A lawsuit filed by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office against a neo-Nazi group that disrupted drag queen stories hours in Fall River and Taunton, Mass. may be nearing a settlement, according to a report by the Taunton Daily Gazette.
Reports the Gazette:
A long-simmering lawsuit that pits the state against a band of neo-Naziswho invaded and caused disturbances at drag queen story hours in Fall River and Taunton may be nearing a resolution.
The complaint, filed in December 2023 by the state Attorney General’s Office, accused the Nationalist Social Club and two of its most prominent members of violating the Civil Rights Act, obstructing access to public places, trespassing and being a public nuisance.
The complaint was lodged after the openly white supremacist gang targeted multiple LGBTQ-themed events statewide for protest and disruption; in some cases, members allegedly assaulted people.
The case has languished in Suffolk County Civil Superior Court. Earlier this year, the state sought a default judgment, arguing that NSC and its members have failed to defend themselves.
A filing in the case from Oct. 2 indicates that the state and the defendants are now working to settle. That “consent judgment,” or settlement, is expected “within the next 30 days.”
Earlier this year, the New Hampshire Department of Justice resolved its own lawsuit against NSC and founder Christopher Hood for similar tactics at an anti-LGBTQ protest in 2023.
The lawsuit notes that in 2022 and 2023, the group set its sights on disrupting and shutting down drag queen story hours statewide, branding them as “degenerate” and harassing attendees with homophobic slurs.
On Dec. 10, 2022, about 20 members of NSC disrupted a story hour at the Fall River Public Library on North Main Street. Masked neo-Nazis allegedly blocked the library’s entrance, shouted slurs and accusations of pedophilia, and assaulted two people in attendance; the suit says one person was shoved to the ground and kicked or stomped.
Fall River police arrived to keep peace. No one was arrested.
A month later on Jan. 14, 2023, about 30 neo-Nazis from NSC blocked the entrance to the Taunton Public Library, being similarly disruptive and offensive.
Five members of the group entered the building and “burst into a room full of families with small children without warning, wearing ski masks, sunglasses, and black jackets, and carrying backpacks.” Many parents fled with their children, fearing an attack.
The neo-Nazis intimidated the parents and performers, lodging accusations of pedophilia. One member allegedly attempted to pick a fight with a parents. Body-worn camera footage from Taunton Police shows one neo-Nazi made his hand the shape of a gun and mimed shooting the drag performer.
Months later, in October 2023, members of the group dropped neo-Nazi propaganda leaflets along streets in New Bedford. The messages were left in plastic sandwich bags with handfuls of pebbles to weigh them down. “We stand for the security and prosperity of white New Englanders,” they read in part.
The group is accused of also intimidating people and attempting to instigate physical confrontations at drag story hours in Boston in July and August. It is also accused of harassing immigrants at emergency shelters in Kingston, Woburn, Marlborough, and harassing attendees at a book fair in Cambridge.
Lawsuit against neo-Nazi group disrupting drag queen story hours in MA may end in settlement
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