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Pomona Braces For Neo-Nazi Rally Saturday

POMONA (CBS) — The city of Pomona is bracing for a rally of Neo-Nazis Saturday.

On Friday evening, Dave Bryan, CBS2 and KCAL9 political reporter, interviewed some of the rally organizers outside Pomona City Hall where the rally will take place, tomorrow and said "it might just be the calm before the storm."

Members of the National Socialist movement plan to march Saturday protesting what they call America's lax immigration policies and California's passage of the Dream Act.

Bryan said organizers told him their party was "mainstream" but others call them a hate group just pretending to be a serious political movement.

He spoke with local residents who are not happy about the rally and plan to turn out to shout down what they call hate speech.

Bryan, meanwhile, also spoke with the movement's national leader, self-described "National Commander" Jeff Schoep.

Said Schoep, "We consider ourselves the vanguard of the American people. We're a whites civil rights organization. And we're one of the only organizations in the country that's standing up and taking a hardline stance against illegal immigration."

Pomona resident Rudy Valenzuela told Bryan, "While everyone has the right to their opinion and to voice their opinion, we also have an obligation to be even louder. And [we plan] to speak even more to those people that agree with us and disagree with them.  And it gives us an opportunity to do just that -- to point out how wrong they are."

The mayor of Pomona, says Bryan, is asking residents to just ignore the rally. And the mayor said groups that preach hate are not welcome in his city.

 

 

 

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