BOSTON —
Boston city and federal leaders said they did not have intelligence ahead of time about a white supremacist organization’s plans to march through downtown Boston over the holiday weekend.
Three days after dozens of individuals apparently affiliated with the hate group Patriot Front strode through the city with their faces hidden by white coverings, police said they continue to investigate an alleged assault linked to the march but stressed that even some hateful rhetoric is protected as free speech.
Boston mayor Michelle Wu attended the briefing at Boston Police Headquarters in Roxbury along with U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins and Superintendent-in-Chief Greg Long, who leads the Boston Police Department in lieu of a permanent commissioner.
Wu told reporters afterward that the meeting focused partly on how much law enforcement knew about the group’s plans and when they knew it.
Wu said there is “constant communication about the impending actions of any known groups.”
“We continue to monitor the situation and to work closely with community members,” Wu said.
“We will continue to work in partnership with community members as we strategize and plan and coordinate to respond to not one off incidents, but this growing rise and trend in white supremacy and hate.”
Dozens of people who appeared to be affiliated with Patriot Front, a designated hate group, marched through busy parts of the city on Saturday, including the Freedom Trail.
Those people concealed their faces while wearing shirts that read: “Reclaim America.” According to the Anti-Defamation League, that phrase became associated with Patriot Front after the group split from the openly antisemitic and neo-Nazi Vanguard America.
“We take these threats and this behavior seriously,” Rachel Rollins, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Massachusetts said. “We understand the climate is really scary in this moment to a lot of impacted communities.”
“We are working hard to make sure that if there are any federal charges we can bring or if there are any state charges that can be brought, we will be looking at this,” Rollins said.
“The presence of such organized hatred in Boston on Independence Day weekend was repugnant,” Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a written statement. “As we explained to civil rights leaders today, investigators are poring over surveillance video to help identify Patriot Front marchers and pursue possible criminal charges. If and when arrests are made we will prosecute to the fullest extent allowed by Massachusetts law.”
Facing a question about how much BPD’s Boston Regional Intelligence Center and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces knew about plans for the march and when they knew it, Rollins said some information will not yet be made public.
“We are gathering information as the minutes tick on about this specific incident and what we knew there,” Rollins said. “We are looking at and we had a lot of pointed questions, and we should, as to: if this were a Black Lives Matter protest, would the response have been different than this white supremacist group?”
“I’m going to be looking into with the mayor to see what we could’ve done better, what we need to continue doing moving forward, but right now, this is not vilifying the police,” Rollins said. “This is making sure that people in our communities know that hate has no place here in Boston or Massachusetts.”
Charles Murrell, a Black artist, told police he was assaulted by members of the group near Copley Square after asking them to stop and they pushed back. The confrontation was caught on camera by a newspaper photographer and police said that Murrell suffered cuts to his head, eyebrow and one finger, and was transported to Boston Medical Center to be treated.
Murrell returned to the area Monday with community and religious leaders.
“My understanding is that he was pushed and there was a great deal of shoving. I think that’s obvious in the photography that we’ve all seen. But there was some pushing and some shoving and words were exchanged,” said Rev. Kevin Peterson, founder of the New Democracy Coalition.
Peterson said Murrell, who attended Monday’s event with a bandage on his hand, had not yet retained an attorney.
When Murrell’s turn at the microphone came Monday, he sang a traditional African American spiritual, “Another Man Done Gone,” and invited the public to an upcoming concert aimed at healing and reconciliation.
“I have always used art as a means of resistance,” Murrell said.
Murrell only spoke about the incident indirectly.
“I am appalled that even as a healer I have to get my cup poured into in this incident, but in this incident, I will continue to pour into other people’s cups,” Murrell said.
At a separate event Monday, Mayor Michelle Wu said the incident was being investigated.
“Investigations are still ongoing, particularly the civil rights investigation around the brief confrontation that happened right outside the police station as this group was departing,” Wu said. “We’re looking into their identities and there already has been some information shared in various parts about the national leaders of this group who were part of this effort, who were in town, were present at the recent events as this group has gone to terrorize other communities as well.”
