On Saturday morning, a neo-Nazi group displayed an “Aryan Youth” banner drop with Nazi symbols and anti-immigrant hate speech at 400 West Anapamu Street in Santa Barbara, California. According to KEYT News: “At approximately 11:55 a.m., one anonymous caller reported a group with a discriminatory sign, swastikas and other offensive material on display to the public driving past.”
One witness told reporters that “a separate person smashed one of the group's windshields in.” Another witness noted that two of the vehicles belonging to the neo-Nazis had Iowa state license plates. By the time local news outlets arrived, police had taken over the scene and “forced” the neo-Nazi group to leave.
The image displayed on the banner is pulled directly from a January social media post from Clockwork Crew (formally Crew 562), a Southern California based neo-Nazi “Active Club” with direct ties to the U.S. military. The banner displayed links to the group’s Telegram and Gab social media profiles. Jeff Tischauser, a senior researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told The Guardian: “Groups like the Clockwork Crew are more willing to take their hatred into public spaces and shout people down outside of synagogues and in communities they perceive as predominantly Jewish.” Last September, this same neo-Nazi group was chased out of Downtown Ventura, as reported by Abner Häuge, lead editor at Left Coast Right Watch news.
This comes after Patriot Front, another neo-Nazi group, conducted an anti-immigrant banner drop as well near the border with Mexico in San Ysidro, California
White supremacist groups are becoming more open and active when it comes to public hate demonstrations specifically in Southern California. Fortunately, communities like Ventura County and Santa Barbara County are finding ways to resist.