Ten people were arrested Saturday when a rally attended by a handful of neo-Nazis was met with hundreds of counter-protesters in a usually quiet Georgia town, local media reports.
Hundreds of police officers were deployed in Newnan, Georgia — around 40 miles southeast of Atlanta — ahead of the event organized by the National Socialist Movement, one of the US’s largest neo-Nazi groups.
There were fears the event could escalate into a repeat of the violence that stemmed from a white supremacist rally last August, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
However, only a few dozen far-right members showed up, among them the movement’s leader Jeff Schoep.
“We’re against illegal immigration. We’re standing up on a pro-white platform. And we’re trying to get our message out,” he says.
The event came a day after neo-Nazis in Germany, which is witnessing a revival of far-right and ultra-nationalist groups, marked Adolf Hitler’s birthday with the start of a two-day festival.
— AFP
Members of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, hold a swastika burning after a rally on April 21, 2018 in Draketown, Georgia. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)
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