A member of the white supremacist group Patriot Front was arrested in Haverhill, Ma., Monday and charged with multiple hate crimes related to property damage, harassment, armed threats and distribution of white nationalist propaganda. Among other crimes, he’s accused of helping to decorate the city with white supremacist “Creativity Movement” stickers—which may or may not have been meant as invites to one hell of an arts and KKKrafts event—and targeting a Black flea market and a Unitarian Universalist Church.
According to the Eagle-Tribune, Justin Milaszewski, 18, was charged with misdemeanor counts of property damage for the purpose of intimidation, destruction/defacement of a place of worship and defacing property. He was also hit with a felony charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.
Side note: News outlets keep saying Milaszewski is 18 as if we can’t all see with our own eyes a 39-year-old volunteer firefighter from South Boston who recently trimmed his handlebar mustache because his now-estranged wife always told him it looked stupid. OK fine, he’s 18. I’m just saying, racism is like the reverse Lazarus Pit for white people.
Anyway, let’s start with what the police report says happened as reported by the Tribune:
In the report, Detective Rick Welch wrote that police were informed Tuesday, June 29, of a June 27 incident at a flea market hosted by the Merrimack Valley Black and Brown Voices group on the boardwalk behind Harbor Place.
According to the police report, the organizer said stickers related to the Patriot Front, a white supremacist group whose members support racism and anti-Semitism, were being handed out by three men. One of the hallmarks of the Patriot Front is spreading propaganda by handing out stickers.
Using surveillance footage, police followed the movements of the three men to Central Plaza, where a similar sticker was later found. One of the men, later identified as Milaszewski, displayed a gun, placing a witness in fear, according to police.
That witness “went into Market Basket and made a purchase, then informed the employees that there were several armed males outside that belong to a white supremacist group in the parking lot, and said that they should be cautious and might want to call the police,” according to the report.
Meanwhile, police had been investigating a June 21 report of vandalism at the Universalist Unitarian Church in Monument Square, where stickers promoting the group’s “Creativity Movement”—which may or may not be the name of their neo-Nazi street improv team—were found on the building and on a lamppost across the street.
Local radio station WHAV reports that police were led to Milaszewski after they were dispatched to Washington Square to help a man who turned out to be the Patriot Front member’s father with some sort of medical assistance. While assisting the man, the police found on him dozens of stickers that matched the ones found at the church and around 50 propaganda pamphlets on “healthy white living”—which may or may not mean a spice-free diet, bathing only twice a month and clapping exclusively on the one and three to relieve tension. The man then reportedly snitched on his son with the quickness leading them to their home.
During a search of Milaszewski’s bedroom, police who were executing the warrant that led to the “teen’s” arrest found a large flag bearing the symbol of the “Creativity Movement” that matched the stickers on the church. They also found “a black Colt replica handgun, determined to be a BB/pellet gun, and a money order receipt with the handwritten name of Thomas Rousseau, founder of the Patriot Front,” the Tribune reports.
Basically, Milaszewski is accused of taking part in these crimes and leaving a display of evidence in his room that might as well have been labeled, “Doer of whitey-gone-wild crimes here. Arrest me, bitches!”
Of course, Milaszewski reportedly lived up to his appearance by becoming a whiny little man-boy by asking police officers while they searched his room, “One sticker and now I’m Hitler?”
It’s unclear if either of the other two men who Milaszewski was said to be with were identified or arrested.
According to the Tribune, Milaszewski was arraigned on hate crime-enhanced charges in Haverhill District Court where he was put on full-time house arrest with GPS monitoring and ordered to surrender all firearms. His next court date is scheduled for Aug. 24.