions to combat so-called domestic terrorism. Between September 2001 and September 2011, 114 people died in the US as a result of terrorist actions linked to the far right and 107 in acts of radical Islamists, according to the New America study center. The US government defines terrorism as acts of violence generated for ideological reasons that seek to intimidate or coerce the civilian population or change government decisions.
.
