Local News

Kingston residents say white supremacist demonstration at hotel does not reflect their community

"It’s a small town, and Kingston is a very loving, welcoming place."

October 31, 2022

3 minutes to read

Two local residents said a white supremacist group’s demonstration in Kingston on Sunday — an attempt to harass homeless refugee families and children who are staying at a local hotel — does not represent their community.

Over 20 masked members of the Neo-Nazi group, National Social Club 131, demonstrated with chants, signs, and pamphlets with anti-refugee messaging in the parking lot of the Baymont Inn Hotel, Kingston police said in a Facebook post.

Video posted on Twitter of the display shows at least two members used a Nazi salute.

The group mobilized apparently in response to the state Department of Housing and Community Development’s decision to move 107 people, including 64 children, into the hotel on Route 3 last week.

The department is charged with providing emergency shelter and other resources to homeless families. Due to high demand in the state’s shelter system, the department has temporarily placed some families in hotels, including in Kingston and Plymouth, as the agency works to find more permanent housing, the department said last week.

Most of the people at the Kingston hotel are undocumented immigrants from Haiti who speak little to no English, while others are people who are homeless but have resided in Massachusetts for a longer amount of time.

One Haitian man told The Boston Globe he made his way to Boston from Texas with his wife and three young children after crossing the Mexican border into the United States. They fled Haiti due to threats of violence against the family, he said.

In Plymouth, 27 families, primarily from Haiti and Central America, are staying at a local hotel.

The relocations made news last week as Kingston and Plymouth town officials said the state failed to notify them ahead of time of the influx of people arriving in their communities.

According to Kingston police, officers on Sunday spoke with hotel management and were told the white supremacist group was not welcome on the hotel’s property.

“The group was then informed they were not allowed on the private property and they subsequently left the property immediately,” police said. “The group then spent some time on the public sidewalk in the area before they dispersed.”

No acts of violence were reported, authorities said.

According to Boston 25 News, Rebecca Richards and Nicole O’Brien captured the demonstration on video and told the station it was an alarming sight to see.

“These guys were face covered, matching clothing, throwing white supremacy signs,” Richards said.

“I feel horrified because our community is a very welcoming community, it’s a small town, and Kingston is a very loving, welcoming place,” said O’Brien.

Indeed, O’Brien said her community has stepped up to provide food, clothing, and other personal products to help the homeless families over the past week.

But her town should still be wary of hate groups like the one that turned out on Sunday, she said.

“This isn’t a joke anymore, they are willing to come to your tiny town and protest and scare people that have babies and pregnant women and people that just need a toothbrush and a breakfast,” O’Brien told Boston 25 News.

The Boston area has seen a rise in public white supremacist group activity in recent years, with a number of demonstrations, hateful propaganda, and marches from groups like NSC 131 and Patriot Front.

Members of these groups often travel to stage demonstrations in communities outside of where they actually live.

Civil rights lawyer and the Democratic nominee for Plymouth County district attorney Rahsaan Hall condemned Sunday’s display in a tweet.

“I wholeheartedly condemn this racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant show of cowardice,” Hall wrote. “This does not represent the people I know in #Kingston or #PlymouthCounty Also, shout out to the advocates and residents who have rallied around to support these immigrants.”