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NEW BEDFORD — Within any community, an act of violence is a shock to the system.
How a community responds to that violence, however, can be what defines it — and it was 20 years ago that New Bedford showed the depth of its character in one of its darkest hours.
As the calendar changed from 2005 to 2006, there was much optimism among the gay community and its allies — Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage, and New Bedford’s Andy Pollock was one of the first wave of folks to take advantage, wedding his husband, Jeff.
Pollock, now the executive director of the SouthCoast LGBTQ+ Alliance, recalls that he was beginning to feel like a life of struggle for equality was turning a corner.
“A lot of people were feeling more comfortable,” he said. “You could go to the bathroom without worrying about getting beaten up. Not everyone was out, but still, you felt like it was safe.”
Then, on Feb. 1, 2006, a 19-year-old neo-Nazi walked into Puzzles, a North End bar that had served as a warm haven for gay culture, asked, “Is this a gay bar?” and nearly killed three people with a hatchet and gun. Five days later, after a dogged pursuit across several states, the attacker had killed an Arkansas police officer and a friend before being killed in a gunfight with police.
Scott Lang was weeks into his first term as mayor when he was woken in the early hours and informed of what had happened.
“It was obviously upsetting that this should happen in New Bedford, and we were extremely focused on finding the person who did it, getting them off the street, protecting the community, and preventing any further act of violence.”
The details of Jacob Robida’s violent rage grabbed the headlines, but away from the clickbait was a very real and very thoughtful response — a candlelight vigil for the victims, and an emotional town hall that followed days later to allow the gay community to share their experiences.
“We tried to take a tragedy, something that was really powerful but disheartening, and give it deeper meaning, because I think one of the lessons of Puzzles for us all was that it could happen anywhere,” Pollock said.
Liz DiCarlo has been on the front lines of the fight for gay rights for decades, first battling the spread of HIV and AIDS as a medical provider and advocate, then in the founding of the Marriage Equality Coalition and later the SouthCoast LGBTQ+ Alliance.
She married her wife, Bev Baccelli, in Toronto in 2003 and they were both vigilant in trying to clear the path for those same rights in Massachusetts. The response from the community after the attacks let her know that the message was taking hold.
“The wonderful thing is that it wasn’t just LGBTQ folk. It was everybody — all ethnicities, all ages, all backgrounds. We knew this was a moment that we really needed to bring out the educational dimensions of homophobia, hate speech, and violence, and all the connections. And people really listened and they really responded. It was really a wonderful coming together of the community to look at how homophobia and hate speech lead to violence.”
For Lang, it set the tone for city leadership centered on fairness and protection for all.
“That was a very, very severe wake-up call, I think, for New Bedford as a whole, the city and this region, but also for the gay community,” Lang said. “It became very clear to me that this was a community that was under attack by a fringe — whatever the fringe was — and they needed to know that everyone in New Bedford, regardless of their orientation, was welcome. And secondly, that their rights were going to be protected, and that we weren’t going to assume that the good nature of people would be guided by debate rather than violence.”
On Sunday, on the 20th anniversary, a memorial vigil was held — on Zoom, due to the impending reality of winter weather. It opened with a 10-minute moment of silence for reflection, and was followed by comments from Mayor Jon Mitchell, state Rep. Chris Markey and Old Rochester School Committee member Frances-Feliz Kearns.
The Sunday vigil was a way to remember the past while looking to the future, which Pollock noted earlier in the week as he and his staff prepared for the event.
“Words matter,” Pollock said. “When you look back at some of the stuff from 20 years ago, it’s amazing to look at it now. Our opponents were saying crime is going to increase, the nuclear family is going to disintegrate, people are going to leave their wives to marry a guy — or marry their dogs.
“If you marginalize a group of people — and it could be LGBTQ people or another group, like migrants — then you organize against them and you lessen them, right? And when you lessen them, it opens people up to violence, because these folks are ‘less than.’ They’re not us.”
While gay marriage feels newly insecure with renewed focus in the infamous Project 2025, Pollock notes that “transgender people are really taking the brunt of it right now.”
“They’re being put in the spotlight for so much hatred and rhetoric, and you worry people are taking it as permission to act violently — to take that rhetoric one more step and act on it.”
Even though Massachusetts is one of the most supportive states in terms of trans rights, that is no guarantee of protection going forward.
“I know that 20 years ago, the trans community was there for us — for marriage, for gay folks. They were there with us at the protests, doing the work. And now, when they’re on the hot seat, I don’t want to walk away and say, ‘Call me.’ We’re committed to our trans brothers and sisters.”
None of it is easy. Pollock jokes that he sometimes wishes he could just be a “regular gay” and not someone always fighting the good fight. He puts himself in difficult positions, talking to unfriendly audiences, going on the conservative WBSM radio network on Saturday mornings, and hearing what people have to say.
“I’ll go to the opening of an envelope,” he said. “If I’m invited, I’ll go — churches, talks, wherever I can. If we’re not pushing forward, we’re losing, because we have to keep gaining ground. And the more we’re in front of folks, even if they disagree with us, the more important that becomes.”
Lang, who lives and practices law in New Bedford, takes great pride in the tenor and character of the city and the efforts of organizations like the SouthCoast LGBTQ+ Alliance.
“We’ve had several other terrible crises along the way, and the community has always rallied to what was on the proper side of the dial. I feel our community still has all the great qualities it always has.
“But outside events taking place around the country are throwing this hate back into the mix — whether it’s against this community or other sub-communities within our society. The lids are off the hate boxes.”
Lang and DiCarlo both noted the humanity of Robida as a cautionary tale — that someone remembered as a sweet kid could be poisoned so completely, and so quickly, by the callousness of words.
“This is someone who would be almost 40 years old right now,” Lang said. “He had a path in society that, if he had been thinking clearly and hadn’t been blinded by his prejudice, might have led to a productive life. Instead, he’s defined by what he did, and that can never go away.”
“You do have to step back and look at Jacob,” DiCarlo said. “How he was influenced by neo-Nazi websites and Aryan Nation ideology. Twenty years ago, the web was actively recruiting, particularly young neo-Nazis, and unfortunately Jacob got caught up in all of that and went into the bar.”
While DiCarlo is less active than she once was due to the realities of age, her resolve remains.
“The leadership in this country has brought out the worst in people,” she said. “Whether you’re LGBTQ, an immigrant, Black, brown, Jewish — you have to watch your back.
“But when I meet someone who doesn’t think the way I do, I try to talk to them, because we need to engage. This is our America.
“As long as I live and breathe, I will be struggling for people’s rights.”
Jonathan Comey is a decorated newspaper editor and columnist and a contributor to The New Bedford Light. Please send emails to him at jcomey@newbedfordlight.org.
The article describes the killer at the Puzzles Bar as:
“someone remembered as a sweet kid (who) could be poisoned so completely, and so quickly, by the callousness of words”……..“You do have to step back and look at Jacob,” DiCarlo said. “How he was influenced by neo-Nazi websites and Aryan Nation ideology. Twenty years ago, the web was actively recruiting, particularly young neo-Nazis, and unfortunately Jacob got caught up in all of that and went into the bar.”
The following articles describe how AI and social media are now being used to promote neo-Nazi ideas and activities in our country today.
Why online radicalization deserves every parent’s attention: the rise of the Neo Nazi recruiter
https://www.thewhitehatter.ca/post/why-online-radicalization-deserves-every-parent-s-attention-the-rise-of-the-neo-nazi-recruiter
White supremacists are riling up thousands on social media
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/white-supremacists-are-riling-up-thousands-on-social-media
ICE nodding to far-right extremists in recruitment posts, experts say
https://www.cbc.ca/news/ice-recruiting-9.7058294
Neo-Nazis Are All-In on AI
https://www.wired.com/story/neo-nazis-are-all-in-on-ai/
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia cites a neo-nazi website 42 times, researchers say
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/elon-musk-grokipedia-wikipedia-neo-nazi-grok-42-encyclopedia-rcna244749
Like, Share, Recruit: How a White-Supremacist Militia Uses Facebook to Radicalize and Train New Members
https://time.com/5926750/azov-far-right-movement-facebook/
What happened at his establishment and others around the country was clearly wrong and hopefully will never be seen again. But this rant is so no “Peace be with you” and it’s no big surprise, that a connection to ICE had to be squeezed in there and as usual the majority of the information and links come from far left liberal fake news outlets with no credibility. Everything does not have to be about the far left liberal agenda.
The Far Right is normalizing the dehumanization of people based on their sexuality or immigration status. What makes you think it won’t happen again? IT NEVER STOPPED HAPPENING.
Look in the mirror.
Take your buddy Mamdani in New York letting 10 homeless people freeze to death.
The Far Left Radical Liberals are no better.
Yeah because the Mayor of a city controls the weather. Get real. That’s not even close to what I’m talking about – premeditated hate-driven attacks. That stuff is owned by and perpetuated by far right rhetoric.
Right now, the extreme rhetoric is coming from right wing extremists, but the technology can also be used by extremists from the left. The important thing is for us to be aware of what is happening, and to protect our young people from being swept up into this atmosphere of poisonous hate magnified and and spread by the technology.
AI is already snooping through the content of Gmail and of searches that use AI. The surveillance technology is already in place, waiting for a dictator. With that kind of power in the hands of a dictator, no one is safe because the rule of law will no longer apply. It will then be rule by the whim of the dictator, right or left.
Tech companies don’t want to be regulated. Why do you think all the tech leaders donated millions to this administration and why they were standing closest to the president when was inaugurated in 2025? There were legal cases pending against them, but we don’t hear any more about those cases now.
AI can be very good and very bad. It needs to be regulated so that the good can happen, but the bad can be prevented. Congress needs to legislate this, but with the present majority leadership, that isn’t happening anytime soon. I have hope of a leadership change in November that would allow more oversight to happen.
That is why I have included the links in my comments. I hope they will make people more aware, and our young people more safe.
I meant to say pending legislation in Congress. Legislating and regulating the tech industry isn’t happening because the majority leadership won’t allow bills out of committee as long as the President has allied himself so closely with big tech.
Why do you think one of the first things the President did after inauguration was to remove the people charged with investigating waste, fraud and abuse from agencies and government departments? Why did he then allow Elon Musk’s “DOGE” boys to come in and access the computer databases of all the agencies, including the private information of our Social Security recipients?
These tech companies have HUGE government contracts. There is so much conflict of interest here. One of the “DOGE” hacks is said to have uploaded the content of our Social Security information to the cloud, and to have a copy in his possession. There is SO much going on under the radar and so much more to say.
The Trump administration has finally admitted to DOGE’s misuse of Americans’ data:
https://www.ms.now/opinion/doge-trump-elon-musk-social-security-elections
Anonymous before you respond next time read the story, the death of 10 Homeless people happened because of the mayor’s poor decision making when he decided to stop homeless sweeps. Furthermore the majority of corruption and violence across the United States is in Democrat Cities like Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York. There is no one blame but the far left liberal democrats for the sad song you sing and remember the democrats were the party of slavery, black codes, Jim Crow, and that miserable terrorist excrescence the Ku Klux Klan.
And the party of those Civil War and Reconstruction era Democrats became the Republican Party of today, after the 1960 Civil Rights legislation. The Republican Party of today became more right wing with Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party.
Today, MAGA is way over to the right. It has forced out the more traditional conservative Republicans with threats of supporting rival candidates in primary elections, and actual physical threats to them and their families. Some of them have said that the intimidation is real. A lot more to say about this..
More nonsense, listing religious quotes one minute, and hate the next, isn’t a good look, and only leads to no credibility.
I read the news and I’ll address specious reasoning. The Mayor transitioned homeless outreach away from the police and then people died due to extreme cold. Tragic, yes. Preventable, maybe. Where is the connection between the policy change and the deaths? How would the police have done something different?
Now, getting away from your instance on making this out about ICE or immigrants or the mayor of another city in another state, I’d like to take it back to what this article is about and why I started engaging the first place. Attacks like the Puzzles tragedy occur because people in this country are gassed up by the far right, by people sympathetic to neo-nazi, white nationalist ideology if not espousers of it. They encounter these ideas online, through social media. These things are still happening. They have not stopped happening. And the mainstreaming of far right ideology is to blame. It’s why we have to push back against this vile stuff whenever it comes up. Have your free market capitalism, I don’t care. Reduce government spending. I don’t care. The GOP does not need to bring Nazis and Christian Nationalists along for the ride to accomplish these things. Ditch the losers.
Yes, and social media is being amplified big time by AI. Both AI and social media need regulating to eliminate the bad consequences.
First of all – you aren’t leaning right, babe. You are so far right you have crossed the threshold into my new favorite bad place – “Facebook Delusion Syndrome”. I could boil down each of your posts here to 3 images generated by bots and slapped onto some blurry meme on Facebook as facts. I would encourage you to open a book or newspaper someday soon, though I imagine it might be a very jarring experience when your talking points are all curated to suit whatever thought pops into your brain on a random Tuesday. As your President says, “Sad!”.
Second, I am not sure what point you are even trying to make this far down the chain. We went from mourning an attack on the LGBT community by a Neo-Nazi to making wildly ignorant and uninformed statements like “the Dems did slavery”. We don’t have enough room or time here to walk you through the ideological switches of the American political parties between 1865 and 1935 – but I am sure the library might have something on it!
Third, ICE shot and murdered 2 people in cold blood on icy pavements. The video shows it. Law enforcement professionals from across the political spectrum, including President Obama’s former ICE Director, stated that it was wildly wrong. If we cannot agree on that, then there is no point to a conversation.
Fourth, and finally, that’s the connection back to Pieces. The same hateful, uninformed, and ignorant rhetoric that radicalized someone to commit a heinous act two decades ago is happening before our eyes today. A federal government that guns down law-abiding citizens exercising their rights, including the 2nd Amendment you all used to love, used to be something we all hated. But, alas, here we are.
Have fun stewing on this reply. And then think long and hard about your belief system – because it needs a serious recalibrating.
Just More Far Left Liberal Nonsense, no one is buying it.
Look! Another Facebook meme reply! Classic.
Everyone is buying it, man. And I hope when this is all over, you stay vocal. Your opinion matters, but your conviction to remaining on the wrong side of history will matter more. It helps us avoid it and you again.
Facebook, really it’s time for you to grow up. You have learned nothing about this country, there are many that do not believe or feel the way you do. The far left liberals killed the democrat party, causing people of all ages to walk away, cross over, and vote for President Trump. As time goes on your far left liberal dreams will become nothing more than a fallacy. Here in Mass it will start with the Governor, get your tissues ready.
Guess you haven’t read the US Constitution.
Maybe you just didn’t understand it.
I stand by Todd’s comments. Speak for yourself. There’s nothing to buy, it’s facts and sincerity. Which you seem to not have!
Exactly! Thank you!
If you break the law, whether you are a citizen or not, you should be held accountable for the wrong you have committed and suffer the consequences. If you are in the Unites States illegally, you are ignoring our sovereignty and laws and taking advantage of our good will, which comes at a cost, usually to we taxpaying citizens. If you are an illegal and act as an illegal, you deserve to be removed from the country. By not assimilating and becoming an American, you may get on the next boat and go back to where you came from. This is America, we who have fought for this country would gladly kick you out.
America is a sovereign nation, established with a Declaration governed by a Constitution. When you come here, abide by its laws or suffer the consequences. If you are an illegal and do not assimilate, you are going to get thrown out. Why should we be the earth’s doormat? The only result is that we veterans and taxpayers end up paying for it. That is a zero return on our investment.
This is an article about a hate crime at a gay bar, not immigration. Having said that, the vast majority of immigrants in this country work, pay taxes and contribute to their communities and the economy at large. This country would not be able to function without their willingness to take on the most brutal low wage jobs that citizens would never consider.
I agree, there is nothing wrong with immigrants coming to this country as long as they do it legally. But if they come here illegally it’s breaking the law, if they stay in this country and have done nothing to become legal, they’re still breaking the law, and if they caught they should be deported.