Patriot Front’s Vandalism Spree gets them investigated by Vermont police

We are curious as to where this goes, actually. This group doesn’t like people looking into them all that much.

Vermont Fascist Watch

Patriot Front has a small but irritating and persitant presence in Vermont.

Last week, the Vermont State Police (VSP) announced they were investigating an incident in which graffiti from the neo-fascist group was painted on the side of the Waterbury Dam in Waterbury, Vermont. The graffiti, which has since been removed by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources last Wednesday, was discovered by a worker at the dam the same day, appearing to have been applied using a stencil, allowing whomever tagged the dam to apply the images quickly and then leave. There is no video of the site on the dam where the graffiti was applied, and there are no known witnesses or suspects.

The Waterbury Dam was built in 1938 after flood waters in 1927 from the Winooski River killed over 55 people and caused an estimated $13 million in damage. It is one of three dams to control the flow of Little River, Vermont, Winooski River and its tributaries, and along with flood control also generates electric energy.

Patriot Front’s presence in the area can be traced back to its precursor, Vanguard America. In August of 2017, Former pizza man, Ryan Michael Roy of Burlington, went to the tragic “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virgina with the neo-fascist group, who also saw Alex Fields,the nazi who murdered counter-protester Heather Heyer and injured over twenty others that day, also marching with them and carrying one of their shields. After Charlottesville, some Vanguard America members broke away from the group to form Patriot Front, a group that focuses on hiding fascist imagery and ideology as American Patriotism.

After the Unite the Right rally, Roy was fired from his job at Pizza Uno in South Burlington after coming out publicly as a fascist at Charlottesville, but since that day, Patriot Front has focused its activism on trashing up
neighborhoods with stickers and stencils. They proudly post most of their
petty campaigns on the internet as if they had actually accomplished something. Other than stickering and spray tagging buildings and bridges, their visible forms of activism have been flying banners — and a small rally in DC planned secretly to avoid any real opposition.

In Vermont, Patriot Front seems to be escalating its campaigns, from annoying stickers that quickly get covered up or removed, to larger spray paint stenciled slogans. Although they have targeted various organizations such as the Pride Center in Burlington, along with religious institutions ranging from a synagogue to liberal churches in Waterbury, Newport and Derby Line, they never got hit with hate crime charges.

This has changed now as the state police are investigating them for putting a sticker on a pride flag. The state police say they have no suspect in mind,
however the very small crew of PF chuds that range the state seem to be well known at least by some of the police in VT.

On May 30 there was a BLM protest in Burlington VT. During the protest the
american flag was replaced by the Black Lives Matter flag. After the protest
a handful of youngactivists remained in order to protect the flag from being
taken down by the police. They intended to stay as long as possible. At about
10pm a shadowy figure in dark clothes with a black backpack started surveiling the scene and texting on his phone. He was tailed by community security. Soon he left the area only to return with 2 of his fascist buddies. They walked through the knot of activists and one of them put a sticker on a sign held by a demonstrator. An argument ensued and the police pulled one of the fascists – possibly the one who put the sticker on the sign – into the precinct. He was let go shortly and the interaction between him and the police seemed to be rather cordial.

The VT State police claim to have no suspects in the case, however the
Burlington police seem to have a friendly relationship with this crew. If they are going to maintain the slightest semblence of being interested in enforcing the law against white nationalists they might need to share the info they have on this crew.