The Boston Globe
Final July, State Police tracked a U-Haul field truck from a gathering of the white nationalist group Patriot Entrance in downtown Boston to a stretch of freeway in Stoneham. When troopers stopped the rental automobile, they encountered three males hauling the trailer stuffed with steel and plexiglass shields, poles, and Patriot Entrance flags.
Earlier that day, on July 2, about 100 Patriot Entrance members had made their mark in Boston, parading by historic landmarks in a procession that culminated close to Again Bay Station, the place masked marchers with shields surrounded Charles Murrell III, a Black musician and activist, who stated he was attacked.
Greater than a yr after the group’s demonstration in Boston, a full image of the conflict between Murrell and the Patriot Entrance members has but to emerge, and the uproar over the shock march and regulation enforcement’s sluggish response has quieted down considerably.
No prices have been filed in reference to the confrontation between Murrell and Patriot Entrance members, and metropolis officers have stated civil liberties protections constrained what police might do in response to the demonstration. On Wednesday, a Boston police spokesperson stated the case involving Murrell stays underneath investigation.
Inside days of the July 2, 2022, Patriot Entrance march, the Globe requested, underneath the state’s public information regulation, physique digital camera footage of State Police interacting with the group that day and video from city-owned cameras displaying the conflict with Murrell.
State Police and Boston police initially declined to launch any video. State Police cited the pending case towards Colton M. Brown, 24, and Boston police stated video from city-owned cameras pertained to “an energetic and ongoing investigation.”
However on Tuesday, State Police offered the footage from the site visitors cease. And Boston police stated the division plans to launch footage after its video is reviewed for doable redactions.
The footage from State Police physique cameras has shed new gentle on efforts by regulation enforcement to meet up with Patriot Entrance organizers that day even after the marchers left the town.
State Police deployed a helicopter and cruisers to comply with the rented U-Haul field truck utilized by Patriot Entrance to move the shields, flags, a drum, poles, and a megaphone out of Boston through Interstate 93, in accordance with police and court docket information.
Troopers stopped the automobile on the northbound aspect of I-93 close to Montvale Avenue in Stoneham, the place police stated they discovered proof that the motive force, Brown, had allegedly connected an unregistered Arizona license plate to the truck.
Brown to date is the one individual linked to the July 2, 2022, demonstration to face legal prosecution.
The Rev. Miniard Culpepper, senior pastor at Nice Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Dorchester, has urged Boston police to launch its video. A couple of days after the Patriot Entrance march, Culpepper stated he participated in a gathering with Murrell, Mayor Michelle Wu, and the Rev. Kevin C. Peterson, founding father of the New Democracy Coalition, a civic engagement group.
“This could have by no means been dormant for this lengthy,” Culpepper stated. “If they will deliver some prices and prosecute any person, then let’s do it.”
Peterson stated Wu ought to have pressed extra strenuously for a decision in Murrell’s case.
“I’m sorry to say that this doesn’t appear to be a precedence challenge for her,” he stated.
Requested for remark, Wu’s workplace referred to the mayor’s assembly final yr with Murrell, throughout which she stated she linked him with the Boston Police Division.
Murrell didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The digital camera video from State Police in Stoneham lasts greater than 9 minutes and presents essentially the most expansive look to this point at regulation enforcement officers interacting with folks related to final yr’s Patriot Entrance demonstration in Boston. Troopers alleged Brown was attempting to hide the actions of his rental truck by affixing a license plate on it that wasn’t registered to the automobile.
“You bought connected plates. It’s a legal offense,” State Police Sergeant Danab Shea advised Brown, in accordance with the video. “That plate doesn’t belong on this truck. Plus it’s not even screwed on all the best way. It nearly seems like somebody was enjoying round with it.”
Shea consulted with different troopers on the scene earlier than issuing a legal quotation.
“I’ll whack him for it as a result of that’s ridiculous,” he stated.
Brown, who gave an deal with in Ravensdale, Wash., however later knowledgeable court docket officers he was residing in Midvale, Utah, advised one other trooper he needed to talk with U-Haul in regards to the plate. He requested about what would occur to the truck’s cargo.
“What’s all these things?” the trooper requested, standing in of the entrance flags and shields within the truck’s trailer.
“Stuff,” Brown stated.
The video doesn’t present troopers questioning Brown or his two passengers in regards to the Patriot Entrance march in Boston. State Police fined one of many passengers, Garret J. Garland, 24, of Freeburg, Unwell., for a seat belt violation, court docket information present. The positive was paid final August, a state Division of Transportation spokesperson stated. Troopers recognized the third passenger as Keith M. Ray, then 28, of Williamsport, Pa., however he wasn’t cited, information present.
Brown advised State Police the U-Haul was booked by a Spencer resident, Brian D. Harwood, 25, who has defended himself towards vandalism prices associated to Patriot Entrance actions in two instances on Cape Cod. In Could, Harwood was positioned on pre-trial probation and ordered to keep away from Framingham State College and full 24 hours of group service over prices associated to Patriot Entrance stickers discovered on campus in 2021, court docket information present.
Reached by telephone, Harwood hung up. His lawyer didn’t reply to messages searching for remark.
Brown’s legal motorcar case was heard in Woburn District Courtroom and dismissed in April after he paid $150 in court docket prices, information present.
The Globe couldn’t find a working phone quantity for Garland, and the lawyer representing him in Idaho didn’t return messages.
The Stoneham site visitors cease shared some commonalities with one other high-profile incident involving the Patriot Entrance that occurred three weeks earlier on June 11 of final yr in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.
In that case, police arrested 31 Patriot Entrance members geared up with physique armor and shields and accused them of planning to riot at a Satisfaction occasion. The group included Patriot Entrance founder Thomas Rousseau, who additionally participated within the Boston march. Investigators in Idaho stated they found the plot after a person reported seeing “slightly military” pile into the again of a U-Haul truck and head towards downtown Coeur D’Alene.
Brown and Garland, have been among the many Patriot Entrance members arrested in Idaho and charged with one misdemeanor depend legal conspiracy to riot, in accordance with court docket information reviewed by the Globe. Each males have pleaded not responsible and they’re scheduled to go on trial subsequent month, in accordance with court docket officers in Kootenai County, Idaho.
The primary trial within the Idaho case concluded earlier this month with convictions towards 5 Patriot Entrance members.
Jason L. Van Dyke, a lawyer in Denton, Texas, stated Brown denies committing any legal offenses in Idaho or Massachusetts. Van Dyke stated he doesn’t characterize Brown in any judicial proceedings, however Brown had requested him to reply to the Globe’s request for remark.