Sacramento Neo-Nazis Pledge to 'Defend' Trump Supporters at the Republican National Convention

By teleSUR

29 June 16

Neo-Nazis involved in Sacramento's violent melee have vowed to defend Trump supporters at the upcoming Republican National Convention.

eo-nazi skinhead groups have promised to defend Donald Trump supporters at the upcoming Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month, Traditionalist Worker Party spokesman Matt Parrott told McClatchyDC on Monday.

"We're essentially just going to show up and make sure that the Donald Trump supporters are defended from the leftist thugs," Parrot told McClatchy in an exclusive interview.

Traditionalist Worker Party leader Matthew Heimbach had previously gained notoriety for assulting a young black female protester while wearing a "Make America great again" baseball cap at a Trump rally in Louisville, Kentucky, earlier this year.

Parrot’s comments take place after his organization, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist extremist group, staged a rally in Sacramento, California on Sunday, leaving 10 people injured.

The incident has fueled concerns about the potential for violent protests outside the major party conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia this summer and in the run-up to the Nov. 8 presidential election.

“I think everybody is concerned about the potential for violence at the convention,” said Ryan Lenz, senior writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center told McClatchy.

The melee comes about four months after four people were stabbed during a scuffle between members of the Ku Klux Klan and counter-protesters near a KKK rally in Anaheim, California.

In recent months Trump has blamed "professional agitators" and "thugs" for violence that has broken out at many of the Republican candidate's rallies.

According to a report released by the SPLC in March, the number of hate groups operating in 2015 was 14 percent higher than in 2014.

In its "Intelligence Report," the Southern Poverty Law Center hinted at a possible correlation between the recent rise in extremism and the campaign rhetoric of presidential candidates like Donald Trump.

The report falls short of holding Trump directly responsible for the recent surge in hate groups, but says that his “demonizing statements about Latinos and Muslims have electrified the radical right.”