A group of masked neo-Nazis marched through the capital of Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon waving swastikas around, shouting racial slurs at onlookers, and chanting “there will be blood.”
About two dozen men wearing red shirts that identified them as members of Blood Tribe—a white supremacist group that has been trying to make a name for itself since 2021 by targeting Jews, people of color, and the LGBTQ community—took part in the march in Madison, according to local reports.
Footage from the scene showed them standing in formation to perform a Nazi salute while onlookers mostly mocked them and called them “disgusting.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that they spent about 30 minutes outside the statehouse after marching through state Capitol grounds. The group reportedly also stopped in front of a local synagogue and, among other hateful rhetoric, chanted, “Israel is not our friend.”
Christopher Pohlhaus, a founder of Blood Tribe who famously tried to set up a white supremacist haven in Maine only to sell the property once the public became aware of it and it became “too dangerous,” was also reportedly in attendance at the march.
“Madison does not want or welcome hate groups like the one that invaded our community today. I know how disturbing it was to see nazi symbols openly displayed on our streets,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said in a statement.
Rep. Lisa Subeck, a Democratic state lawmaker who is Jewish, called the demonstration “alarming.”
“Especially right now where we’ve seen a rise in antisemitic activity. I think it’s something that we should all be concerned about,” Subeck was quoted saying by the Journal.
“We’re living in very, very scary times,” Rabbi Bonnie Margulis told the news outlet. “The American Jewish community is very scared right now, as is the Muslim community and the Sikh community. … There’s no place that we feel safe.”
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