Masked white supremacists who marched outside Philadelphia City Hall over the Fourth of July weekend ran away when pedestrians confronted them, using smoke bombs to obscure their retreat, authorities said Monday.
About 200 members of the group Patriot Front descended on the city’s downtown Saturday night chanting “reclaim America” and saying the presidential election had been stolen, Philadelphia police spokeswoman Tanya Little said.
Video published by NBC Philadelphia shows dozens of people in khaki pants, blue shirts and white masks carrying U.S. flags and shields.
In the video, people following the group can be heard yelling at the marchers and taunting them. At one point, one of the onlookers pushes a member of the group.
Police Officer Michael Crum told WPVI-TV that Patriot Front members felt threatened and “literally ran away from the people of Philadelphia.”
As they did, Little said, they threw what appeared to smoke bombs “to cover their retreat as they fled.”
The group did not respond to a request for comment. Little said there were no arrests, injuries or reports of damage.
The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors hate groups, described Patriot Front as white supremacists who “maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it solely to them.”
In its manifesto, the group calls for a white ethnostate, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which also tracks hate groups. Patriot Front was established after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, the center said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
