It’s not merely bad optics. It’s who they truly are.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – A registered sex offender with a long criminal history as well as a history of neo-Nazi activism was among a handful of individuals that held a protest on an overpass going over Roosevelt Blvd. in support of a White child allegedly murdered by a Black woman in Ohio.

Benjamin Franklin Ryder – his real name – accompanied at least eight associates of the Pennsylvania chapter of White Lives Matter (WLM) and was holding a Confederate flag while the others held White Supremacist flags, including a flag for a small organization called Storm 14 (S14)  and gave Nazi salutes as cars drove underneath. Eventually a crowd began to build at the base of the overpass and police tailed the small group as they went back to their vehicles.

Ryder has been one of the more active neo-Nazis in the Philadelphia area, participating not just in WLM but local so-called “active clubs,” which are street gangs that exist solely to physically fight political opponents, particularly antifascists. Embrace Struggle, which posted the photos and video or their protest on their Telegram account which is run by Ryder, has been associated with Pennsylvania Active Club, even promoting their videos on the Embrace Struggle account. The Pennsylvania Active Club is comprised of onetime members of Keystone United, formerly Keystone State “Skinheads” in the local Philadelphia area, including Joe Phy of Levittown, PA, Anthony James Olsen and Nunzio Pellegrino, whose brother, fellow KSS member Vincent, died while fleeing the scene as a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her, hitting a concrete wall while driving away at a high speed.

Ryder’s activity however has been regulated to publicity stunts such as rallies and protests as well as targeting establishments he considers to be leftist and post stickers promoting Nazism or WLM. Last year, he was one of two neo-Nazi antagonists who tried to start a fight with participants of a protest outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, Ryder getting placed in custody for allegedly pulling out a knife.

This was far from Ryder’s first issue with law enforcement. In 2015 Ryder was sentenced to 4-12 months for approaching several women completely nude in a McDonalds parking lot. In June 2018 he exposed himself to a woman in Bethlehem, PA as he sat in his car masturbating.  When law enforcement caught up with him in December of that year he was already in jail after he exposed himself to a 17-year old employee in October at a Wegman’s supermarket in Hanover Township, PA and for another incident two months after that incident at the same store where he exposed himself to two 12-year-old girls. He was eventually sentenced to 1-2 years in prison and he is currently on the sex offender registry for an charge of indecent assault that he was arrested for in Warwick Twp., PA in November 2018.

Yesterday’s outing was reportedly part of a day of protests for some White Supremacist groups across the country.