In her criticism, Massachusetts Legal professional Basic Andrea Campbell says that NSC-131 and its leaders have engaged in an discriminatory, hateful, and illegal conduct.
Massachusetts Legal professional Basic Andrea Campbell has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Nationalist Social Membership, or NSC-131, a New England-based neo-Nazi group accused of violating state civil rights lawsuits and threatening public security.
In line with The Boston Herald, the lawsuit was filed earlier this week in Suffolk Superior Court docket. In her criticism, Campbell claims that the Nationalist Social Membership, together with two of its leaders, engaged in an escalating “collection of illegal and discriminatory incidents” between July 2022 and January 2023. These incidents embody demonstrations throughout so-called “drag queen story hours,” as properly protests exterior resorts housing recently-arrived migrants.
“NSC-131 has engaged in a concerted marketing campaign to focus on and terrorize individuals throughout Massachusetts and intrude with their rights. Our criticism is step one in holding this neo-Nazi group and its leaders accountable for his or her illegal actions in opposition to members of our neighborhood,” Campbell stated in a press release issued Thursday. “My workplace will proceed to guard our residents’ and guests’ civil rights and public security.”
MassLive.com notes that, between 2022 and 2023, NSC-131 staged protests in opposition to at the least 4 occasions, throughout which members tried to threaten and intimidate attendees.
In some circumstances, NSC-131 members additionally bodily attacked passersby.
Nevertheless, the group has to date managed to keep away from attracting any important penalties for its alleged misconduct. Final yr, as an illustration, New Hampshire unsuccessfully sued NSC-131 after it hunt a banner from a freeway overpass, studying, “Maintain New England White.”
Within the New Hampshire criticism, the state legal professional normal argued that NSC-131 had damaged state regulation and trespassed to unfold its hateful message. However earlier this summer time, a New Hampshire Superior Court docket choose dismissed the lawsuit on First Modification grounds.
William Gens, the Boston-based lawyer who defended NSC-131 within the New Hampshire case, informed MassLive.com that, whereas he doesn’t agree with or condone his shoppers’ message, he would “nonetheless defend their proper to say it.”
“We have now a protracted custom in our society of allowing that, regardless of how offensive it could be,” Gens stated, including that, whereas not but confirmed, it seems “seemingly” that he’ll defend NSC-131 leaders in opposition to the Massachusetts lawsuit.
“It jogs my memory of the New Hampshire matter, however type of on steroids,” Gens informed MassLive.com. “There are all kinds of issues in there that I doubt may ever be confirmed.”
“In the end,” he stated, “regardless of the way it comes out it will likely be an enormous waste of the taxpayers’ cash.”
The New England chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, in the meantime, has praised Campbell’s lawsuit, saying that organizations like NSC-131 have to be held accountable for disrupting public discourse and interfering with different protected acts of speech.
“NSC-131’s heinous actions have been disrupting, intimidating and threatening our communities for too lengthy,” the group stated, stating that Campbell’s lawsuit “sends a message that our legal guidelines can maintain them accountable for the hate they unfold.”
Sources
In lawsuit, Andrea Campbell is 2nd legal professional normal to focus on neo-Nazi group
Massachusetts AG recordsdata lawsuit in opposition to neo-Nazi group NSC-131
