Springfield, Ohio, sues neo-Nazi group for relentless ‘campaign of hate and harassment’ over Haitian migrants
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The Ohio city that became a flashpoint of the immigration debate during the 2024 presidential election after Donald Trump amplified false rumors of Haitian immigrants “eating the pets” is suing a neo-Nazi group for unleashing a “campaign of hate and harassment” against residents who defended the city’s migrant population.
In a federal lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court in Dayton, the city of Springfield alleged that the Blood Tribe and its leadership fueled fear and anger with its coordinated “hit” on the town to stop the “invasion” of Haitian immigrants. Springfield is seeking damages from the white supremacist organization for conspiracy to violate civil rights, public nuisance, telecommunications harassment, menacing, ethnic intimidation, and inciting violence.
The plaintiffs, which include the city and multiple residents and local officials, are being represented by lawyers from the Anti-Defamation League. Besides the Blood Tribe itself, the plaintiffs are suing the hate group’s leaders, Christopher Pohlaus and Drake Berentz, as well as seven other members of the organization.
The complaint points out that the Blood Tribe began targeting the city this past summer because of the increased number of Haitian immigrants who had moved to Springfield in recent years. The Haitian residents, the vast majority of whom were in the country legally due to Temporary Protected Status, came to Springfield for economic opportunity, as new businesses set up shop, and the city’s population had decreased substantially over the previous decades.
Claiming the new Haitian community threatened “the good White residents” of Springfield, Blood Trump members descended on the city in August during Springfield’s annual Jazz & Blues festival, marching downtown while displaying guns and waving swastika flags. Berentz would then deliver a racist speech at City Hall while his members chanted “Sieg Heil” and gave Nazi salutes. Berentz returned two weeks later to address the City Commission in a public meeting, ominously warning them that “if you keep importing Haitians, things will get worse.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/springfield-dog-eating-haiti-lawsuit-immigration-b2694220.html.
