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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The New England branch of the Anti-Defamation League says every state in the region saw a spike in hateful propaganda over the last year.
The ADL says incidents of white supremacist propaganda jumped by 98% in 2022. Massachusetts saw a spike of more than 70%, while New Hampshire saw a nearly 400% increase.
The propaganda can include everything from white supremacist flyers dropped in driveways to full laser light displays on the side of buildings.
"I'm not at all surprised to see that there was a lot of activity in New England," ADL Interim Regional Director Peggy Shukur told WBZ NewsRadio. She said Massachusetts was ranked number two for total number of incidents in the entire country, even ahead of states with much larger populations. She said the increase in New England was higher than other parts of the country.
Shukur said the jump was unsurprising because some groups are specifically targeting New England as a base of operations. One particular group, NSC-131, has drawn attention to itself around Boston with its antisemitic banners over highways.
"The message here is that this type of hate doesn't really know a geographical boundary," she said. The organization has been tracking the metric nationally since 2018, when about 1,200 incidents were recorded. Just a few years later in 2022, it's up to about 6,700.
Despite the jump, Shukur warned against making assumptions about the strength of these organizations.
"When people encounter them, they shouldn't draw a conclusion that there are armies of these people around spreading this hate. Sometimes, it's a really small number of people, but they just have very loud voices," she said.
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