Black musician files lawsuit against Patriot Front over alleged ‘racially motivated attack’ in Boston
BOSTON — A Black man who says members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front assaulted him in a “coordinated, brutal and racially motivated attack” last year has filed a lawsuit against the organization.
Charles Murrell III, a musician and teacher from Boston, said he was near the Boston Public Library on July 2, 2022, when he was approached by members of the white nationalist hate group.
Murrell, who was there to play his saxophone, said members of the group physically attacked him, pushed him against a street pole, knocked him to the ground, and used “their shields, fists, and feet to further inflict harm” on him, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Boston federal court.
He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was treated for lacerations to his head, hand and face.
“Some of his physical injuries required stitches and, for days following the incident, adversely affected his ability to perform music and earn a livelihood,” the lawsuit alleges.
While he was physically treated at the time, the emotional damage he suffered in the attack continues to this day, he says. That includes “severe anxiety, mental anguish, invasive thoughts and emotional distress,” as well as constant nightmares and flashbacks.
The ongoing trauma has affected his ability to write and perform music — and consequently, earn his living as a musician.
“This attack left me with both physical and emotional injuries. While I am still trying to heal, I hope that this healing will be broader than salving my own wounds,” Murrell said Tuesday in a statement.
The suit — filed by the nonprofit Human Rights First and the private law firm Foley Hoag on behalf of Murrell — names the organization’s leader, Thomas Rousseau, and unnamed members of the group as defendants. It seeks an unspecified amount for civil rights violations, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims.
“As a Black man and an educator, I feel like every Black and Brown child is my own. If this lawsuit helps keep even one of them — one person — safe from violent white supremacists, some justice will have been served,” he said.
The Patriot Front — designated as an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — broke off from Vanguard America, another white supremacist group, in the aftermath of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. in August 2017.
Last month, five members of the group were convicted of a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to riot at a 2022 Pride event in northern Idaho.
