Counterprotesters play ‘La Bamba’ over White Lives Matter rally speaker
Counterprotesters play "La Bamba" while "White Lives Matter" rally leader Michael Hill speaks pic.twitter.com/8epfUVLzba
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) October 28, 2017
White supremacists attempting to hold a rally in Shelbyville, Tennessee, were forced to compete with a large number of counterprotesters who attempted to drown out rally speaker Michael Hall with speakers blaring the Mexican folk song “La Bamba.”
Hill was attempting to address fellow white nationalists Saturday afternoon via megaphone when counter protesters, separated from the rally by police, began blaring the song, according to video captured by BuzzFeed.
In the video, Hill can be heard over the music angrily denouncing the counteprotesters as “degenerate whores,” while flanked by fellow marchers holding signs calling for an end to “Southern cultural genocide.”
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“La Bamba” is a traditional Mexican folk song that shot to the top of the US/UK charts in 1987 when it was covered by the music group Los Lobos.
Hill is the leader of the secessionist and white nationalist group “League of the South,” which calls for the American South to secede. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has designated the group as a “neo-Confederate hate group.”
Hill and his followers were also present in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August when a white nationalist rally turned violent and one counterprotester was killed.
The rally in Shelbyville, unlike the August rally in Charlottesville, has so far remained peaceful. Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) applauded the city for efforts to promote free speech as well as public safety.
“Particularly in the context of today’s administration, we believe it is dangerous for government officials to pick and choose the speech they favor and the speech they will permit. We applaud the cities of Shelbyville and Murfreesboro for working hard to simultaneously protect free speech and public safety,” the ACLU said in a statement.
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