Madison Police condemn hate speech following neo-Nazi group march downtown

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - The Madison Police Department is denouncing hate speech after a neo-Nazi group marched around downtown over the weekend.

About 20 people carrying Nazi flags walked from noon to about 2 p.m., going up State Street to the Capitol and then to James Madison Park, according to an MPD report.

MPD Public Information Officer Stephanie Fryer said additional staff were already deployed to work the Wisconsin football game, and officers were pulled monitoring the group to ensure nothing turned violent.

“The Madison Police Department does not support any kind of hateful language, hateful acts, and in this situation it was our obligation to watch this group as they practiced their First Amendment rights whether we agreed with it or not,” Fryer said.

Fryer noted multiple people called 911 to report the marching. In situations like these, Fryer said people are always asked to report it to dispatch to ensure authorities are alerted and aware.

“We know that dispatch did get a lot of calls on this,” Fryer said. “We think the dispatchers who talked to our community members tried to ease their concerns because people don’t want to see hateful acts like this in Madison and we take pride in being a city that comes together and does not support hateful acts.”

MPD does not know the names of the people involved in the group, saying police knew the group was dropped off in Madison. None of the marchers carried weapons, the MPD report indicated.

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