Summary

A group displaying swastika flags on an I-75 overpass in Evendale, Ohio, was confronted by local residents, leading to tensions and a heavy police presence.

Residents pushed past police, seized a flag, and forced the demonstrators to retreat into a U-Haul truck.

Officials, including Cincinnati’s mayor and Hamilton County’s sheriff, condemned the demonstration.

The Jewish Federation and NAACP also spoke out, questioning where the demonstrators came from. The NAACP suggested the current administration’s policies may have emboldened the group.

No arrests were made.

  • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    Swastikas on an overpass in 2025—the audacity of irrelevance. A group of historical reenactors clinging to symbols of failure, only to be chased off by locals with more backbone than the entire justice system. No arrests? Predictable. Hate groups operate with impunity while law enforcement plays referee.

    ”Hate will never prevail,” but it sure gets a free pass when wrapped in a flag and parked in a U-Haul. The NAACP is right—this isn’t random; it’s the byproduct of policies that embolden the worst among us.

    Good on Evendale’s residents. If the authorities won’t act, the people will. Let them retreat into their truck of shame—the future doesn’t belong to cowards with banners of extinction.

    • yabai@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      I don’t think arrests should be made. Our first amendment guarantees the right to free speech and demonstration, and that includes things we don’t necessarily like. Counter protests, identifying the Nazis, and naming and shaming are all fair game however.

      • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works
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        1 hour ago

        Free speech isn’t a shield for moral cowardice. Sure, the First Amendment protects their right to spew garbage, but it doesn’t absolve society from holding them accountable. Counter-protests and public shaming are the bare minimum—this isn’t just a “disagreement” over zoning laws; it’s hate with historical blood on its hands.

        Letting them parade their insignias of failure without consequence only normalizes their rot. The law may not act, but communities can. Naming them is fine, but what about dismantling the systems that let them thrive in the first place? Shaming isn’t enough if the soil remains fertile for their return.

        The future belongs to those willing to fight for it—not just with words, but by uprooting the weeds entirely.

    • rocket_dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      I worked in Evendale about a year. It’s a very white area, not particularly progressive, I’m sure the Nazi shitlords thought they were going to be safer and more tolerated.

      Good on Evendale.

    • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
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      34 minutes ago

      As a kid I was conflicted with the act of making symbols or such things illegal, like @[email protected] said above it’s all protected so I’m not sure what people wanted arrests for since it wouldn’t hold and it’s another victim complex for the poor white nationalist to hold or gives cops more leeway for future incidents.

      Now as an adult who’s lived most of his life in the southern states of America, we really fucked up the Reconstruction Era after the civil war. Things like banning the symbols of hatred drastically reduces the influence it has on vulnerable populace.

      Instead, those same sadistic leaders who used humans for fodder got to stay in control and continue spreading their influence and corrupting greed in their domain. These are literal breeding grounds with school age children flying flags of enemy armies that sought to enslave and conquer the country.

      Ban it, ban it all to make a statement that “Yes, this shit is unacceptable for a human society”.

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 hours ago

    You know what’d be hilarious? Start referring to all of these nazis and far right extremists and red hats as Fags. My how it would piss them off like no other.

    • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Aren’t nazis like literally the enemy? They were eradicated after WWII, they never stopped being the enemy. As soon as they’re back, it should be open season. Cmon America, use that military budget of yours.

      • rocket_dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 hours ago

        Well, for too many white Americans, especially the ones in power right now, “America” should stand for a white ethno-state, so they see Nazis as allies who have the same ideals.

        This isn’t new either, Nazis took inspiration from American segregation and Jim Crow laws.

      • Noxy@pawb.social
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        7 hours ago

        I regret to inform you of Operation Paperclip. The USA hiring Nazi scientists as soon as they could manage after WW2 is unfortunately how “we” got to the moon

  • Emberleaf@lemmy.ml
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    14 hours ago

    Sure, you have a right to Free Speech - you can say whatever you like. I also have the right to not do business with you, to not hire you, to remember your face and call you out on the street and let eeeeeeveryone in my neighborhood know who you are and what you do, and to not allow you to use my online services.

  • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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    17 hours ago

    Fun tip. All u-hauls have a padlock hasp on the back door. The rental truck trick is a known method of white supremacist groups for these cute little pop-up hate experiences.

    It is perfectly fine to carry a small padlock around at all times, too.

    • Thteven@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      It’s also perfectly legal to carry a length of cloth and a lighter. You know, just in case.

    • GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      15 hours ago

      And after you’ve expended your anti-nazi padlock, if said uhaul just magically burst into flames…

      Something something nothing of value something

      • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        Ya I carry around a couple Molotov cocktails to help speed up the spontaneous combustion of fascist and their property.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    13 hours ago

    The swastika is like brandishing a sword and should be banned from all public use except museums.

  • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    “No arrests were made”

    Because half the people in the U-Haul were probably co-workers.

    It baffles me that in this day in 2025, with hundreds of data points being reported hourly, that we can’t look at the obvious preferential treatment fascists get from their cop buddies. Had that been a Free Palestine protest and some racist nutjob showed up to harrass them, the cops would have cleared the bridge and arrested a handful of the protestors, MAYBE one of the nutjobs IF they were REALLY pushing it. Then they’d find a reason why that bridge can’t be used for protesting, release the nutjob with a “stern” warning and rake all the protestors across the coals with any minor “disturbing the peace” type charges so they have a record for next time.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      17 hours ago

      You might be thinking about this in a slightly wrong way.

      “The protest was occurring on sidewalks designed for pedestrian travel. The protest, while very offensive, was not unlawful,” a press release from the Evendale Police Department said. “The protest was short lived in duration. The protesters left the area on their own. No further action was taken by the Evendale Police Department.”

      However, several upstanding citizens interfered:

      Eley said they eventually made it past police and someone snatched a flag from one of the demonstrators.

      “The Nazis began to back off,” Eley said. “They quickly jumped in the back of a U-Haul truck and took off.”

      A woman brought out lighter fluid to burn the flag, and he joined in with others stepping and spitting on the flag, said Eley, who was a Boy Scout.

      “General flag disrespect: it’s a flag that deserves disrespect,” Eley said.

      Resisters got past police, took property, set it on fire, and weren’t arrested.

      That’s a good thing.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    Just to be clear here, no arrests were made because they were exercising their first amendment right the Americans are so proud of.

    They displayed their message on public ground (the sidewalk) and were otherwise peaceful. Do I hate their message? Hell yeah I do, but unless the US realizes that free speech should have its limits then what they did was lawful.

    In opposition, what the other people did was unlawful AND THEY WEREN’T ARRESTED FOR IT! The police actually did a good job here!

    • Arcka@midwest.social
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      10 hours ago

      Agreed (mostly).

      Just because something isn’t illegal, that doesn’t make it morally right. The inverse also applies.

      Even though the First Amendment prohibits government suppression of speech, it doesn’t mean that the expression is immune to consequences from society including non-governmental suppression.

      I think the “no arrests were made” observation was meant in relation to your last point, not the first at all.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        9 hours ago

        Never said it was morally right but what is lawful isn’t necessarily moral and the cops are there to prevent things that are against the law.

        I don’t think we want a moral police to become a thing…

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Hate speech, fighting words, and word that cause dangerous situations, (think yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater) are specifically not covered by the US version of Freedom of Speech.

      No arrests were made because the thugs with badges don’t arrest their coworkers.

          • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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            14 hours ago

            It’s a different thing, I’m talking about hate speech specifically

            You can do hate speech as much as you want in the US, if you threaten someone with violence or incite people to be violent with others it’s something else and so is causing a panic by screaming “FIRE!” in a theater when there’s no fire.

            Three different things, one of them is legal and is what was done by the Nazis in that article.

            • rocket_dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 hours ago

              The end goal of hate speech is violence, what’s special about the US is that violence targeted specifically against marginalized groups is condoned if not encouraged.

              So yes, hate speech that threatens violence against a marginalized group is legal in the US. I.E. Nazis.

              • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                3 hours ago

                Yea but not really though…

                You can say “I hate Nazis” and that’s hate speech (as stupid as that might sound), but it doesn’t mean “I want to hurt/kill Nazis”, the intention behind the message isn’t stated therefore the message is lawful.

            • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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              14 hours ago

              I understood what you were saying. I get the technicality. I was venting that the technicality is bullshit when there is already a precedent that kinda says the opposite.

  • carl_dungeon@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Oh was Elon in town? They should be careful, he might shut down their local hospital and put a high schooler in charge.