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Stephen Thomas Farrea of Portsmouth, R.I., had been seen at many protests held by the Nationalist Social Club-131, a neo-Nazi organization.
The Nationalist Social Club-131, a neo-Nazi group, is known for harassing drag queen story hours and calling queens “pedo scum.” Now one of its members has been charged with possessing child pornography.
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Stephen Thomas Farrea, 34, of Portsmouth, R.I., was arrested May 24 after police received a tip, The Boston Globe reports. At his home, the police seized several electronic devices that “contained sexually explicit images of children,” according to the Globe. He appeared in court on the possession charge, a felony, and was released on bail and ordered to have no contact with children. He did not enter a plea.
Farrea, a former corporal in the Marine Corps Reserve, has participated in several actions of the Nationalist Social Club-131, which has disrupted drag queen story hours, protested COVID-19 restrictions, and promoted white supremacy. The group’s founder, Christopher Hood Jr., was arrested in 2022 during a protest against a drag story hour in Boston, at which demonstrators displayed a banner that read “Pedo Scum Off Our Streets.”
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella filed a civil rights complaint against the group last year, saying that Hood and 19 unidentified members terrorized a café in Concord that was hosting a drag queen story hour. “The complaint alleges that Hood and the other men stood outside the café and for over an hour, faced into the café shouting homophobic slurs and phrases, loudly chanting and saluting in a fashion reminiscent of Nazi Germany,” according to a press release from Formella’s office.
Farrea was arrested in 2022 for posting white supremacy flyers on utility poles in East Providence, R.I., a violation of a city ordinance that requires the city manager’s approval for any display of signs. He and another man pleaded no contest and were sentenced to community service, The Providence Journal reported at the time.
Farrea has also been involved with the now-defunct racist group Identity Evropa and has posted on social media about his “identitarian community” and his desire to distribute “okay to be white flyers in Rhode Island,” the Globe reports.
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