Police in tactical gear prepare for a 2017 white nationalist rally in Murfreesboro. Julieta Martinelli WPLN News (File)

Heavy law enforcement presence is being credited with fending off any violence at two white nationalist rallies Saturday. Police set up barricades, multiple security checkpoints and even had snipers on nearby rooftops.

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No one wanted a repeat of the white nationalist and neo-Confederate rally Charlottesville where someone died — even the white nationalist themselves

said so online.undefined

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Bethany Neal lives just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, and drove nine hours to Shelbyville to take part in the counter protest along with hundreds of others, outnumbering the white nationalists. The first thing she noticed was the armed officers at every corner. Even the head of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

was on the scene in person.undefined

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“They’re being much more present than Charlottesville was,” she said. “When I come here and see that the police are really in control here, they are setting up checkpoints. I know there’s going to be no weapons.”

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In Shelbyville, some protesters did get through checkpoints with shields and helmets, which were supposed to be banned. But they were separated by barricades, a four-lane street and a line of officers in tactical gear. Snipers were visible on top of three neighboring businesses.

So far, hundreds of counter of protesters chant towards a small group of white nationalists that have shown up so far, 30 mins late.

pic.twitter.com/oIPotNIoU5— Julieta Martinelli (@ItsJMartinelli)

October 28, 2017

The groups often yelled back and forth

. “You label me as a racist because you can’t understand what I believe in,” one white nationalist belted out. But there was no physical contact.

In Murfreesboro, there was a similar set-up with dozens of police in riot gear and close to a thousand counter protesters, but the white nationalists didn’t show up.

A spokesman for the League of the South, which organized the event, called it “a lawsuit trap.” The group also blamed the security in Shelbyville for delaying their departure for Murfreesboro.

Instead, they met at Henry Horton State Park in Chapel Hill, the birthplace of KKK-founder and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, where law enforcement was also on the scene until everyone dispersed.



Being Heard

Demonstrators did not articulate any particular demands. But their goal seems to have been primarily to stir up controversy.

Amid the tight security in Shelbyville, somewhere between 100 to 200 demonstrators, dressed mainly in black, marched behind a phalanx of shields from a parking lot near the town square to the protest area.

Harry Hughes, an Arizona man who describes himself as a National Socialist, says there was a purpose to the theatrics.

“We come out. We dress in uniforms. We have symbols and things, that gets people’s attention,” he said. “They look and they listen.”

Especially after the deadly protests Charlottesville, demonstrators said

they wanted to show they stand by their message — a mix of white supremacy and calls to partition the United States.

Traditional Workers Party leader Matthew Heimbach says rally us meant to show white nationalism isn’t going away after Charlottesville.

pic.twitter.com/KpIevqBY2N— Chas Sisk (@chassisk)

October 28, 2017

The Traditional Workers Party says white nationalists want to demonstrate their strength. TWP leader Matthew Heimbach said the mission was to show “we are going to be everywhere.”

“They can attack us with the boot boys of the system, these anti-fascist thugs. They can attack us with lawsuits. They can condemn us in the halls of the Washington elite. But we will continue marching,” he said.

There were probably double the number of counter demonstrators. Police shunted them to a separate area and most stayed well away.

One who didn’t was Philadelphia activist Darlye Lamont Jenkins.

“People should know about who they are and what they’re about,” he said. “And once they find out who they’re about and who they are…they respond to them in an adverse way towards them.”