White Supremacists Unfurl Anti-Immigration Banner In Fort Tryon Park

A neo-Nazi hate group held a rally in Fort Tryon park in Inwood on Saturday, waving American flags as well as flags with their organization's logo, an inverted triangle symbol from Germanic folklore. Photos show a gaggle of bigoted white men parading through the park with a large banner declaring "STOP THE INVASION, END IMMIGRATION," which they unfurled on the arched Billings Arcade. The group published photos on Twitter documenting the display, while also taking care to make sure their faces were hidden.

The group, called Identity Evropa, is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC]. The all-white group enthusiastically supports President Trump and seeks to close American borders to immigration, among other things.

According to SPLC, Identity Evropa "is at the forefront of the racist 'alt-right's' effort to recruit white, college-aged men and transform them into the fashionable new face of white nationalism. Rather than denigrating people of color, the campus-based organization focuses on raising white racial consciousness, building community based on shared racial identity and intellectualizing white supremacist ideology."

You may also recall some of them from confrontations at the Shia LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner's "He Will Not Divide Us" project at the Museum of the Moving Image shortly after Trump's inauguration in 2017. Individuals believed to be associated with the group crashed the event chanting the slogan "You Will Not Replace Us."

The Uptown Collective also reports that before the Fort Tryon rally, the group "staged a provocation down town at the Mexican consulate. Their message was clear and unequivocal. 'We will not stand by while we are replaced in the land of our forefathers-this country is ours.'"

Congressman Adriano Espaillat and other elected officials are holding a vigil tonight at Billings Field in Fort Tryon park to protest the incident.