Four hundred masked men in matching khaki moved through Washington on Saturday carrying Confederate flags and an inverted U.S. flag, chanting "Reclaim America," and by nightfall the Metropolitan Police had logged no arrests. They gathered near Union Station, filled Metro cars while ordinary passengers sat wedged among them, and exited at New Carrollton in the Maryland suburbs.
They were Patriot Front, the white nationalist outfit assembled in 2017 from the wreckage of Charlottesville, and they had chosen the USA's flagship day, the 250th anniversary, to walk the capital in formation with drums and shields.
