Massachusetts AG sues white nationalist group

The Massachusetts attorney general is suing a white nationalist group active in New England after she said they repeatedly attempted to disrupt and harass drag queen story events and hotels that shelter migrants, in violation of state civil-rights laws.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, a Democrat, said in a complaint that members of the Nationalist Social Club, also known as NSC-131, have engaged in “violent” and “coercive” actions not protected by the First Amendment. Those include attempts to disrupt and shut down events, trespassing onto private property, and carrying out “patrols” that led to the group’s vandalizing public and private areas with graffiti and stickers, the complaint stated.

Filed on Thursday in the Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston, the lawsuit identifies two of the group’s leaders, Christopher Hood and Liam McNeil, as being responsible for controlling NSC-131’s activities in Massachusetts. The Washington Post could not reach Hood or McNeil for comment, and it is unclear whether they are being represented by an attorney.

“NSC-131 has engaged in a concerted campaign to target and terrorize people across Massachusetts and interfere with their rights,” Campbell said in a statement. “Our complaint is the first step in holding this neo-Nazi group and its leaders accountable for their unlawful actions against members of our community.”

NSC-131, formed in 2019 in eastern Massachusetts, has been labeled a neo-Nazi group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

NSC-131 members — wearing uniforms consisting of khaki pants, black shirts, ski masks, balaclavas and black hats — assaulted members of the public, blocked access to events within public libraries and participated in street fighting, the complaint alleged. During a Jan. 14 event at a public library in Taunton, Mass., police had to evacuate the performer through a side entrance after NSC-131 disrupted the event, scaring families and children in attendance, the complaint stated.

The complaint said that thirty NSC-131 group members traveled to Taunton, obstructed access to the main library area and held up a banner that read “DRAG QUEENS ARE PEDOPHILES.” One NSC-131 member attempted to instigate an altercation with a parent, and another made shooting gestures at the performer and parents, the complaint alleged.

The complaint also describes multiple situations over the past year in which NSC-131 members are alleged to have targeted hotels that sheltered migrants through the state’s Emergency Housing Assistance program. The group trespassed onto hotel property and engaged in “unlawful conduct” aimed at intimating and threatening those at the hotel, the complaint stated.

During an incident Oct. 30, 2022, roughly two dozen NSC131 members arrived at the Baymont Inn and Suites hotel in Kingston and held up banners that read “REFUGEES NOT WELCOME” from a private driveway, which obstructed access to the main entrance, the complaint stated. The members eventually left after police arrived at the hotel and warned that they were trespassing.

Since late 2020, the complaint stated, NSC-131 has also “carried out patrols during which members tagged property in, along, and immediately adjacent to public roads” in Boston, Lowell, Worcester and other communities in eastern and central Massachusetts.