Boston's AG takes a neo-Nazi group to court for intimidating LGBTQ+ events and harassing immigrant shelters. Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has waged a legal war on the Nationalist Social Club, known as NSC-131, and its leaders for what she describes as a string of hateful and unlawful acts. In a civil complaint dropped in Suffolk County Superior Court, the AG accuses the group and its lieutenants, Christopher Hood and Liam McNeil, of civil rights violations and a host of other illegal activities.
Campbell's office laid out the charges, claiming the defendants consistently tried to disrupt events aimed at the LGBTQ+ community, including Drag Queen Story Hours, designed for children's enlightenment. Additionally, the suit says the organization has harassed hotels providing refuge to immigrants, all under a banner of vile, racially charged rhetoric. According to a press release from the AG's office, NSC-131's behavior includes trespassing as a public nuisance and threatening conduct amounting to a violation of the Public Accommodations Law and the Civil Rights Act.
NSC-131, through proclamations, vowed to "SHUT DOWN DRAG QUEEN STORY HOURS IN THE NEW ENGLAND AREA UNTIL ALL RELATED EVENTS CEASE," according to the Attorney General's Office. Subsequently, the group targeted four drag story events in Massachusetts, allegedly engaging in attacks and coercive tactics to impede access to these public library spaces. These targeted attacks occurred between July 2022 and January 2023.
Hotels serving as emergency shelters for new immigrants also found themselves in the crosshairs of NSC-131. The group used racist language to describe the sheltered as "invaders," part of a conspiracy that promotes the notion of "White replacement," the complaint alleges. On more than one occasion, hoodlums trespassed and intimidated both employees and guests alike in Kingston, Woburn, and Marlborough incidents, leaving a trail of fear and contempt.
The complaint details NSC-131's so-called "patrols," where members would roam neighborhoods brandishing weapons. These invasions of privacy and public safety have prompted Campbell's office to pursue injunctions and civil penalties against the group. This legal maneuver seeks to halt the group's activities and extract monetary damages for their purported reign of terror. Victims of similar rights violations are encouraged to press charges with the AG's Civil Rights Division.
