LOS ANGELES, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Five people were arrested by police after a bloody scuffle brought a white supremacist rally to an abrupt end in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday.
Hundreds of people from the counter-protesting groups, consisting of black, Latino and Asian ethnic descents, threw rocks and bottles at around 40 members of the so-called National Socialist Movement who had antagonized them by calling for the removal of all nonwhites from America's southwest.
Two assaults took place during which a man, who has Nazi skin tattoos, was severely beaten by signs-wielding mob,causing him to bleed from the head near City Hall while another man, who carried a confusing sign about religion with a scribbled swastika, was pummeled by a mob of people on Spring Street between 1st and 2nd.
Police apprehended five people who have took part in the scuffle. All were counter-protesters, police said.
Riot gear-clad city police officers, who have been put on a tactical alert before and during the rally, escorted the heavily outnumbered white supremacist proponents to a nearby parking lot where they, along with the escortees, were showered with missiles by the chasing mob. A car stalled and glass was shattered. Finally, police succeeded in containing the situation and dispersed the angry crowd.
Civil rights groups were calling for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to revoke a permit allowing the demonstrator to be hold on Saturday while Jeffrey Russell Hall, of the National Socialist Movement, said opponents had no right to stop them from gathering.
He had expected about 100 participants at the "Reclaim The Southwest!" rally. But the real attendancy was much lower.
The neo-Nazis obtained a permit for up to 150 of its supporters last week. The group has hosted rallies in Riverside and San Diego as well.
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