NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Neo-Nazis were caught on camera hurling racial slurs at a group of young Black children in downtown Nashville, sparking outrage among parents, city, and state leaders.
The children were downtown playing drums on buckets. They were on their way home on July 14 when they came in contact with these grown men.
Ashton Lee, a mother of some of the children, expressed her disbelief and anger. "These kids don’t panhandle; they beat on drums, and it’s your choice to give them what you have if you want," Lee said.
For several years, these children have been coming to downtown Nashville to play music. However, earlier this month on their way home they encountered a group of men who began verbally assaulting them.
These racist remarks have been viewed on X over 9 million times. The video shows them saying some version of the N-word nearly a dozen times. One man even referred to a child as a monkey.
10-year-old Detonio Wilson was one of the five kids verbally assaulted.
"I feel like it was racist because they were just saying bad words to us. The police wasn’t doing anything, just telling us to go home," Wilson said.
Body camera footage from the Metro Nashville Police Department shows officers engaging with the kids and the Neo-Nazis. In the video you hear an officer say "Hey, they’re kids" and telling the kids, "Be better than them though. Be better than them."
TN Representative Justin Jones and Representative G.A. Hardaway are calling on state leaders to condemn this behavior.
"They went for children who were out there by themselves because they thought they could bully them," Rep. Jones said.
"We’re going to tell these white supremacists to take that mess somewhere else. We don’t want it and ain’t going to have it," Rep. Hardaway said.
Lee, who moved to Nashville hoping her boys wouldn’t experience the racism she did growing up, is now forced to teach them a new set of skills.
"Don’t leave it stuck in the back of your minds like that because it will mess you up tremendously for a long time," Lee advised her sons.
Rep. Jones did question the actions of the police officers, also asking Chief John Drake for greater clarity on what happened.
Here's a statement from Metro Police:
"The hatred shouted by the Neo-Nazi group toward the five African-American children who came upon them by coincidence on July 14 is shocking and reprehensible. Officer body camera video shows that members of a police team moved in to de-escalate and walk with the children away from the Neo-Nazi group. One officer told the Neo-Nazis, “they’re kids,” in an effort to stop the insulting language. When the children started to yell back at the Neo-Nazis, the officer is heard saying several times to the kids, “Be better than them.” The officers downtown that afternoon were personally offended by the slurs."
Rep. Jones adds, the family of the young kids told him officers have threatened the boys with arrests in the past for playing drums downtown.
Metro Police tells NC5's Aaron Cantrell the young children have been walking into the downtown area by themselves for more than a year carrying buckets that serve as makeshift drums. Their interaction with officers is cordial, while officers do warn them that they cannot set up to drum on the sidewalks or street along Broadway and the immediate vicinity due to prohibitions on vending and blocking sidewalks/passageways.
Metro Police released another statement about the Neo-Nazis coming to Nashville and spreading hate:
"Our officers were continuously subjected to the Neo-Nazi hate rhetoric over several days last week. We stayed in continuous contact with the District Attorney’s Office and the Metropolitan Legal Department concerning the group’s actions and constitutionally protected free speech."
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at aaron.cantrell@newschannel5.com
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
