Nationalist Social Club 131, are increasingly visible throughout New England as they hold small but boisterous rallies in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, often targeting minority or immigrant communities as well the LGBTQ community.
The heightened public activity – along with talk of the neo-Nazi camp in Springfield – has elevated concerns that such groups see mostly white Maine as fertile ground. It is has also prompted discussion about whether Maine needs to update its laws regarding private militias and paramilitary groups.
Maine State Police say they know there are concerns about the Springfield camp but that they are unaware of any illegal activity there under current laws. So Baldacci’s proposal, in addition to creating a new"civil disorder" offense, would also allow the attorney general or a district attorney to ask a court to block such camps.But the proposal concerns Zachary Heiden, chief counsel at the ACLU of Maine.
"That's protected under the First Amendment,” Heiden said. “It's ok for people to say horrible ideas and it's ok for groups of people to gather together to express horrible ideas. The government doesn't get to decide what ideas are acceptable and what ideas aren't." Twenty-six states have anti-paramilitary laws that ban training camps, instruction on firearms or similar activities, McCord said. The latest was Vermont, which passed a"civil disorder" law this year in response to a paramilitary firearms training camp in that state that officials and local residents have been trying to shut down for several years.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the number of white supremacy incidents in Maine is rising. Three years ago there were 13. Last year there were 33.
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