"A coalition of neo-Nazis and white nationalists suffered a setback in Tennessee Saturday when the larger of two planned rallies for the day was abruptly canceled in the face of massive local counter-protests.
The back-to-back rallies in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro were planned as the first joint event for extremist groups with racist, anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi views including the League of the South, the Traditionalist Worker’s Party, National Socialist Movement, Vanguard America and Anti-Communist Action since the August rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that resulted in a riot with dozens of injuries, one dead counter-protester and two police officers killed in a helicopter crash.
At the morning rally in Shelbyville, roughly 350 counter-protesters gathered to wait in 30 degree weather for the white supremacists to arrive. Most were local, hailing from Shelbyville or as far away as Nashville. Hundreds of police officers patrolled the area and kept the counter-protesters back about fifty yards from the designated demonstration zone. Three helicopters circled overhead. Approximately 200 protesters finally showed up at around 11:30 am, an hour and a half late.
Police had told counter-protesters that weapons, helmets and shields were not permitted, and people carrying such equipment were turned away from the rally until they had disposed of those items. But when the members of the far right and alt right arrived, many were wearing helmets and some held shields. The police did not order them to leave or confiscate those items.
For an hour and a half the white supremacists took turns speaking into a bullhorn, mostly drowned out by the chants, jeers and bullhorns of the counter-protesters.
"Make me a sandwich! Make me a sandwich!" shouted one man, wearing a T-shirt that read "White supremacists suck, Nazis swallow."
Ken Nichols, a local man in his late 20’s, wasn't pleased that the police kept him so far away."
After Charlottesville, White Supremacists Abandon Their Own Tennessee Rally
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