HOWELL, Mich. (WLNS) — A bunch of males holding swastika flags and yelling slurs have been noticed in Howell Thursday night time in the course of the screening of an anti-racism documentary known as “Faces of Hate.”
This incident comes a number of months after an analogous group of males have been seen again in November waving Nazi flags and protesting in opposition to a exhibiting of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ play on the American Legion.
Jeffrey Amayo, a building employee, says he was invited to the screening of the movie and approached one of many males holding the flags.
“He barged into the theater, they pushed him out, and I decided to get in his face, and just tell that he’s a joke,” said Amayo. “You know, let him know that a Black man is telling you you’re a joke, and I made him afraid.”
Amayo says this incident hits near house.
“I grew up in West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills,” said Amayo. “I was a victim of racial harassment and racial violence, and I decided to put my foot down. No more. No more.”
The movie, “Faces of Hate,” tells the story of an ex-white supremacist who modifications his racist ideology. Tyler Deperro, the proprietor of Historic Howell Theater, says a person got here inside earlier that day upset concerning the movie.
“And then later on as the movie was ending,” said Deperro. “That group came back around 8 o’clock across the street with their Nazi flags and yelling slurs.”
Julie Ohashi, co-founder of Stand Towards Extremism (SAGE) Livingston County, the group that sponsored the documentary says, the movie was what brought on the extremist to point out up.
“We did receive verbal abuse. Threats of direct physical violence,” said Ohashi. “They’re saying things like, you know ‘race mixers are the death of the white race,’ and ‘stop killing white children,’ ‘end white genocide.'”
Ohashi says SAGE combated in opposition to the protestors the easiest way they might.
“The response was to drown them out in any way we could, just play really loud music,” said Ohashi. “Yell over top of them, but we didn’t want them to have the platform.”
Though the occasion ended on a bitter word, Ohashi says the screening was successful, with 100 individuals viewing the documentary.
