SWAMPSCOTT ― The town has seen more than its fair share of racially-motivated events, with incidents of racist and antisemitic graffiti, hate speech, and assault occurring at a steady pace within the last few years.
These incidents have been intensified by the ongoing presence of far-right ideologues in town, which has united many of the sentiments of intolerance under one visible source: the demonstrations held by conservative figurehead Dianna Ploss.
Ploss’ appearance in Swampscott, accompanied by followers from both within and outside the town, began in April 2020. The initial demonstrations were focused on recently-imposed pandemic restrictions, and took place in front of Gov. Charlie Baker’s home. They have since moved to the intersection of Monument Avenue and Humphrey Street.
“Then shortly after that, George Floyd(‘s murder) happened, and that other aspect came in when we started having the Black Lives Matter protesters showing up,” said Police Capt. Joseph Kable.
The two groups presented a visual racial conflict in town, with one holding Black Lives Matter signs and the other occasionally resorting to blackface, racial slurs, and Ku Klux Klan imagery. It’s a battle that has persisted week after week for almost two years.
“It’s certainly been unprecedented in our experience,” Kable said. “Certainly, other places have dealt with situations like this, but this was new to us. Every week we were surprised that it had carried over to the next week until several months (in), when it became clear that this was just something that was going to persist.”
While Ploss and her followers have upset many residents, they continue to operate under the protection of the First Amendment right to assembly. This has made it difficult for members of the Police Department and the Select Board to mitigate the potential of hate speech or other racially-motivated incidents.
“What was upsetting (residents) was what appeared to be the inability, with the inaction of the Swampscott police, to do anything about it,” said Interim Police Chief David Kurz. “And that was very frustrating to us, because we’re as committed to preserving a person’s right to protest as we are with trying to preserve the peace and (allowing) people to live their lives in peace.”
As a result, a police detail has been assigned to each weekly demonstration, with officers charged with keeping the situation under control. They have not always been successful. In the past two years, Kable recalled six cases of assault stemming from protesters and counterprotesters interacting with each other.
“Criminal conduct like that doesn’t get a free-speech passing anyway,” he said. “And each time we came across an actual crime of physical assault or something like that, we would charge the person.”
As for the Select Board, its “only objective has ever been to mitigate any negative impact the protests may have on our residents’ quality of life while taking care not to limit an individual’s First Amendment rights,” according to board Chair Polly Titcomb.
While the demonstrators have taken up a lot of the Select Board and Police Department’s energy, neither group expects them to last forever.
“I would not be surprised if the protestors, as we’ve experienced them to date, relocate to a more politically-charged area when Gov. Baker finishes his final term,” Titcomb said.
The Police Department is prepared for that eventuality, and its members are looking forward to returning to community-minded work.
“It’s kind of like what COVID is doing to the hospitals; it’s so overwhelming,” Kurz said of the demonstrations. “The protesters were so overwhelming that there was no ancillary surgery going on, so there were no community initiatives, things were just not happening as a result of the need to focus attention downtown.”
Still, when the protesters are gone, the town will continue to be faced with the persistent occurrence of racial and civil-rights violations perpetrated by residents ― a legacy that far predates Ploss’ arrival.
“When you have an event that is directed at someone because of their sexual preference, skin color, race, religion, beliefs, gender identity ― and if that event encompasses a use of force or threat of force ― those are the two components that we need in order to pursue a civil-rights investigation,” Detective Ted Delano, the town’s civil-rights officer, said. “When there is the potential for a civil-rights investigation, one thing that we do right off the bat is gather our facts. We bring the district attorney’s office right away and we collaborate with them in regards to the events that have evolved.”
Delano drew attention to a September 2020 incident in which Lynn resident Rhonda Wozniak drove her car at a group of Black individuals — which included five children — while yelling racial slurs at them. The work of Delano and the Police Department resulted in Wozniak pleading guilty to eight counts each of a civil-rights violation and assault with a dangerous weapon in November 2021.
“It’s incredibly hard to get a guilty (conviction) on one count of a civil-rights violation. Once we started an investigation on her, we found out that that type of behavior was common to her, and I think it’s important to highlight that. We did take that seriously. We do take all our cases seriously,” said Delano.
“Just like every place, Swampscott has its issues for a civil-rights officer,” Kable added. “For many years, this has certainly been an ongoing focus of the department.”
While the Police Department has its obligation to investigate racial incidents after they happen, Titcomb spoke of the Select Board’s interest in preventative action.
“We have been looking into the town’s policies to ensure that we adequately promote inclusion and diversity in town and making improvements to these policies where we fall short,” she said. “We are currently in the process of revamping our HR Department, where the town has approved funding for a full-time DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) specialist.”
In the meantime, resident Tamy-Feé Meneide has been active in her role as the town’s DEI community partner. Her purview is not any one instance of racial injustice, but rather the collective culture that allows these injustices to persist.
Meneide spoke of a meeting in which Select Board member Don Hause was taken to task for racially-insensitive comments he made about the Black Lives Matter movement:
“It was apparent in that meeting that a lot of white folks needed to sit down and have their own education around what has been the history of racial trauma as part of their American history,” Meneide said. “Because it really has been eliminated, and people really don’t know.”
After observing a community forum on racial advocacy in December 2020, Meneide was asked by Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald and former Select Board Chair Peter Spellios to conduct a forum of her own in June 2021, where she addressed department heads in various areas of town governance.
“I used this model called the ‘racial zone’ model,” Meneide said.
The model was developed by historian Andrew M. Ibrahim, who identified the steps to “becoming antiracist” as fear, learning and growth.
“I’ve used that to really help Swampscott understand (that) if you stay in the fear zone, you are not learning,” she said. “When you get out of the fear zone and you get out of the, ‘I’m not racist, I’m just XYZ’ (zone), then you go into the learning zone and (you’re) saying, ‘OK, well what was the history I missed?'”
Meneide believes that this model can help both community leaders and residents become more engaged in anti-racist practices, which she hopes will change the culture that allows racial injustice to persist in towns like Swampscott.
“I would say we’re still in between the fear and learning zones,” she said, adding that once the town moves into the growth zone, residents will “be able to actually activate (their) own sense of activism and say ‘I see a racialized harm happening and I now know and feel equipped to say ‘no thank you.'”
“It is everyone’s personal journey to be able to do that on their own,” she added.
Meneide also noted that rethinking zoning ― while taking neighboring Lynn and Salem into account ― inclusionary representation of business owners of color, and reprioritization of school policies were important paths forward.
With the growth zone as her ultimate goal, Meneide believes that her fellow residents share her mission of making Swampscott inclusive and racially just.
“There are residents that are hungry for change,” she said. “I would love to see some power given back to the community members to address that change.”
Her sentiment was echoed by members of the Police Department.
“There are a lot of caring, compassionate people here who want to do the right thing for the community,” said Kurz. “Some of the things that this community seems to treasure are not being allowed to occur.”
