Two days ago, on August 1st, Clintonville residents awoke to racist fliers and business cards, in bags with peppermints, in their yards and mailboxes. They were shocked. Further anecdotal discussion on social media indicates that the homes of non-white residents were targeted specifically. The mainstream media, led by channel 4, got their ratings boost as anchorwomen clutched their pearls. What the mainstream media failed to do was place the event in the context of repeated and increasingly frequent public actions by neo-nazis in the neighborhoods North of the tax-free arena district the city elite loves to promote.
A national neo-nazi leader, Andrew Anglin, is based out of Worthington where he is presumed hiding from a civil suit in his fathers real estate and Christian counseling empire. He has threatened local reporters, and is illegally registered to vote in the Short North.
Obviously, he is at home here. He is not home alone. In addition to the recent flier episode, neo-nazi skinheads have been known to frequent a certain Old North establishment, on Fridays, with management's blessing.
Not all Old North businesses are so accommodating. Patrons of one establishment ejected a member of the alt-right group Proud Boys from the patio as the latter was babbling incoherently about “globalism” while wearing a Trump shirt.
The management of yet another popular and queer friendly eatery removed a group of Proud Boys from the establishment two weeks ago when they stumbled in and tried to take the bar over during and event.
The Mockingbird has chosen to not reveal which businesses have been apparently targeted by neo-nazis so as to not assist the latter in their disruption of local culture and life.
Placing pins on a map of Columbus for each incident, a straight line begins at the Hyatt where nazi connected campus conservative groups held a conference in April. It continues on High Street to the 900 block of North High where Anglin pretends to be registered to vote. It passes through the Nazi graffiti in the windows of the Lane avenue dorms and then passes through the three different places in Old North where nazis have been sighted in the last two weeks. It continues through the recent flier drop in Clintonville, and it ends at Andrew Anglin's old mail drop in Worthington.
There are at least four different active fascist groups operating in Columbus currently. They operate on the campus of OSU through both “mainstream” Republican groups and clandestinely. These clandestine groups have overlapping membership with groups in the City of Columbus proper.
Reporters and Editors of mainstream publications have been threatened. Their families have been threatened. The police and the FBI have done nothing.
As their antics develop, the Mockingbird will continue to expose them and cover the resistance to their attempts to make this city their own.