Springfield, Ohio, sues neo-Nazi group over hate campaign against Haitians – National | Globalnews.ca

The City of Springfield, Ohio, has filed a civil lawsuit against a neo-Nazi group, which it alleges tormented the community following false accusations that Haitian migrants living in the Ohio town were “eating pets” of U.S. citizens.

Springfield Mayor Rob Rue and several others sued the Blood Tribe, leaders Christopher Pohlhaus and Drake Berentz and seven unnamed followers in U.S. District Court in Dayton.

“The Blood Tribe and its members and associates unleashed a torrent of hateful conduct, including acts of harassment, bomb threats, and death threats, against Springfield residents who spoke out in support of the Haitian community,” the complaint says.

They also accuse the four-year-old neo-Nazi group of, “engaging in, and inciting, a campaign of harassment and intimidation, motivated by ethnic and racial hatred, against those who supported Springfield’s Haitian community in the face of Defendants’ racist attacks.”

With legal help from the Anti-Defamation League, the plaintiffs are asking the court for a jury trial seeking to block the group from making further threats and to impose damages.

Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000 west of Columbus, has seen its Haitian population grow to about 10,000 to 20,000 people in recent years, as Haitians have fled violence in their home country in search of stability and employment.

Their growing numbers caused friction with local residents, as schools, roads, hospitals and social programs were taxed by the large population — and, particularly, after a child was killed in 2023 when a Haitian immigrant driver hit a school bus.

In early September, a woman in Springfield wrote a post on social media falsely claiming that the Haitians in Springfield were butchering cats. The post went viral and U.S. President Donald Trump repeated them during a September presidential debate with Kamala Harris, when he made false claims that Springfield Haitians were abducting and eating people’s cats and dogs.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said.

The lawsuit makes no direct reference to Trump’s remarks, but notes that Pohlhaus “gleefully took credit for the growing notoriety” the false claims gained as they spread around the world after the debate.

The lawsuit says that around the time of the false claims, there were at least 33 bomb threats made by phone or email against hospitals, schools, private residences and different businesses all over Springfield, causing many evacuations. Many of those threats are attributed to “members and associates” of Blood Tribe, according to the suit.

Springfield’s lawsuit against the Blood Tribe alleges that the group first coordinated a “hit” against the city before that, in July, casting the influx of Haitians as an “invasion” that was threatening Springfield’s “good White residents of the city.”

The Blood Tribe showed up at the city’s jazz and blues festival in August, according to court documents, displaying guns, waving swastika flags and wearing matching red shirts, black pants and ski masks. They made their way to City Hall, where Berentz went on to deliver a “racist and antisemitic rant,” to which followers responded with chants of “Seig Heil” and Nazi salutes.

Additional actions the lawsuit alleges against the group include harassing voicemails, hateful emails and social media posts demeaning the plaintiffs and their families. The complaint says that group members also used dating apps to send men looking for drugs and sex to the residents’ homes late at night and publicized their personal information with the intent of getting others to join in the harassment.

The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages and compensation for the thousands of dollars spent on extra security as the Blood Tribe’s campaign unfolded around the city.

— With files from The Associated Press

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