CONCORD, NH – A group of masked protesters carrying black flags bearing white swastikas joined a planned protest at the New Hampshire State House on Saturday.
According to reporting by the Concord Monitor, the protesters were dressed in red shirts and black pants, and they held up a sign that read “Trump loves Epstein,” as they marched the length of Main Street and later engaged in an altercation with a passerby.
The word Blutstamm was written on the back of their matching red shirts, the German translation of “Blood Tribe,” and according to the Monitor, Christopher Pohlhaus, the group’s founder, was spotted among the demonstrators. Blood Tribe has been identified as a white supremacist organization interested in creating an all-white “ethnostate.”
They are the same group that is being sued by the city of Springfield, Ohio, related to their activity in that city last year regarding the local immigrant community that led to bomb threats and a reference by Trump during a televised debate that in Springfield “…they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Gov. Kelly Ayotte on Sunday told Ink Link News following a request for comment, “There is no place for hate groups or their repugnant and disgusting ideology in New Hampshire.”
Concord police is seeking information from anyone who witnessed the altercation reported Saturday between the counter-protesters and a bystander. The NH Attorney General’s office confirmed that The New Hampshire Department of Justice Civil Rights Unit “is also aware and “actively monitoring” the police department’s ongoing investigation.
In response to the demonstration, 50501_NH organizers released a statement Saturday denouncing the counter-protesters, which is below:
On Sunday the NH Democratic Party released a statement through party Chairman Ray Buckley, which read:
“The Nazi demonstration outside the State House yesterday was a hateful display of racism. This act of intimidation stands in direct opposition to the values that this nation and state are built on. In the ‘Live Free or Die’ state, we stand for freedom grounded in mutual respect and the belief that no one should live in fear for who they are. We will continue to fight for a Granite State that protects dignity and respect for all.”