A group of white supremacists took to Boston’s “Freedom Trail” for a surprise march on Saturday afternoon.
Tempers flared between passers-by and a group of about 100 Patriot Front members, who wore beige khaki pants, blue shirt uniforms and white face masks while brandishing shields, according to the Boston Herald.
The group carried upside-down colonial and American flags and banners representing Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party as they marched through the heart of the city ahead of Independence Day, the newspaper said.
At one point, a skirmish broke out between several white supremacists and a black man they were mocking, according to the report.
“If you really want security, you will get it. But you can’t take anything else with you,” an unmasked member of the group reportedly told onlookers through a megaphone outside the Boston Public Library.
“Neither your home, nor your family, nor your freedom. There you will be alone with your security in a rotten world.
Boston officials quickly warned the protest.
“To the white supremacists who walked through downtown today: When we walk, we don’t hide our faces. Your hatred is as cowardly as it is disgusting, and it goes against everything Boston stands for,” tweeted Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat.
“We remember Boston’s legacy as the birthplace of freedom, we celebrate the ongoing struggle to expand those freedoms for all and ensure that Boston is a city for all,” she reportedly told Deadline.