A man wearing a shirt featuring a PATRIOT FRONT patch sits quietly on the ground after Philadelphia police stoped several Penske box trucks on Columbus Blvd at Race St. in Phila., Pa. shortly before midnight on July 3, 2021. Photo by Elizabeth Robertson

White supremacy protests in Philadelphia on the evening of the 4th of July. 

By Edward Era Barbacena

The Patriot Front, a white supremacy group, marched through Philadelphia on the eve of July 4th. They arrived loaded in several Penske trucks. The group marched down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, around City Hall, and through Old City. They met with opposition from bystanders.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Griffin of Inquire

Members of Patriot Front, a known white nationalist group based in Texas, marched their way through Philadelphia on Saturday.  driven by conspiracy theory, they walked through the streets waving flags with signs that reads "Freedom America. But as 6 ABC News reports, it doesn’t sound like they stuck around for as long as they anticipated.

6 ABC Action News was the only crew on the scene as the group traveled down the Ben Franklin Parkway, across Market, Chestnut and Walnut Streets before marching to Penn’s Landing.

Hundreds of masked protesters from Patriot Front chanted, while carrying American flags and shields.

At Penn’s Landing, several onlookers began yelling at the protesters and banging on trucks as the group loaded into the vehicles and drove off. A woman can heard yelling " f**** shame on you!"

That’s right: The City of Brotherly Love let these dudes–who, according to NBC 10, wore white face coverings, blue shirts and khaki pants–that their hate isn’t welcome within the city limits.

This shouldn’t really be a surprise that Philly wasn’t going to appreciate these white savages marching around their streets. If they’re willing to throw batteries at people and boo a man dressed as Santa Claus, you really think they won’t step up to a racist in a bootleg Best Buy uniform?

Police say some of the angry onlookers scared off the white supremacists.

“They started engaging with citizens of Philadelphia, who were none too happy about what they were saying. These males felt threatened, and at one point somebody threw a smoke bomb to cover their retreat, and they literally ran away from the people of Philadelphia,” said Philadelphia Police Officer Michael Crum.

Philadelphia police stop several Penske box trucks on Columbus Blvd at Race St. in Phila., Pa. shortly before midnight on July 3, 2021. Patriot Front protestors demonstrated in Center City. The trucks were stopped by police on Columbus Blvd. and when officers opened the rear doors they discovered the protesters inside. The men had their hands up as they exited the trucks, all were searched and eventually released.

NBC 10 reports that randomly showing up in cities to put on “localized flash mobs” is a common tactic for Patriot Front–which formed in 2017 in the aftermath of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. These are the same people that appear to have been behind the defacement of various murals and monuments to victims of police violence around the country.

As of Sunday, it was unclear if there were any arrests made after the group rolled into Philadelphia, according to NBC 10.