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For a second weekend, white supremacists gather in downtown Nashville

Paige PflegerWPLN News
The group of about 20 men wore shirts that said "Whites Against Replacement" and handed out white supremacist flyers with anti-DEI framing.
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For the second weekend in a row, a white supremacist group carrying Nazi flags took to the streets of downtown Nashville.

More: Tennessee’s governor condemns white nationalist march through Nashville

The group, called the Goyim Defense League, is described by the Anti-Defamation League as a loose network of antisemites and white supremacists who are best known for their “antisemitic stunts and schemes to troll or otherwise harass Jewish people.”

Paige Pfleger WPLN News

The group waved Nazi flags in downtown Nashville on Sunday afternoon.

Standing at the corner of Lower Broadway and 3rd Avenue, the group of about 20 men wore shirts that said “Whites Against Replacement” and handed out flyers that say, “Diversity means fewer white people. Inclusion means exclusion of white people. Equity means stealing from white people.” They chanted “Sieg Heil” and did the Nazi salute.

Two men were arrested after a related altercation Sunday night. One was Ryan Scott McCann, of Ontario, Canada, who was charged with felony aggravated assault for beating a local bartender with a nazi flag. According to MNPD, McCann is part of the Neo-Nazi group and was seen hitting bartender Deago Buck in the face and ribs with the flagpole. Buck was also arrested on misdemeanor charges.

Chief John Drake condemned the hate being spread by the group.

Last weekend, members of white supremacist group Patriot Front marched downtown carrying Confederate flags and also chanting.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee joined Democratic officials in condemning the demonstrations last week.

“I think we’ve seen anti-Semitism rise up all across this country, unfortunately and sadly,” the governor said Monday. “We should stand against it at every time and every place.”

Earlier in February, a group carried flags with swastikas around the capitol. But Sunday’s demonstrations shows a marked public uptick in activity from hate groups in Nashville. As of 2021, there were 28 active hate groups in Tennessee, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

This post was updated Monday with additional information from MNPD. 

Paige Pfleger, Criminal Justice Reporter

Paige Pfleger covers criminal justice for WPLN News. She has investigated guns and juvenile justice as a fellow with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network, and her investigation into domestic violence and firearms dispossession won a regional Edward R. Murrow award and was a finalist for an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and a Livingston Award. She previously covered criminal justice and addiction in Ohio and was named the state's reporter of the year by the Associated Press. Her work has appeared nationally on NPR, The Washington Post, Marketplace, and PRI's The World, and she has worked in the newsrooms of The Tennessean, Michigan Radio, WHYY, Vox and NPR headquarters in DC.

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