Preparing to launch dedicated hotline, Rollins makes it clear to white supremacist groups, ‘You are not welcome here’

Local

“We need to expose these cowards.”

Following four organized white supremacist actions in Boston already this year – including an incident this weekend in which a group known as NSC-131, or the Nationalist Social Club, protested a children’s drag queen story hour in Jamaica Plain – United States Attorney Rachael Rollins said she is launching a dedicated hotline for community members to report what they see and hear, saying, “We need to expose these cowards.”

In a statement posted to Facebook and shared on her Twitter page Sunday, Rollins addressed the incident this weekend, saying “Every single person deserves to live their life fully and authentically as who they are. But if your authentic self is a bigot that wants to harm, humiliate and terrorize people, you are not welcome here.

“There is no hierarchy as to who is entitled to a full and authentic life. We all are,” the U.S. attorney continued. “In Boston, Massachusetts we have a long history of standing up to hate and injustice.”

Prior to this weekend’s protest by NSC-131, there was a neo-Nazi protest at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in January, an NSC-131 gathering at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston in March, and a Patriot Front march on July 2.

“We don’t hide behind masks,” Rollins said. “When we see inequity and harm, we look the culprit in their eyes and demand that it stops. If it doesn’t, we use every means at our disposal – legislatively, through the courts, and with community organizing – to end it. And that is exactly what is going to happen here.”

With a dedicated hotline launching soon, Rollins called on the public to report any “troubling or concerning information about members of white supremacist groups” to local law enforcement.

“As was shown by the swift response of Mayor Wu and and the Boston Police Department this weekend, there is a zero tolerance policy for white supremacists or any potential racially motivated violent extremist in Massachusetts,” she said. “As the Chief Federal law enforcement officer, I stand ready to deploy federal time and resources to assist our State, Local and Tribal partners in effectuating any arrests and prosecutions.”

Her full statement can be found below:

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