LOS ANGELES -- Several hundred people turned out to protest a rally held by a white supremacist group at Los Angeles City Hall Saturday, and the counter-protest began with a bloody scuffle.
Despite a hefty police presence around the civic center, trouble broke out early on when some counter-protesters beat up a man with Nazi skin tattoos who had antagonized the crowd.
A mob of counter-protesters beat him with signs, causing him to bleed from the head, according to police.
Police formed a wedge and took the man away. No arrests were made.
The counter-protesters, estimated by the Los Angeles Police Department to number about 500, gathered on the sidewalk outside City Hall about 30 minutes before the National Socialist Movement began at 12:30 p.m.
Members of the NSM, many wearing black uniforms, were largely outshouted by counter-protestors.
They carried a variety of flags -- American, Confederate, Nazi -- but their words were lost amidst catcalls and chants from the surrounding and much larger, louder crowd, including "racists go home" and "stop the Nazis".
Police blocked off through traffic on Spring Street at 1st Street Saturday morning, and were on tactical alert in case wide-scale problems occurred.
A line of officers in riot gear stood behind yellow tape used to cordon off the south lawn of City Hall, where the neo-Nazis gathered. They had a permit to accommodate 150 people.
The NSM rally has drawn fire from activists and community leaders.
Members of the Jewish Labor Committee, Union del Barrio, the Southern California Immigration Coalition, riKu Matsuda and 25 other groups asked Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa to pull the plug on the National Socialist Movement's rally.
An LAPD spokeswoman said a permit was issued in March to the group.
The NSM has hosted similar rallies in Riverside and San Diego as well.
According to NSM leaders, the rally is being held to remember the birthday of Adolph Hitler, the former German leader of the Nazi Party. Hitler's actual birthday is not until the 20th of April.
According to Danielle Heck, a spokeswoman for the community groups, the National Socialist Movement group should not be allowed to hold its demonstration because their speech is focused on hate and violence.
The National Socialist Movement regional director, Jeffrey Russell Hall declares the First Amendment, which allows the group the right to gather at City Hall.
