Neo-Nazis, opponents rally in Valley Forge
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (AP) – About 100 neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan supporters shouted white supremacist slogans from an amphitheater stage at Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday, while twice as many counter-demonstrators heckled back from a nearby hillside. Jeff Schoep, 30, of Minneapolis, commander of the National Socialist Movement, launched the rally with an attack on Jews, who he said planned “the destruction of all races through the evils of race mixing.”
Speaker after speaker repeated the theme, with many attacking the war in Iraq as “Israel’s war.”
“For 40 years, Israel has sought to get American forces on the ground in the Middle East,” said Clifford Herrington, a former NSM chairman.
The speeches were punctuated with shouts of “White power!” and “Sieg heil!” from the mostly male participants, many of whom wore brown shirts and swastikas.
Counter-demonstrators, in a cordoned-off area several hundred feet away, returned shouts of “Bull!” and waved placards with slogans such as, “Get out of our melting pot.”
Noah Osner, 25, of Newark, Del., said he joined the counter-protest to show there are people willing to stand up against racism. “I think hate begets hate. I think it’s nauseating. I think it’s scary to see such a volume of hate in one small area,” said Osner, a nursing student at Delaware Technical Community College.
No members of the public were present to hear the shouted exchanges because the area had been cordoned off by federal law enforcement officers, who outnumbered both groups. Sgt. Scott Fear of the U.S. Park Police said his group had brought a helicopter, mounted police, canine units and several squads in riot gear.
The rally was held on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, but Schoep had told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that he was unaware of the holiday.
No arrests were made at the site of the rally, National Park Service spokesman Phil Sheridan said, but there was one arrest in connection with a scuffle in a parking lot.
The Minnesota-based National Socialist Movement said Washington held separatist and anti-Semitic views – a position disputed by most scholars.
Park officials said any group that can pay the $50 fee can use the park, where about 11,000 Revolutionary War soldiers commanded by George Washington camped from December 1777 to June 1778.