BENTONVILLE, Ark. —4029 News
The Bentonville Police Department is sending extra officers to the square Saturday for dueling political protests. The department circulated a letter to downtown merchants, telling them traffic and parking on the Bentonville Square will be shut down Saturday morning.
A “March For Our Lives” rally in favor of gun control is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the square. As of Friday morning, more than 350 people say they are attending on the Facebook event. The march is a “sibling march” to a national protest held in Washington, D.C. the same day.
The event’s Facebook page encourages people to “Come to the Bentonville Square in solidarity with victims of gun violence and show our representatives that we need gun reform now because it’s our lives at stake.”
The police letter said several counter protest groups have indicated they plan to attend the event as well. The letter says the groups advocate “open carry of firearms in support of the 2nd Amendment and Bill of Rights.” Police do not know how many people plan to attend.
White nationalist Billy Roper told 40/29 News his group ‘ShieldWall Network’ will hold a Bill of Rights Rally at noon on the Bentonville Square. Roper said the purpose of his groups rally is to counterprotest “antigun rhetoric.”
Roper describes ShieldWall Network as “a community based Patriotic activism which organizes local White Nationalist Preppers.”
Civil rights advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center describes Roper as a Neo-Nazi who has tried to unify hate groups under a single umbrella. It quotes him as saying “Every non-White on the planet has to become extinct.”
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