Members of neo-Nazi groups, flaunting swastikas and other hate symbols and shouting antisemitic slogans, marched near Disney Springs and at a park in Altamonte Springs over Labor Day weekend, drawing widespread condemnation.
Meanwhile, police in New Smryna Beach said Tuesday they’re investigating the distribution of antisemitic flyers in a residential neighborhood on Monday night.
A group of about 15 people was spotted about 10:40 a.m. Saturday toting flags and clothes with Nazi insignia near Hotel Plaza Boulevard and East Buena Vista Drive in Orange County, the Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
In a statement sent by OCSO spokesperson Michelle Guido, the agency said the demonstration lasted about two hours. No one was arrested.
“We know these groups demonstrate in high profile areas in order to agitate and incite people with anti-Semitic symbols and slurs,” the statement said. “The Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplores hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate. What these groups do is revolting and condemned in the strongest way by Sheriff Mina and the Sheriff’s Office. They are looking for attention, and specifically media attention.”
Neo-Nazis were also spotted Saturday at Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Springs, where they marched from the Sanlando Park area of Seminole County, Altamonte Springs Police Department Senior Police Officer Deana DiPaola said in a statement.
“Our police officers were ready and available to respond appropriately to any potential public safety threat while also being mindful of constitutional freedom of speech,” DiPaola said, describing those who demonstrated as members of a national neo-Nazi group, many of whom were believed to have traveled from out of state.
“Although the message was disturbing, no actions rose to the level of arrest,” she said.
“Racism and hatred do not belong in any community,” Mayor Pat Bates said in a statement. “… Altamonte Springs is strong, vibrant, and diverse, and hate-filled language won’t change that. Their hate speech may be protected but it is absolutely revolting.”
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, shared a video on social media showing the group at Cranes Roost Park, clad in red shirts and carrying black flags bearing swastikas, marching through the park while chanting, “We are everywhere.”
“[A]bsolutely disgusting stuff and another example of the far right extremism growing in FL,” she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In a statement, Sarah Emmons, the Florida regional director for the ADL, which tracks incidents of antisemitism, said the organization was “deeply outraged by the two extremist demonstrations in the Orlando area.”
Emmons in a statement noted the demonstrations come soon after a white gunman fatally shot three Black people in Jacksonville, using weapons that authorities said had swastikas drawn on them.
“We call on public officials at the federal, state, and local levels to stand up and clearly denounce this hateful activity,” Emmons said. “We cannot allow for hate and extremist beliefs to become normalized in our society.”
Appalling to see Nazi flags and such raw displays of #antisemitism and #racism in Florida yesterday, only one week after the fatal hate crime in Jacksonville. Elected leaders on both sides should denounce this activity and stop the normalization of hate. https://t.co/0o4TvcnX05
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) September 3, 2023
Symbols on the demonstrators’ attire indicated they were affiliated with the so-called “Blood Tribe” and the “Goyim Defense League,” a pair of known neo-Nazi groups that often participate in disruptive demonstrations.
The ADL describes the Blood Tribe as “a neo-Nazi group with semi-autonomous chapters in the United States and Canada,” formed online in 2021, that “promotes hardline white supremacist views and openly directs its vitriol at Jews, ‘non-whites’ and the LGBTQ+ community.”
The Goyim Defense League, whose founder, Jon Minadeo II, reportedly relocated last year from California to Florida, is described by ADL as “a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism” with thousands of online followers, who operate a video platform that streams antisemitic content.
“GDL espouses vitriolic antisemitism and white supremacist themes via the internet, through propaganda distributions and in street actions,” the ADL’s online dossier on the group states.
In New Smyrna Beach, police said officers were called to a neighborhood near State Road 44 and Interstate 95 about 9 p.m. Monday after a report of antisemitic flyers being distributed.
The hate messages, thrown by an unidentified man in a vehicle, were inside plastic bags with an unidentified substance, Deputy Chief of Police Chris Kirk said in a statement. Detectives are reviewing video and working to identify the man, he said.
“The city of New Smyrna Beach will not tolerate hateful rhetoric or acts of any kind and, as such, is conducting a criminal investigation of this incident,” Kirk said.
The long weekend’s hateful incidents come as experts report a rise in extremism in Florida.
It’s also far from the first time in recent years that the Orlando area has been visited by neo-Nazi demonstrators.
A dozen demonstrators, including many waving swastikas and some hoisting signs promoting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, gathered outside the entrance to Walt Disney World Resort in June.
Officials denounce Nazi demonstration outside Disney amid rising antisemitism in Florida
An investigative researcher at the ADL’s Center of Extremism at the time identified the group behind that gathering as a relatively new group known as the Order of the Black Sun. The June incident may have been its first in-person demonstration.
In January 2022, a group waving Nazi flags, saluting and shouting at passing cars near Waterford Lakes Town Center in east Orange County drew viral attention and got into at least one fight in the roadway in front of the shopping plaza.
That demonstration was organized by the National Socialist Movement, a decades-old neo-Nazi group. Three members of the group, including its Kissimmeee-based leader, Burt Colucci, were later arrested. Colucci is scheduled to stand trial later this month on a charge of battery evidencing prejudice.
Another NSM defendant, Josua Terrell of Indiana, pleaded no contest to that charge in March and was sentenced to 120 days in jail, less 76 he had already served. Prosecutors opted against pursuing a grand theft charge against the third arrestee, Jason Brown of Cape Canaveral.
