Biden condemns ‘sickening’ neo-Nazi march in Ohio

No arrests were made during the incident on Saturday.

“The Constitution protects First Amendment activity, no matter how hateful,” Police Chief Elaine R Bryant said.

“We are bound by the law in enforcement of such activity,” she added. “No one in our community should experience intimidation or harassment.”

As no one was charged, the identities of those in the group have not been released.

The scene in Ohio’s capital city occurred one week after a similar incident in Michigan.

On 9 November, several masked men were seen waving Nazi flags and shouting slurs outside a theatre performance of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Oren Segal, vice-president of the Anti Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, told the BBC that there are “more and more groups that are marching with swastika flags” and they are doing so increasingly in smaller “more focused” groups.

“These relatively small and quick protests are designed to signal back to their online community… for this to be an example of these groups bringing their hatred on the ground,” Mr Segal said.

The ADL, which monitors white supremacist events around the country, said hundreds had taken place over the past two years.