A Miami boat captain and his sister were driving on a street near Coconut Grove on Thursday afternoon when they saw a group of men using markers to scrawl on a van with swastikas and antisemitic slurs. Shocked, they turned around to video-record them — and at least six men began raising their arms in the Nazi salute.
The encounter happened on Southwest 27th Street near 24th Avenue in Miami about 1:30 p.m. Miami police later arrested one of the men during an unrelated traffic stop.
The man, Joseph Bounds, 33, of Denver, Colorado, was charged with misdemeanor resisting a police officer without violence and failure to obey a police officer.
Joseph Bounds arrest picture
The men are part of a virulently antisemitic group called the Goyim Defense League, which regularly engages in stunts to harass Jewish people and have been in Florida this month. Last week, they were in Central Florida protesting at a Holocaust education center. The Anti-Defamation League has identified Bounds as part of the group.
Their arrival in South Florida has alarmed local Jewish leaders, which circulated warnings about the group this week.
“It is imperative that no matter what they say you DO NOT ENGAGE them in any way, even though it may be very tempting to do so,” one warning circulated online said. “The goal, our goal, is to simply ignore them and to avoid a confrontation of any kind. Be aware that various law enforcement enforcement agencies are engaged in gathering intelligence and making sure that everything stays peaceful.”
The Goyim Defense League spreads conspiracy theories and myths about Jews, and often drives around in vans similar to the one seen in Miami on Thursday. On Tuesday, the group was video-recorded holding up anti-Semitic flags on Griffin Road in Dania Beach, in a Jewish neighborhood.
The van was also seen Wednesday in Boca Raton disrupting a pro-Israel rally, according to a tweet by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg.
“We rally for peace and this van filled with hate, call for genocide and threats kept circling,” he wrote. “Thank you to our local law enforcement for keeping us safe. Hard to believe in the heart of Boca Raton if didn’t see it myself.”
We rally for peace and this van filled with hate, call for genocide and threats kept circling. Thank you to our local law enforcement for keeping us safe. Hard to believe in the heart of Boca Raton if didn’t see it myself. pic.twitter.com/SuuOBEtumd
— Rabbi Efrem Goldberg (@RabbiGoldberg) May 12, 2021
One expert on domestic extremism, Jared Holt, wrote on Twitter that the Boca stunt was live-streamed on a site aimed at white supremacists, and included a former member of the right-wing Proud Boys group.