PEABODY — The Peabody Police Department is investigating several incidents of “slap-tagging” white supremacist stickers onto public property in the Gardner Park area.
The stickers, bearing the message “Better Dead Than Red,” are alleged to be the handiwork of Patriot Front, a Texas-based organization that ProPublica describes as “perhaps the most active white supremacist group in the nation.”
“These incidents have occurred recently in Salem and Beverly and we think it’s the same Patriot Front group that has been doing this in all three cities,” said Police Chief Thomas Griffin. “This group (Patriot Front) has been identified by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) as anti-Semitic, so we are actively paying a lot of attention to this and it is definitely an ongoing investigation.”
The stickers — spotted on light poles and electrical boxes — have been removed. Photos have been documented and may be used as evidence if charges are brought.
“It may be a stretch, but the most likely charge could be malicious destruction of property if the stickers are placed on something like a light fixture owned by the light department or on a person’s home and it costs money to fix the damage caused by removal,” Griffin said. “In terms of penalties, it would likely be a misdemeanor with a fine, especially if it’s a first-time offender.”
When asked if hate crime charges could be filed, Griffin said there could be civil ramifications, especially if the perpetrator is caught in the act.
“If the guilty party admitted he was affiliated with a group motivated by hate, we would always work with the DA’s office,” Griffin said. “It’s a little tricky because of the First Amendment as one person’s hate speech is another’s prayer, but typically the DA’s office tends to be extremely aggressive on cases like this.”
Griffin said the department has reached out to the Salem Police Department’s detectives’ unit and has also contacted the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Fusion Center (CFC). CFC is the principal state repository for threat-related information, including criminal activity, threats to public safety, and terrorist activity. Its components provide a variety of functions for federal, state, regional, and local public safety agencies, as well as a variety of public- and private-sector entities, to facilitate the receipt, analysis, and sharing of this critical information.
“Mass Fusion Center catalogs this type of activity throughout the state,” Griffin said. “Working with them helps the police determine the likely causes of incidents like this and increases the chances of identifying the people or groups who are doing these things. We are working with Salem and will keep up with their investigation. Our patrol division has also been alerted and will be vigilant and take the appropriate action when necessary.”
Griffin stressed that the matter is being taken very seriously by Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt as he “has no tolerance for these kinds of behavior.
“Peabody has always been a welcoming and inclusive community and we reject any ideology based in hate, intolerance, and exclusion,” Bettencourt said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.”
Bettencourt encouraged persons with additional information about the perpetrators or additional acts not yet reported to contact the Peabody Police Department at (978) 531-1212.
The Anti-Defamation League’s website states that the group, founded by Fort Worth teenager and former boy scout Thomas Rousseau in 2017, promotes anti-Semitism in its flyers and online rhetoric, and the group defines itself as American nationalists, specifically that, “Patriot Front is a white supremacist group whose members maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it solely to them. Patriot Front espouses racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance under the guise of preserving the ethnic and cultural origins of their European ancestors.”
Patriot Front propaganda has shown up in Massachusetts and other states across the nation at increasing rates, according to the ADL.
In November 2019, areas in southeast Massachusetts were targets of the group, which posted stickers on telephone poles in Middleboro, Bridgewater and West Bridgewater.
Earlier that year, Patriot Front flyers bearing the messages “Keep American American,” “Better Dead than Red,” and ‘Will Your Speech be Hate Speech?” were spotted in Boston. The flyers were denounced by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
