Bodycam footage shows that neo-Nazis did not find the short north very inviting

Neo-Nazis march through the Short North Earlier this month, they didn’t get the warm welcome they expected.

The Columbus Division of Police recently released body camera footage capturing the moments before and after their demonstration. The march, which included racist and anti-Semitic slurs, was condemned by local and national leaders.

Footage shows officers arresting 11 masked people near a Short North residence following reports of an alleged assault during their march. One of the men, identified by CPD as Anthony James Altick of Louisiana, identified himself as the leader of the group and was driving a U-Haul van while the other members sat in the back.

In the first encounter, the group, identified in a police report as “Hate Club 1844,” was stopped by police on a residential street in the Short North.

The group sat on a low wall in someone’s front yard and appeared frustrated that police had stopped them in the first place.

The officer asked them why they chose the Short North, and Altick admitted they weren’t from the area and didn’t give a specific reason why they decided to march there.

Altick, who initially refused to provide his ID, told the officer that they were simply exercising their First Amendment rights and yelled racist and anti-Semitic slurs at passersby as people “attacked” them.

An unidentified member of the group finally stood up and declared, “Now that things have de-escalated, we’re leaving.” He began to walk away, and the others followed, their swastika flags hanging limply behind them.

Shortly thereafter, police stopped the group in a rented U-van after a video showed a Neo-Nazi member pepper-spraying a crowd outside the Oddfellows Liquor Bar at 1038 N. High Street in the Short North.

A member of the group admitted to using pepper spray on a group of people they described as “big black men” who they claimed were approaching them.

Altick, who has been linked to other hate incidents, was arrested in Orlando last year for allegedly hanging anti-Semitic banners on a city bridge. He is currently being charged in this case in Florida and is represented by Augustus Invictus, a right-wing attorney who spoke at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

No charges have been filed against the group in connection with the Columbus March, but police say the investigation is ongoing. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein’s office said it is prepared to prosecute any charges filed by police.