Harrisburg residents and elected officials, broadly speaking, are supporting equity and condemning hate this week, following a self-identified neo-Nazi group’s march past the Capitol on Saturday.
To help prevent political violence and limit the impacts of hate speech, people can participate in public life, build broad coalitions and condemn hate and violence, according to Will Fuller, the state lead for the peacebuilding organization Search for Common Ground.
He said Harrisburg is taking the right steps in response to a demonstration by roughly two dozen people chanting ‘white power’ and carrying swastika flags.
Public responses, like the pro-peace rally some Harrisburg residents hosted on Sunday, and statements by local elected leaders supporting positive values, limit the effects of extremists’ actions.
“This is a great time for people to build broad coalitions across lines of difference to reinforce that value that violence has no place in civic life,” Fuller said.
Extremist groups use public demonstrations to create propaganda material, recruit new members and attempt to intimidate people into silence, Fuller said.
That is particularly true of the group that marched on Saturday. The organization has marched or rallied at least 12 times, espousing anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ messaging, across Florida, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and now Pennsylvania since 2023, according to a political violence tracking organization called the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
WITF is not identifying the organization or its leader so as to not assist in their attention-seeking efforts.
There are far more Pennsylvanians who condemn political violence and extremism than those who support it, according to Chad Dion Lassiter, Executive Director for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
Lassiter said coalitions of civil rights and affinity groups have long been active in Harrisburg to support people across racial, ethnic, religious and other differences.
“You can assemble, but we can assemble too,” he said. “And we can tell you that hate has no place in our state.”
For people who are targeted or affected by racist or antisemitic hate speech, Lassiter encourages them to reach out to a chosen house of faith, to speak with therapists who can address trauma, or connect with local affinity groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
For people who face discrimination, Lassiter encouraged those who are comfortable to reach out to law enforcement, or to file a complaint with the state’s Human Relations Commission, which has investigatory and enforcement powers.
Public officials also play a key role in responding to demonstrations of and advocates for political violence.
Both Fuller and Lassiter said it’s important for people to reach out to their local elected leaders and ask them to both speak toward positive values and state that violence has no place in public life.
Harrisburg’s Mayor Wanda Williams and Police Commissioner Thomas Carter released a statement on the city’s Facebook page on Saturday doing just that.
“The City of Harrisburg condemns these individuals in the strongest terms. Our city is one of love and peace, and their message of hate is not welcome,” the statement says.
Both candidates in the District 10 U.S. House race also condemned racism, antisemitism and Nazism in response to an inquiry by WITF on Monday. The district includes Harrisburg, Dauphin County and significant portions of Cumberland and York counties.
But incumbent Republican Congressman Scott Perry’s statement attempted to falsely associate violent right-wing racial violence with his political opponents.
“I have long been a vocal critic of and vehemently opposed to the views and actions of the radical Left’s National Socialist Party (aka Nazis),” Perry wrote in an emailed statement. “While I acknowledge their First Amendment rights, I am disgusted by what they believe in, stand for, and exemplify — which is racism, hatred, and anti-semitism in their purest forms.”
The demonstration consisted of about two dozen men in black ski masks carrying swastika flags and chanting “White power,” and anti-immigrant slogans while marching downtown near the Capitol.
In several public statements, the leader of the group has stated his opposition to “brown immigrants,” used racial slurs, posted images stating “The Holocaust is a lie,” used homophobic slurs, advocated for sexual violence against political opponents, and otherwise stated a desire to attack political rivals.
Perry’s misrepresentation is an attempt to distance right-wing policies on reproductive health, immigration and civil rights from extremist views, according to Jeff Tischauser, a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Conservative influencers and politicians incorrectly label Nazis as left wing as a rhetorical tool to distance themselves from Nazi ideology,” Tischauser said.
Through Perry’s campaign manager Matt Beynon, WITF asked the congressman to clarify his statement, including why Perry made the false association and asking if he could provide evidence in the form of votes or prior statements on the matter.
As reported by other news outlets, Perry has shared an antisemitic meme, made comparisons between Democratic Party and Nazi policies and leadership, made comments seemingly in partial support of the “great replacement theory” which is analyzed by experts to be a tool for antisemitic and xenophobic political messaging, and said “the KKK is the military wing of the Democratic Party.”
Perry did not respond to the follow-up or address his prior statements.
In his run for reelection, Perry is facing Democratic challenger Janelle Stelson, a former TV news anchor who worked for a local station for three decades.
“The recent increase in antisemitism in Pennsylvania and across the country is cause for alarm, and action,” Stelson said in a written statement. “We must unequivocally condemn these actions and stand united against all forms of hate.”
Perry sits on the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies that monitor domestic extremism.
Analysis from the Department of Homeland Security, one of the agencies overseen by the Intelligence Committee, states that “domestic violent extremists represent one of the most persistent threats to the United States today.”
The report adds that, “Throughout 2022, [Racially Motivated Violent Extremists] driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race remained among the FBI’s highest priority threats. RMVEs continued to pose the most consistent threat of lethal and non-lethal violence against religious, cultural, and government targets.”
Read more from our partners, WITF.
