Who are the Patriot Front and what happened July 2, 2022 in Boston?
We’re headed towards the fourth of July. There are so many different things one can say about the 4th of July. Democracy is a complicated thing. I grew up in a time of revolutionary activity from the left. Since 1990 (Oklahoma City), there has been an increasing threat of revolution from the right.
The Patriot Front are a hate group that has its roots in the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. That’s the rally where Heather Heyer was killed when James Alex Fields, Jr. intentionally drove into a crowd of counter-protesters. You remember that one: tiki torches, Nazi signs, property destruction, several violent incidents…
I was reminded in The Guardian of the Patriot Front’s 2022 march on July 2. The Patriot Front are 2022’s top hate group for leaflet distribution, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. If you look at the chart, you’ll see that they are doing significant hate sharing in Massachusetts. Their materials state that America is for people of European descent. They have a uniform — khaki pants and navy blue shirts. They look kind of silly, and march in small numbers. They are far from being a joke.
“The time of the Republic has passed in America as the system grows too weak to perform its duty. … The damage done to this nation and its people will not be fixed if every issue requires the approval and blessing from the dysfunctional American democratic system. Democracy has failed in this once great nation.”— Patriot Front manifesto.
“The American Identity was something uniquely forged in the struggle that our ancestors waged to survive in this new continent. … To be an American is to realize this identity and take up the national struggle upon one’s shoulders. Not simply by birth is one granted this title but by the degree to which he works and fulfills the potential of his birth.”— Patriot Front manifesto.
“An African, for example, may have lived, worked, and even been classed as a citizen in America for centuries, yet he is not American. He is, as he likely prefers to be labelled, an African in America. The same rule applies to others who are not of the founding stock of our people as well as to those who do not share the common unconscious that permeates throughout our greater civilization, and the European diaspora.” — Patriot Front manifesto.
“America our nation stands before an existential threat. The lives of your children, and your children’s children, and your prosperity beyond that, dangle above a den of vipers. A corrupt rootless, global, and tyrannical elite has usurped your democracy and turned it into a weapon, first to enslave and then to replace you.” — University of Texas at Austin demonstration, November 3, 2017. [source]
Note: the “rootless, global, and tyrannical elite”, that’s the Jews — just in case you don’t know about the dog-whistles of antisemitism. Even Wikipedia knows about this; not just the haters.
Last July 2nd, The Patriot Front marched in Boston. The Boston police did next to nothing about it. A Black man, Charles Murrell, was injured. Please open this link, so you can see what they look like and what they did that day.
In the aftermath, Boston Mayor Wu denounced the white supremacist group as cowardly. There was a public concert, and a little attention around the edges. I was unable to find any follow-up on who attacked Charles Murrell and whether there was a significant effort to seek justice for him. Two days after the attack, police were trying to identify the masked men. Then, nothing.
As we run into the first-year anniversary, it still seems clear as day that the Boston police do not give a darn about Black lives. Better minds than mine are working towards changing this.
Last year, police claimed they had no idea that this march was planned. Will they march again this 4th of July and will the Boston police fail to notice, again?