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After Mainers learned this year that neo-Nazi Christopher Pohlhaus had moved to the state and started building a training compound, residents and leaders began calling for the government to stop him.
Public outcry forced Pohlhaus, the founder of the Blood Tribe, to sell his 10.6-acre property in Springfield this fall.
Despite calls for Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey to take legal action, his office could not under the state’s Civil Rights Act, which requires a person’s behavior to include one of five types of criminal activity for legal proceedings to happen.
“I find the espousal of discriminatory and hateful ideologies to be repugnant, and I stand poised to bring legal action should any constitutionally protected activity cross into unlawful behavior,” Frey said in August about Pohlhaus.
Maine’s handling of hate-based cases is unique, and differs from neighboring states such as New Hampshire and Massachusetts, which do not have the same criminal requirement in their laws. This difference makes it easier for hate groups to exist in Maine, as long as they do not violate other laws.
Attacking a person or threatening to do so, as well as trespassing, are some of the crimes a person must be facing for the Civil Rights Act to be used.
“Hateful views like those espoused by Neo-Nazi groups have no place in Maine,” Special Assistant to the AG Danna Hayes said. “That is why the Office of the Maine Attorney General routinely pursues claims against those who violate the civil rights of others.”
The AG’s office this year secured civil rights injunctions against five people, including one charged with threatening and firing shots near an interracial family and another who allegedly threatened to run over an Asian-American woman.
In Augusta earlier this year, neo-Nazis gathered near the state capital and yelled “Sieg Heil,” a German phrase commonly used at Nazi rallies, and did Nazi salutes and shouted at people of color driving by in their vehicles.
There was no damage to state or city property during the rally, the Maine Department of Public Safety said.
In April, there was a scuffle between members of a neo-Nazi group known as NSC-131 and counter protesters in Portland, but no official complaints were made with Portland police and there were no reports of serious injuries.
The Legislature will consider a proposed bill when it begins an emergency session in January that would create a Civil Rights Unit within the office of Maine’s attorney general. The proposal includes the creation of a unit to investigate civil rights violations and provide public education about hate and bias issues.
“Where opportunities may exist to strengthen Maine law, the Office is working closely with members of the Legislature to secure every tool available against bias-based crime,” Hayes said. “That said, the First Amendment protects even those with hateful, despicable views and our enforcement is limited to incidents in which the law has been violated.”
Other states, meanwhile, have filed lawsuits by their respective attorney general offices against NSC-131.
The group’s leaders Christopher Hood and Liam McNeil were sued Dec. 6 by the Massachusetts attorney general. The lawsuit outlines McNeil’s and Hood’s actions, as well as those of other unknown group members, during several drag queen story hours between July 2022 and January.
Around 20 to 30 NSC-131 members attended each protest that resulted in street fighting, assaults on members of the public, blocking access to public libraries and graffiti, according to the lawsuit.
At the direction of the group, members wore uniforms of khaki pants, black shirts, ski masks, balaclavas and black hats. They shouted anti-LGBTQ+ slurs and displayed homophobic banners at the events, including one that read “DRAG QUEENS ARE PEDOPHILES,” the lawsuit said.
Hood was charged in 2022 with public fighting after an altercation in Boston outside a drag queen story hour. A judge ordered a not-guilty verdict in June, and said prosecutors did not give enough evidence for the jury to make a decision without speculation, the Boston Globe reported.
In New Hampshire, Hood and 19 unnamed members had a civil complaint filed against them Wednesday by the state’s attorney general. The complaint stems from a drag queen story hour on June 18, where the group is accused of shouting homophobic slurs, saluting in a style similar to Nazis, banging on the windows where the event was happening, and making intimidating gestures at the performer and attendees.
Trespassing complaints against NSC-131 were dismissed by a New Hampshire judge in June. The group was accused of violating the state’s civil rights act by displaying banners that said “Keep New England White” on an overpass without a permit.
