You may have seen the viral photo of a Black woman sitting isolated on a Metro train Saturday as white-masked, khaki-clad Patriot Front members sat and stood on the same train near her.
Now, a D.C. man who had a similar experience is speaking out.
Roswell Encina is the man pictured in the photographs, and he said seeing them left him stunned. Civil rights groups and extremism watchdogs, including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, classify Patriot Front as a white supremacist organization.
He said it was shocking to see hundreds of men, all dressed in tan khaki pants and blue jackets, wearing white masks and tan ball caps.
“At first I had a little bit of panic, not knowing what their motives are, who they were,” Encina said. “Then I had to compose myself and kind of had to figure out who are these men? So I started looking closely at their baseball caps, looking closely at the patches on their shirts, and that’s when I put two and two together, which made me feel more uneasy.”
Encina, who is president and CEO of the , told WTOP he was traveling to a Fourth of July party in Maryland when Patriot Front members boarded the train at the Eastern Market station.
His instinct, he said, was to stay calm, keep his distance and avoid interacting with them.
Encina said the group’s members never directly confronted him or anyone else. Instead, he said, he avoided eye contact as they spoke among themselves. The only interaction came as passengers began exiting the train at the New Carrollton station.
鈥淥ne person wanted to let me go first,鈥� Encina said. 鈥淎nd I said, ‘No, go ahead.’ It was actually when the doors opened, that’s when I realized how many there were,” Encina said.
Encina said he was raised in a family that emphasized the responsibilities of citizenship. The son of Filipino American immigrants, including a father who served in the U.S. Navy, he said voting and participation in democracy were core values in his household.
Encina became a naturalized U.S. citizen and still vividly recalls casting his first vote in a U.S. presidential election in 1988 at the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines.
Patriot Front emerged in 2017 after a split from Vanguard America in the aftermath of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The organization promotes a vision of the U.S. centered on white European heritage.
Researchers who track extremist movements say the group often packages its message in patriotic imagery and rhetoric while advancing anti-immigrant and racist ideologies. The organization has drawn attention for its carefully staged public demonstrations, with members frequently appearing in matching clothes and masks.
“It does reflect that our democracy is fragile, and it’s still very delicate,” Encina said. “We all need to play a part in making it another 250 years,” he said.
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