- Far-right activist Jake Lang led roughly 100 demonstrators in what he called a “Crusader March” in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. According to the New York Post, marchers carried signs declaring “Deport All Muslims” and broadly blaming Islam for the 2001 terrorist attacks.
- The march drew about 40 counterprotesters, including anti-racist demonstrators and a separate group of neo-Nazis who opposed Lang and displayed a banner targeting him for being Jewish. Video cited by the Post showed members of that group giving Nazi salutes. Physical confrontations broke out, and Emmanuel Vasquez Rodriguez, 22, of Queens, was arrested for allegedly striking a marcher with a closed fist.
- During the nearby 9/11 commemoration, the son of victim Michael Massaroli used his remarks to condemn invoking the attacks to promote hatred. “You do my dad’s legacy and the legacy of all these victims no honor by using this tragedy to spread hate,” he said, adding that he had spent 25 years seeing people use 9/11 to hate Muslims and people who “don’t look like them.”