Patriot Front Ordered To Pay $2.75M For 2022 Attack

Rolling Stone reports:

A federal court has levied a $2.75 million judgment against Patriot Front, the prominent, violent white-nationalist extremist organization, and its leader Thomas Rousseau. The judgment, levied Monday in federal district court in Massachusetts, stems from an unpermitted “flash” mob of masked Patriot Front toughs, led by Rousseau, in Boston during the Fourth of July weekend in 2022. According to the court, the fascist marchers victimized a classically trained African American saxophonist named Charles Murrell, who had been headed toward the public library to perform on the street.

On that early July day, roughly 100 Patriot Front members marched with shields and banners reading “Reclaim America” and toting flags bearing the group’s symbol, a bundle of wooden rods, or fasces (from which the word “fascist” is derived). The extremist marchers encountered Murrell on the sidewalk, shouted racial epithets like “tar baby” at him. They surrounded the musician, and as Rousseau shouted “Right Screen” the group then pushed Murrell to the right, backing him into the street. He was then bodied into a concrete light post, whereupon Patriot Front members began punching and kicking him.

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The Texas-based hate group Patriot Front must pay $2.75M for a 2022 incident in which members surrounded a Black man and beat him while yelling racial slurs. Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau lives in Grapevine. https://t.co/giDEiFiprX

— Robert Downen (@RobertDownen_) January 13, 2025