Neo-Nazi leader of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and two of his subordinates are arrested and charged for their involvement in the Florida Neo-Nazi rally on February 29.
The Orlando police arrested Burt Colucci, the “commander” of the self-described American Neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement (NSM), and two of his subordinates, Joshua Terrell and Jason Brown, for their involvement in the Neo-Nazi rally in Florida on February 29.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the demonstrators wearing Nazi insignias and yelling antisemitic slurs entered into a physical fight with a passerby, reports The Jerusalem Post.
„I’m literally Jewish and I got attacked, assaulted, pepper-sprayed — you name it — spit on, called disgusting slurs, just because of my religion,” said UCF student David Newstat.
Newstat was driving by the demonstration and was stopped at the intersection. The supremacists saw the Israeli flag on his license plate. According to Newstat, the Neo-Nazi demonstrators surrounded his car and spat on him. After confronting them and pushing someone who spat on him again, Newstat was kicked, punched and pepper-sprayed.
The NSM claims that Newstat made the first assaulted towards one of their members. A video released by the group shows a man leaning toward Newstat’s open car window and the student rolling up the window, getting out of his car and pushing one of the Neo-Nazis. It is unclear if the man spat at Newstat as the student claimed.
The Neo-Nazi group blamed „the extreme anti-White, pro-Jewish bias in the so-called justice system – which is only one of the many reasons for our protests and political activism,” asserting that the Orange County Sherriff John Mina’s statements reveal that the arrest was a political action, not legal law enforcement.
ADL Florida said they were grateful for the Sherriff’s efforts in bringing charges against the arrested individuals, adding that “the ADL Center on Extremism is proud of our role in helping law enforcement identify the extremists who have been charged today.”
In previous weeks, NSM held a series of live-streamed anti-Semitic rallies, and their leader Colucci was indicted on January 27 for misdemeanor and felony counts from last April 2021.
NSM is one of the oldest white supremacist groups in the US, advocating for various policies including transforming the US into a “White” ethnostate in which only those with European ancestry can be citizens.
Photo credit: WKMG ClickOrlando