BOSTON —The state attorney general’s office is suing a neo-Nazi organization for attempting to disrupt and shut down events organized by LGBTQ+ community groups and hotels that provide emergency shelter to immigrants through the Commonwealth’s Emergency Assistance program.
The suit, which was filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday, alleges that the Nationalist Social Club, a self-described neo-Nazi organization commonly known as NSC-131, and two of its leaders, Christopher Hood of Newburyport and Liam McNeil of Waltham, “have repeatedly engaged in violent, threatening, intimidating, and coercive conduct that violated state civil rights laws and unlawfully interfered with public safety. The complaint asserts claims for public nuisance, trespass, civil conspiracy and violations of the Civil Rights Act and Public Accommodations Law.”
The complaint alleges that NSC-131 targeted four Drag Queen Story Hours throughout the state after the organization announced on social media in late 2021 that its members would “SHUT DOWN DRAG QUEEN STORY HOURS IN THE NEW ENGLAND AREA UNTIL ALL RELATED EVENTS CEASE.” The story hours targeted by NSC-131 took place on July 2022 and August 2022 in Boston, in December 2022 in Fall River, and in January 2023 in Taunton.
According to the 26-page suit, during the Taunton incident on Jan. 14, 2023, NSC-131 allegedly entered the Taunton Public Library, assaulted two of the event’s organizers, and forced the evacuation of the performer, “scaring families and small children and causing officers from the Taunton Police Department to evacuate the performer through a side entrance,” the suit says. The event was ultimately cancelled because the performer didn’t return to complete it out of safety concerns.
The complaint further alleges that on at least five separate occasions between October 2022 and October 2023, NSC-131 intimidated and harassed the residents and employees of hotels providing emergency shelter to recently arrived immigrants. The incidents took place in October 2022 in Kingston, on three separate occasions in August 2023 in Woburn, and in Marlborough last September.
“On social media, NSC-131 has stated that it targeted the hotels because they were providing housing to ‘invaders’ from ‘Haiti,’ ‘Central America,’ and ‘Africa,’ while espousing conspiracy theories promoting the idea that the shelters were part of a plot to implement ‘White replacement,’” State Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s Office said in a statement. “During the incidents, NSC-131 members trespassed on hotel property and engaged in other unlawful conduct to intimidate and threaten employees and guests and interfere with the operation of the hotels.”
The complaint also alleges that since at least 2020, NSC-131 has regularly conducted “patrols” of various residential neighborhoods and public spaces throughout the state.
“During such ‘patrols,’ NSC-131 regularly trespassed on, vandalized, and damaged both public and private property,” the state attorney general’s office said. “Moreover, while publicizing the ‘patrols’ on social media, NSC-131 revealed that members carried weapons, including knives and batons, while engaged in the ‘patrols.’”
According to the Attleboro Sun, last month, NSC-131 left recruitment flyers in South Attleboro and Plainville.
The flyers were placed inside small plastic bags with rocks that weighed them down on residents’ driveways. The flyers said, “New Englanders. You are being replaced. Organize and resist.”
Although the suit does not mention Attleboro and Plainville, it says the group also distributed the flyers in Ipswich, Hamilton, New Bedford, Westfield and Plymouth, the Attleboro Sun reported.
The attorney general’s office is seeking injunctive relief against NSC-131, along with monetary awards related to civil penalties, damages, and other costs.
