In the morning hours of Saturday October 6th, a group was seen above interstate 40 dressed in all black, wearing red skull masks, waving swastika flags, and hitler-saluting.
The group was a part of a Neo-Nazi rally that was seen screaming at drivers passing by and shouting racial slurs through megaphones from around 1:00 to 4:00 that afternoon.
In an interview with Town and Country Chief of Police Dan Wilkey, he recalls that: “At about 1:00 on Saturday we were made aware that we had several calls from our dispatch center about activists located on the bridge over interstate 40 and Mason Road. When we arrived we saw approximately 10 individuals that were waving flags that had a swastika and there was a banner that was hung over the interstate, and they were exercising their 1st amendment rights”
“There were several passersby that were obviously disturbed by their message, and our officers stood by to maintain the peace” says Chief Wilkey.
Although it is still unclear who the group was that organized the rally, there are some key takeaways. For starters, their message was pretty clear: advertising pro-nazi propaganda whilst drawing attention to themselves. Secondly, the group hasn’t been seen since.
“We are very confident that they aren’t from this area, they are a group of traveling activists” states Chief Wilkey. “The members at the rally, and I can’t be 100% sure of this because they concealed their identity…and by law because they were committing no crime had no obligation to provide any type of identity, but from what we can ascertain they were all white males”
To say the local community was surprised is a massive understatement. Nothing has ever been seen quite like this in Town and Country, it truly came out of nowhere.
“(The community) was shocked and outraged, this isn’t something that commonly occurs in the St. Louis area certainty not the city of Town and Country, most citizens and passersby were appalled.” Says Wilkey.
Following the rally, churches and religious organizations gathered to promote peace on the same overpass the following Monday morning and night.
When asked about how this event affects the community, Chief Wilkey states: “In the long run it just strengthens our community and shows anybody that was listening in the fact that so many spoke out and denounced this type of activism. It speaks volumes of our community and how we don’t tolerate intolerance”
This rally comes in the wake of a time in society full of “rebellion” and “defying the norms.”
”We live in a time that’s very polarizing and the right thing to do is generally not the easiest thing to do, and I think we have people that just wanna belong somewhere, and then you have groups whether it be street gangs or groups like this that are all too willing to capitalize on the feeling to have a sense of belonging somewhere and they lead individuals down this dark path. It’s unfortunate, and it’s something we need to be very aware of” says Chief Wilkey.
Although this event caused tensions to run high and left many shocked and appalled, the police force took the proper precautions to maintain the peace.
