Materials promoting the fascist white power Patriot Front movement have been spotted across Berkshire County, from signs in North Adams and Becket to a banner hanging over a Mass Pike overpass in Lee as well as flyers in downtown Pittsfield.
Jeff Tischauser is a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center tasked with documenting and monitoring hidden extremism across the United States — specifically, the white nationalist movement.
“Patriot Front has been around since the fall of 2017," said Tischauser. "It's really a rebrand of a group called Vanguard America. The group had to distance itself from this name after the Unite the Right rally, which, one of the members of Vanguard America murdered Heather Heyer, and the legal scrutiny, the media scrutiny after this violent act, particularly just- Not just that death, but the violence overall that weekend caused Thomas Rousseau – who was a member, was a leader within the group – caused Thomas Rousseau to rethink some of the strategy this group was deploying.”
Tischauser says Patriot Front relies on flash rallies – public shows of force with no warning – and clandestine banner hangings and flyerings to promote its vision of a white ethnostate.
“Its benefit them because there's no counter protesters to worry about, there's no police or security to worry about, and they get to really do what they do best, which is look ridiculous and throw up some really kind of sloppy signs and try their best to show they’re disciplined when really they're not,” he told WAMC.
A national rally for the group in Washington D.C. this spring allowed Tischauser to estimate the size of the organization.
“From the numbers that I saw on social media in May, people were estimating anywhere from 150 to 200 Patriot Front members showed up," he said. "And that is, in my mind, a good baseline on how many people they have across the United States who they can get out to a national event. And within the region of upstate New York, and maybe getting into New England, there's probably about 20 to 30 diehard supporters of Patriot Front who go out into public space and hang banners and post racist flyers. And what's also important to know is that they're not really- It doesn't take 20 people to go out there into your community, and post these racist flyers. These are one to two people, maybe three people teams.”
Those teams are expected to meet quotas set by Rousseau, who holds a monopoly on the materials required for the actions.
“So, you need to buy flyers and the material to post racist propaganda for Patriot Front from Thomas Rousseau, right?" Tischauser explained. "So, there's that business angle here, to where he not only wants his members out there posting this racist flyering, he wants- You're required to buy it from him at a premium.”
Rousseau expects his minions to go out of their immediate surroundings for the public shows of force in an effort to expand Patriot Front’s profile.
“He requires his members to drive sometimes 50 to 100 miles away from their homes to do this activity," Tischauser continued. "So, when you see a racist flyer from Patriot Front in your community or if you see a banner in your community from Patriot Front, chances are those members drove there to do that. They're not necessarily from that that town or municipality. And that strategy there, it's a way for them to fulfill that quota that's expected from leadership but it's also a way for them to project strength and to show people that they are bigger and stronger than they actually are.”
Despite its small membership, Tischauser says Patriot Front represents a very real threat to the community.
“I'm worried about them because of the large amount of public actions that they take," he told WAMC. "So, every time they come into public space, there's an opportunity for something to happen.”
One example is from a Patriot Front flash rally in Boston last July.
“They come into the narrow streets of Boston, pushing pedestrians into the roadway, as we saw on social media video," said Tischauser. "And then as they're marching, you see this young Black man, Black male artist and activist. Charles Murrell comes into proximity, just on his lunch break. He's just walking around Boston, and he sees a group of masked men holding American flags chanting this racist stuff. And he gives them the business. He's like, what are you guys doing in my city, and he confronts them. The Patriot Front members, though they claim to be disciplined, we see in that video that they are clearly not. They do not know how to handle any kind of confrontations, and they just escalate the situation. Charles Murrell, God bless him, he stands his ground. He was brave. He showed a lot of courage standing his ground with 150, approximately 100, 250 white supremacists in his face pushing him, right? And Patriot Front members allegedly assaulted him.”
Tischauser says that Patriot Front outpaces other hate groups he monitors by a factor of 10 to one in posting racist flyers across the country.
“Massachusetts has been that their number one target in their existence," he said. "So, we started tracking hate group flyering in 2018, right around the time Patriot Front became a thing. And they've overwhelmingly, particularly in Massachusetts, are the ones who are posting this propaganda. And every time they're posting this propaganda, there's a chance for someone to try to stop them, which we don't advise. I don't advise that. But again, people are people and they make their own decisions.”
Berkshire District Attorney Timothy Shugrue provided a statement to WAMC about the situation that was delivered by First Assistant DA Marianne Shelvey.
“The district attorney's office will be vigilant against any hate groups, and any attempt to infiltrate our county," she told WAMC. "We will not tolerate domestic terrorists. [Shugrue] will coordinate all law enforcement resources in the county to keep these groups from gaining a foothold in the Berkshires. Not only will our office work vigilantly with law enforcement, but we are already proactively partnering with community organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, New England chapter, the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires, and the United States Attorney's Office to bring programming to our schools that builds empathy, the most valuable powerful tool in eliminating hate.”
