White supremacists march in Washington with police escort

A US white supremacist group has staged a march in the capital, Washington DC, to express opposition to what it calls the demographic changes to the country.

Dozens of members of the Patriot Front, dressed in khaki pants and caps with blue jackets and white face masks, marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the US Capitol grounds on Saturday.

The demonstrators, escorted by police, chanted slogans against those they described as outsiders and shouted "Reclaim America!" and "Life, liberty, victory!".

A spokeswoman for District of Columbia Metropolitan Police said the march was unauthorized as there had been no record of a permit for it at the police department.

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The Patriot Front is a white nationalist group that broke off from a similar organization, Vanguard America, in the aftermath of a deadly rally that took place three years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In 2017, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville led to the death of a counter-protester and the injury of 19 other people.

US President Donald Trump, who has a strong following among white nationalists, blamed “both sides” for the violence, drawing domestic and international condemnation.

Critics say that Trump’s divisive rhetoric and policies against immigrants and minorities before and after his election have emboldened far-right groups and promoted hate crimes across the US.

In January 2019, a CBS News poll found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans believed race relations in the country were generally bad.

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