A nonprofit supporting Black and brown-owned business in Haverhill, Massachusetts, believes they were the intended target in an incident in which stickers depicting imagery of a white nationalist hate group were found on cars at an outdoor market event.
CBS Boston reported this week that organizers of Merrimack Valley Black & Brown Voices — founded in June 2020 following the murder of George Floyd — claimed that they saw three armed men putting stickers promoting white supremacist group Patriot Front on vehicles on Sunday, June 27 as the event took place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Haverhill’s riverfront boardwalk near 70 Merrimack St. in the Boston suburb.
One of the group’s organizers, Elizabeth Walther-Grant, described to the outlet the impact the incident had, stating, “This is the first time that I really really felt scared for my own safety and for the safety of our vendors.” She added, “The logo that is on the sticker is the logo of the Patriot Front group, which is a white supremacist group. So that was super scary to find that out.”
In a joint statement, MVBBV organizers Walther-Grant, Bria Gadsden, Ani Azur, Elizabeth Buckley, Gabrielle Womack, and Miguel Quinones said, “We conclude that the actions of this group were intended to intimidate our vendors, attendees, and volunteers. They hope to sow fear and to dissuade our communities from coming together.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center traces the start of Patriot Front to its formation in 2017 following the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, of Aug. 12, 2017, that left a counter-protester Heather Heyer dead and nearly a dozen more injured when neo-Nazi James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd that was demonstrating against the bigotry of the assembled far-right factions.
Acting Haverhill Police Chief Anthony L. Haugh said the department became aware of the concerns thanks to a social media post. “We take this matter very seriously and ask that any witnesses or anyone with knowledge of the incident to please contact Haverhill Police Detective Rick Welch at 978-722-1558,” Haugh told 97.9 WHAV.
The group now says they are delaying a similar event that was scheduled to take place in nearby North Andover, Massachusetts, on Sunday, July 25, “until further precautions are taken.” They added, “These are our loved ones, and we will not stand with cities and towns who do nothing about dangerous behavior like this amongst us. We will not be deterred or surrender to such intimidation. We assure our community that we will take all the possible steps to enhance our safety and ask for allies to volunteer to assist us in this effort.”
Higher safety guidelines could come in the form of “private security, as well as working with the towns that we go to with their police forces,” the group says.
