When fewer than a dozen members of a hate group walked the streets of downtown Indianapolis over the weekend, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department patrol cars drove alongside them.

For many residents watching over social media, it was a jarring image. They questioned why the police buffered the march of a small group hoisting Nazi flags.

In an Aug. 17 statement , IMPD Chief Chris Bailey pointed to the U.S. Constitution to understand why his department responded the way it did.

"Safeguarding First Amendment rights, even for those whose views we find reprehensible, is a responsibility we take seriously," his statement reads. "But let me be clear: protecting those rights is not an endorsement of those beliefs: not now, not ever."

He repeatedly condemned the group's message, but s

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