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9/20 proud boys 3

see tarrio proud 4

see jan 6

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MSN = FOX?!

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A Trump-appointed federal judge on Friday reluctantly dismissed the Jan. 6 prosecution of four Proud Boys members, saying the law left him no authority to block the Justice Department's request.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the case with prejudice against Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola after a federal appeals court had already vacated their convictions.

Members of Proud Boys plan to sue Department of Justice for wrongful incarceration

WPTV reporter Joel Lopez speaks to members and an attorney about the suit

Photo by: Joe Biggs

Members of the Proud Boys are in Washington D.C. pursuing a case against the Department of Justice.

By: Joel Lopez

Posted , Feb 19, 2025

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Members of the group the Proud Boys are in Washington, D.C. pursuing a case against the Department of Justice.

Enrique Tarrio, Joe Biggs, Dominic Pazzola, Ethan Nordean, and Zachary Rehl arrived at the nation's capital on Wednesday.

Joe Biggs tells WPTV what this lawsuit means for him and other members

IFrame Content

It's the first time the group has been together and in D.C. since the events that took place January 6, 2021.

"Luckily, we're at the seat of power now in D.C.," said Biggs.

Biggs said the group known as the Seditious 5 are preparing to sue the Department of Justice for $150 million.

"It looks like financial retribution, it looks like liberation, it looks like freedom," said Biggs.

They're claiming wrongful incarceration, following recent pardons and anticipated dismissals of their cases.

Biggs said he was sentenced to 17 years in prison and served four years before he was released.

"They took everything from me and my buddies, and we're going to take everything from them," said Biggs.

Biggs attended the Presidents' Day rally in West Palm Beachon Monday, hoping to get the attention of President Donald Trump as he exited his golf course.

"I'm happy to be out but now I'm more of a burden for my family, because I can't support my daughter. I'm still a terrorist, a felon. I can't get a job, I can't get a house, I can't buy anything," said Biggs, who is expecting his case to be dismissed, "I'm a military vet with no access to the VA now. I don't get my pension anymore."

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Enrique Tarrio says he has no remorse for Jan. 6

IFrame Content

Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys who was one of the 1,000+ pardoned, was also at the rally. Tarrio said he was given a 22-year sentence and was released after three years.

"The relief didn't come on Jan. 21, when I was released. My relief came first for the country when we elected Donald J. Trump to be the 47^th president of the United States," said Tarrio. "That was a day. That was the end of tyranny for me and for everybody standing here."

Former president of the Florida bar, Michelle Suskauer said prosecutors, like the DOJ, have immunity protecting them from liability when moving a case forward.

"If they're suing a governmental agency, they certainly have to jump through all the hoops that are necessary in order to do that," said Suskauer. "If prosecutors didn't have some immunity, then there would be a chilling effect and they wouldn't feel that they had the freedom to file the charges that they do. It's interesting territory that we're in right now, in terms of understanding what happens moving forward."

Suskauer said the DOJ may not have absolute immunity if the Proud Boys can prove that prosecutors created, or witheld, evidence from the defense, then they might have a warranted wrongful incarceration case.

As to whether pardons and dismissals will play a role is unknown.

"We know what's happening on these individual cases, but based on that, does that necessarily mean that the initial prosecution, based on evidence that the Department of Justice had at the time, was improper in any way," Suskauer said, "and that's what the court is going to have to decide."

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AP 923

wASHINGTON (AP) — Two former leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group were sentenced to more than a decade each in prison Thursday for spearheading an attack on the U.S. Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

The 17-year prison term for organizer Joseph Biggs and 15-year sentence for leader Zachary Rehl were the second and third longest sentences handed down yet in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

They were the first Proud Boys to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who will separately preside over similar hearings of three others who were convicted by a jury in May after a four-month trial in Washington that laid bare far-right extremists’ embrace of lies by Trump, a Republican, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

enrique Tarrio, a Miami resident who was the Proud Boys’ national chairman and top leader, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday. His sentencing was moved from Wednesday to next week because Kelly was sick.

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6. He had been arrested two days before the Capitol riot on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation’s capital, and he complied with a judge’s order to leave the city after his arrest. He picked Biggs and Proud Boys chapter president Ethan Nordean to be the group’s leaders on the ground in his absence, prosecutors said.

Rehl, Biggs, Tarrio and Nordean were convicted of charges including seditious conspiracy, a rarely brought Civil War-era offense. A fifth Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other serious charges.

Federal prosecutors had recommended a 33-year prison sentence for Biggs, who helped lead dozens of Proud Boys members and associates in marching to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Biggs and other Proud Boys joined the mob that broke through police lines and forced lawmakers to flee, disrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying the electoral victory by Biden, a Democrat.

Kelly said the Jan. 6 attack trampled on an “important American custom,” certifying the Electoral College vote.

“That day broke our tradition of peacefully transferring power, which is among the most precious things that we had as Americans,” the judge said, emphasizing that he was using the past tense in light of how Jan. 6 affected the process.

Defense attorneys argued that the Justice Department was unfairly holding their clients responsible for the violent actions of others in the crowd of Trump supporters at the Capitol.

Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, acknowledged that he “messed up” on Jan. 6, but he blamed being “seduced by the crowd” of Trump supporters outside the Capitol and said he’s not a violent person or “a terrorist.”

“My curiosity got the better of me, and I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life,” he said, claiming he didn’t have “hate in my heart” and didn’t want to hurt people.

During the trial, jurors saw a trove of messages that Proud Boys leaders privately exchanged in the weeks leading up to the Capitol riot, including Biggs encouraging Tarrio to “get radical and get real men” after Trump announced plans for a rally on Jan. 6.

That day, dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members and associates were among the first rioters to breach the Capitol. Before the first breach, Biggs used a megaphone to lead rioters in chants of “Whose Capitol? Our Capitol!”

Biggs “acted as the tip of the spear” during the attack, prosecutors said in a court filing. He tore down a fence and charged up scaffolding before entering the Capitol. He left the Capitol but reentered the building and went to the Senate chamber.

“There is a reason why we will hold our collective breath as we approach future elections,” prosecutor Jason McCullough said. “We never gave it a second thought before January 6th.”

For Rehl, who also helped lead Proud Boys, prosecutors asked for a 30-year prison sentence. He was seen on video spraying a chemical irritant at law enforcement officers outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, but he repeatedly lied about that assault while he testified at his trial, said prosecutor Erik Kenerson. “He tried to craft a narrative to fit the evidence and he was caught,” Kenerson said.

Rehl also led at least three other men into the Capitol and into a senator’s office, where he smoked and posed for pictures while flashing the Proud Boys’ hand gesture, prosecutors said in court documents.

“Rehl led an army to attempt to stop the certification proceeding, was proud that they got as close as they did, and his only regret in the immediate aftermath was that they did not go further,” they wrote in a court filing.

Kelly read from some of the “chilling” messages Rehl sent after Jan. 6, including one, the judge said, that read, “Everyone should have showed up armed and taken the country back the right way.” The judge shook his head and said, “I mean, my God.”

Rehl sobbed as he told the judge he deeply regretted being at the Capitol that day.“I’m done with all of it, done peddling lies for other people who don’t care about me,” Rehl said. “Politicians started spreading lies about the election, and I fell for it hook, line and sinker.”

Defense attorney Norman Pattis, who represents Biggs and Rehl, said they are “misguided patriots,” not terrorists, and said long sentences would fuel division.

Rehl and others who rioted at the Capitol that day were following Trump’s urging, and genuinely believed that something was fundamentally wrong with the election when they took to the streets, he said. “What they’re guilty of is believing the president who said the election was stolen from him,” Pattis said.

Kelly acknowledged that was a factor, but a “very modest one.”

Prosecutors have also recommended prison sentences of 33 years for Tarrio, 27 years for Nordean and 20 years for Pezzola. Nordean and Pezzola are scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 600 of them have been convicted and sentenced.

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'I was in the eye of the storm': Inside Roger Stone's plan to help Trump overturn the 2020 election

Charges may be near for Roger Stone over Jan. 6 Capitol riot: legal expert

Jordan Green

andRaw Story

August 23, 2023

Former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants — many of them relatively obscure figures involved in the fake electors scheme — were indicted in Georgia last week, while top leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militias have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

One person linked to the fake electors scheme, as well as to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers has not faced any charges to date over Jan. 6. That would be political operative Roger Stone, who has been Trump’s friend and adviser for more than three decades.

Stone’s role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election is increasingly coming into focus through the halting, start-stop release of the new documentary “A Storm Foretold” by Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen. Footage shot by Guldbrandsen’s crew showing Stone dictating a plan to an assistant named Enrique de la Torre that calls for lobbying Republican-controlled state legislatures to send Trump electors on the basis of claims of fraud before Joe Biden was declared the winner was shown by MSNBC host Ari Melber last week.

On Aug.18, Guldbrandsenreleased the film on Vimeo, and then pulled it back while negotiating a deal for U.S. distribution. On Monday, Melber again showcased footage from the film on his MSNBC show.

One scene from before the election that was reviewed by Raw Story shows Stone vociferously articulating a strategy for Trump to use the authority of the office of president to prevent legitimate Biden electoral votes from being counted.

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“Oh, these are the California results? Sorry, we’re not accepting them,” Stone says, jabbing his index finger for emphasis. “We’re challenging them in court. If the electors show up at the Electoral College, armed guards will throw them out. I’m the president. F--- you. You’re not stealing Florida. I’m challenging all of it. And the judges we’re going to are judges I appointed. F--- you.”

De la Torre was deposed by the January 6th House select committee in May 2022. A senior investigative counsel asked him about Stone’s tirade, in one of at least three instances they referenced footage from Guldbrandsen’s film. The question by the senior investigative counsel indicates that Stone’s statement was addressed to de la Torre in July 2020. Gulbrandsen reportedly provided clips of his film to the committee, some of which were shown during one of its hearings in October 2022.

De la Torre invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination in refusing to answer the committee’s questions. Stone likewise declined to answer the committee’s questions while invoking the Fifth Amendment and declined to produce any documents.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Inside the MAGA plan to track and control your life

Stone could not be reached for this story, but he indicated on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Monday night that he had watched Melber’s segment on Guldbrandsen’s documentary, proclaiming that the footage “had all the hallmarks of Danish disinformation.”

Stone defended his statement about Republican-controlled legislatures submitting Trump electors based on purported claims of fraud during his podcast on Monday evening.

“I was in the eye of the storm late last week because I had the audacity to correctly cite Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which says that the state legislatures have the authority to certify the electors that go to the Electoral College,” he said. “And within that context, they have the authority to examine the election results. This was days before the election that I said that if there was evidence of theft, that process — which would be a very, public, open, transparent process — may have to take place.”

Three Trump electors are under indictment as co-defendants in the racketeering case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia, while 13 others are cited as unindicted co-conspirators. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has separately charged 16 Trump electors in that state with conspiracy to commit election law forgery and other crimes.

In the statement he dictated to de la Torre on Nov. 5, 2020, Stone said, “We must be prepared to lobby our Republican legislatures by personal contact and by demonstrating the overwhelming will of the people in their state — in each state that this may happen.”

It remains unclear who, if anyone, might have received the memo from Stone or his associates. De la Torre could not be reached for comment for this story.

The Fulton County indictment describes one component of a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn the 2020 election as making false statements “to persuade Georgia legislators to reject lawful electoral votes cast by the duly elected and qualified presidential electors from Georgia.” The indictment describes a phone call by Trump and Giuliani to Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, in which Giuliani allegedly made false statements about fraud while Trump “importuned Bowers to unlawfully appoint presidential electors from Arizona” as “overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.”

ALSO IN THE NEWS: 'Seething' Melania furious at Trump's use of Barron as 'political pawn': report

Similarly, the federal indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith cites as one component of Trump’s alleged conspiracy to defraud the government that “on the pretext of baseless fraud claims,” Trump “pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors; and ultimately cause the ascertainment of and voting by illegitimate electors” in his favor.

Responding to a commentary published in the Philadelphia Inquirer questioning why he has not been criminally charged, Stone scoffed on X on Sunday: “Sorry there is no evidence whatsoever that proves my involvement in the effort to delay the certification of the Electoral College in the U.S. Senate, the riot at the U.S. Capitol, or the effort in the states to challenge the certification of electors. Guilt by association is an ugly tactic used by ignorant haters.A video in which I correctly state the effect of Article II of the Constitution, and which is both historically, and legally correct, proves nothing whatsoever.”

‘Looking for any retired military or law enforcement officer’

While maintaining a close relationship with President Trump, Stone also cultivated ties with the Proud Boys, a neofascist street-fighting group founded in 2016, which underwent a recruitment explosion after Trump signaled during a presidential debate shortly before the election: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”

When a graphic depicting federal judge with crosshairs superimposed over her face was published on Stone’s Instagram account in 2019,he testified thatProud Boysnational chairman EnriqueTarrio was among a small number of people who had access to his phone. (Stone was subsequently convicted of obstructing a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and later pardoned by President Trump.)

During the 2018 midterm election, futureProud Boy Joe Biggsvolunteered for an early iteration of “Stop the Steal,” a mobilization by a handful of conspiracy theorists surrounding Stone to protest a recount in the Florida Senate race between Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Bill Nelson.

Biggs, a U.S. Army veteran who was a correspondent for InfoWars, posted on Twitter in November 2018: “I’m no new Floridian. I’ve spent most of my life there and in Texas. I love both places more than life itself. Which is why I will be helping #StopTheSteal. I will back home to Florida [sic] from my other home in Texas tomorrow. We will not let radical leftists destroy our home!”

Footage from “A Storm Foretold” shows Stone describing his plan to resurrect the campaign to Guldbrandsen on Nov. 5, 2020.

“We are relaunching Stop the Steal,” Stone said. “I’m looking for any retired military or law enforcement officer who would go on the committee. Don’t care what rank, don’t care how old. Old, young, disabled, doesn’t matter.”

Around the same time, the film shows Stone speaking into a cell phone and dictating the inaugural message of the “F.O.S.” — short for “Friends of Stone” — chat onSignal, an encrypted messaging platform.

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“We provide information several times a day, so please monitor the F.O.S. feed so you can act in a timely fashion,” Stone said. “Let me stress that the F.O.S. feed is not a chat room, and this is not the place for prolonged discussion.”

The Signal group included protest organizers and militant leaders, allowing them to coordinate security for a series of rallies in Washington, D.C. and other cities that set the stage for Jan. 6. A copy of the chat obtained by the January 6th House select committee shows that both Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes were members.

The Oath Keepers made outreach to military veterans and retired law enforcement the centerpiece of their recruitment pitch. According to an analysis by Raw Story, at least 14 of the 52 Proud Boys members and associates arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack were either military veterans or active-duty military service members.

A document turned over to the January 6th House select committee shows that Roger Stone and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes participated in the "F.O.S." chat on Signal.January 6th House select committee

The chats show Stone pushing out messaging to the protest organizers and militants, including a Nov. 10, 2020 post urging them to read a forthcoming “manifesto” that he promised would expose “the HOAX claiming Joe Biden has been elected President” and outline “President Trump’s path forward in the Courts, in the House and in the Electoral College.”

The chats also show Rhodes pledging that Oath Keepers members would provide security for VIPs at the Nov. 14, 2020 Millions for MAGA rally in Washington, D.C. as well as another pro-Trump rally held in Austin, Texas on the same day.

Rhodes also used the chat as a forum to issue a call for the Trump to use the military to declassify government secrets and to invoke the Insurrection Act “to suppress the communist insurrection” while using the military “to go after the domestic enemies at the top.”

Rhodes is currently serving an 18-year sentenceat Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution in Maryland for seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Stone said on his podcast on Monday night that he doubts that former Vice President Mike Pence will be able to testify that Trump told him he knew that he lost the election, adding, “I don’t think Trump believed it then. I certainly don’t think he believes it now.”

But the footage in Guldbrandsen’s film suggests that Stone himself harbored doubts about whether Trump could win in the waning days of the 2020 election.

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Speaking on the phone while riding in a car one week before the election, Stone can be heard telling an unidentified woman: “Don’t know. Totally up in the air. Not looking good. Not looking good. I say that as a professional. I’m trying to divorce my emotions from it. But it does not look good.”

The woman can be heard asking whether Stone thinks Giuliani — now a co-defendant with Trump in the Fulton County racketeering case — would be able to help Trump turn around his dim election prospects.

“Rudy is — he’s a great guy; he’s been very helpful to me,” Stone says. “He’s very loyal, but he likes booze and p---- a little too much. And he’s a single guy, so he’s getting a lot of ass.”

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

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ref

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/proud-boys-plan-to-wreak-havoc-at-bidens-inauguration-while-dressed-in-disguise-report/

Trump notoriously told members of the far-right organization Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" before the 2020 presidential election. Since Trump lost, the Proud Boys have no longer been standing by.

Over the weekend in DC, there were multiple instances of violence and the Proud Boys were accused of burning Black Lives Matter banners at Black Churches.

According to a new report by The Sun, the group is planning false flag operations to impersonate supporters of President-elect Joe Biden while causing chaos at his inauguration.

"Members of the Proud Boys are reportedly plotting to disguise themselves as Joe Biden fans to wreak havoc during the presidential inauguration," The Sun reported. "The Trojan Horse-style plot was revealed on InfoWars alum Joe Biggs’ YouTube channel — on which the right-wing militants were ordered to 'kick off this presidency with f*cking fireworks.'"

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio explained the plot during a November 20th episode of Biggs' YouTube.

"Revolt motherf***ers," Tarrio instructed. "Do whatever you got to do to f*cking get your tickets."

"You show up there in Biden gear and you turn his inauguration into a f*cking circus, a sign of resistance, a sign of revolution," he urged.

Watch:

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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/violence-both-literal-and-rhetorical-marks-right-wing-convergence-on-washington-dc/

[dc pix death mask] ...

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/proud-boys-2649517824

roger salon

chairman of the white nationalist Proud Boys group, a convicted felon, posted photos from inside the White House gates ahead of a violent pro-Trump rally in Washington DC on Saturday, raising new questions about the president's apparent embrace of the right-wing agitators.

Enrique Tarrio revealed that he visited the executive mansion on Saturday after receiving a "last-minute invite to an undisclosed location." The White House later said that Tarrio had not been invited, but had instead taken part in a holiday tour. "He was on a public White House Christmas tour," White House spokesperson Judd Deere said over the weekend. "He did not have a meeting with the president, nor did the White House invite him."

White House public tours are self-guided, and anyone who wants one, including Christmas tours, must apply no fewer than 21 days ahead of their booking date because the application includes a security form and background check. Hopefuls with a felony are generally denied, a former Trump White House official told Salon, unless a senior member of the administration intervenes.

In 2013, Tarrio, also known as Henry Tarrio Jr, was convicted of two class C, one class D and one class E felonies for stealing and reselling $1.2 million worth of diabetes test strips from Abbott Labs, and served 16 months in federal prison. Court records show that he was released in December 2014 with two years probation, and ordered to pay restitution for the full $1.2 million.

On Saturday, Tarrio was accompanied to the executive mansion by other members of Latinos for Trump, including Bianca Garcia, the president of the group, and her son, Armani Garcia, a former intern for Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga. It is unclear if or when Latinos for Trump applied for its White House tour, and unclear why Tarrio received a security pass.

In the past, people who have been invited to the White House specifically because of their work on criminal justice reform have been denied entry. For instance, Vicki Lopez, a former county commissioner in Florida who had been previously sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for mail fraud, was not allowed into the Obama White House in 2009, despite receiving a commutation from former President Bill Clinton. People with prior convictions who are able to gain entry are generally given special badges and personal escorts. It would be highly unusual for someone with Tarrio's criminal history to get inside the White House without someone high up in the administration personally pulling strings, according to the former White House official.

A White House spokesperson declined to reply when asked who had checked Tarrio in on Saturday: The East Wing, where visitors usually enter, or the Executive Office of the President.

During the first presidential debate in September, Trump had the opportunity to denounce white supremacists and violent far-right groups — specifically, Democratic opponent Joe Biden invited him to condemn The Proud Boys. Trump did not denounce the group but told them "stand back and stand by," a directive that the group took as an endorsement. The Proud Boys Telegram account wrote, "standing down and standing by sir." Another known account incorporated a version of the phrase — "Stand back. Stand by" — into a new group logo.

"I think this 'stand back, stand by' thing will be another Proud Boy saying," Tarrio told The Daily Beast. (The Beast pointed out that previous slogans were: "The West Is the Best," and the warning "F*ck Around and Find Out.")

Trump eventually condemned the group in a Fox News interview two days later but he also claimed he knew "almost nothing" about them. "I condemn the Proud Boys," Trump said. "I don't know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that."

The Proud Boys self-identify as "Western chauvinists," but deny being part of the racist alt-right. Members claim they are instead simply a men's group that promotes an "anti-political correctness" and "anti-white guilt" ideology, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

On his 2020 Ballotpedia candidate questionnaire, Tarrio cited as his favorite book Pat Buchanan's 2001 "The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization."

"This book shows the growing problems and divide in our country," Tarrio wrote. "It allows me to learn how to find solutions to conserve our nation and restore the love we have for it. We are not a perfect nation, but we must strive everyday to get as close to perfection as possible."

The group's initiation process demands aspirants to, among other things, denounce masturbation and recite five brands of breakfast cereal while fighting off an attack from other members. The final requirement for membership involves "a major fight for the cause," founder Gavin McInnes told Metro.us in a 2017 interview.

"You get beat up, kick the crap out of an antifa" and possibly get arrested, McInnes explained.

"Their disavowals of bigotry are belied by their actions," the SPLC says on its profile of the group. "Rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric."

In 2017, Proud Boys marched at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virg., but after a neo-Nazi terrorist attack on counter-protesters left one woman dead, the group's founder Gavin McInness sought to create distance from the white supremacist movement. In recent months, members have shown up to counter Black Lives Matter protests, and last month President Trump shared a video of a post-election Proud Boys brawl in D.C., selectively edited to make it appear that a member was a victim, not an instigator.

The group has held rallies where hundreds of members attended, many of them armed. However, its chairman, Tarrio, cannot legally own a gun, because he is a convicted felon. He often appears in photographs wearing a tactical vest with a fruit-flavored malted alcoholic beverage tucked into a front pocket.

The Proud Boys also have ties to longtime Trump associate and convicted felon Roger Stone, and they are open about its support for the outgoing president. Another leader, Joe Biggs, boasted last year that he was having dinner with Trump at the president's D.C. hotel, and shared a picture of himself seated beside Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Trump's official schedule that evening included "remarks at a fundraising committee reception" at Trump International Hotel at 8:00 PM.

Tarrio's Saturday visit coincided with a rally in the nation's capital where thousands of right-wing protesters, including several hundred Proud Boys, a number of them dressed in tactical vests and fatigues, took to the streets to protest Trump's election defeat.

This January, Tarrio launched his ill-fated congressional campaign with a launch party at Trump National Doral in Miami on Jan. 25. (Tarrio had to accept Roger Stone's endorsement in absentia that evening, as the Trump confidant had been arrested that morning.) About 300 people attended the event, which caught the tail end of the Republican National Committee's winter meeting and ended with fireworks.

However, his campaign's finance records do not indicate any payments on the night other than a $900 expense on Jan. 27 to Trump's BLT Prime restaurant in Washington, D.C. (There is a BLT Prime at Trump's Doral club as well.) Tarrio later bragged that "We exceeded our expectation by three-fold with 250+ in the building."

A White House spokesperson referred Salon's questions about security checks to the U.S. Secret Service. The Secret Service did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/proud-boys-2649481985/

In vino veritas,or perhaps more appropriately, in Bud Light veritas: These were the words that came to mind while I watched Saturday's Proud Boys riot in Washington, D.C.

For years, the Proud Boys have angrily resisted critics who say the group is racist, claiming instead to be for "Western chauvinism." Before the heat got to him and he quit, Proud Boys founder (and onetime Vice co-founder) Gavin McInnes described the group as being "alt-right without the racism." The Boys' insistence that they are absolutely, definitely not a bunch of racists even led to ugly infighting when a splinter group broke off over the refusal of group leaders to commit to overtly white nationalist beliefs.

But on one Saturday night in Washington, fueled by alcohol and rage over Donald Trump's electoral defeat, the pretense that "Western chauvinism" is not a racist ideology collapsed.After hours of drinking and ginning themselves up, the Proud Boys stole Black Lives Matter flags and targeted counter-protesters who were gathered in Black Lives Matter Plaza. A group of Proud Boys dramatically lit a large Black Lives Matter flag on fire, while flashing the "OK" sign, which of late has been appropriated by racists as a "white power" symbol. Vandalism at two historically Black churches, Asbury United Methodist Church and Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, is being investigated as a hate crime. Four people were stabbed in altercations between the Proud Boys and counter-protesters.

Saturday's rally was ostensibly about protesting Trump's loss and claiming that he was the victim of a "rigged" election. But with inhibitions loosened by booze, anger and literal (as well as metaphorical) darkness, the truth was illuminated: The rage about Donald Trump's electoral fate is about racism. It's a part of the growing fury taking hold of conservatives as their control over American culture slips further and further out of their grasp. Trump is just the latest vehicle for this anger, but this story is about a lot more than him. It's bigger even than electoral politics. This is about a more fundamental issue: over who gets to define America, and the widespread reactionary outrage over being outnumbered by more liberal, more diverse and more cosmopolitan Americans, and feeling unable to stop the tide of progress.

Trump was able to amass an extraordinary 74.2 million voters with a message of resentment at "political correctness" and "woke" culture, a story about how conservative white people are supposedly being victimized by a changing America. But as much as that campaign whipped up millions of Americans, at the heart of it all was a misdirection. What conservatives really want is control over the culture. That isn't something that can be won at the ballot box, and they know it.

If the actual goal of the angry right were control over governance and policy, they should be thrilled by the past year.

Despite Trump's defeat, the GOP has maintained control over the Senate (pending the results of Georgia's runoff elections next month) and gained at least 10 seats in the House, nibbling the Democratic majority down to a bare minimum. They have also packed the federal courts so thoroughly that meaningful Democratic legislation may be impossible to enact for at least a generation. Unless Democrats can pull upsets in both of the Georgia races to be decided on Jan. 5, incoming President Joe Biden will be hamstrung by all-too-familiar obstructionist Republicans.

But instead of being happy or at least begrudgingly accepting what was mostly a win for Republicans, the right has exploded in rage. That's because Donald Trump's defeat was a reminder that no matter how much Republicans maintain power through a drastically tilted electoral playing field, conservatives are still, culturally speaking, a minority — and one that's shrinking rapidly, at that.

This is why right-wingers always act like angry losers, no matter how many political wins they stack up. There's a limit to how much cultural change can be reversed at the ballot box or even in the courts. Of course, the policy fights over police reform, reproductive rights, same-sex marriage and immigration matter quite a bit to real people's lives. But even when the right wins on policy, the cultural changes — racial diversity, women's increased equality, the mainstreaming of LGBTQ people — march on. That's why Proud Boys targeted Black Lives Matter iconography instead of, say, the offices of Democratic Party leaders or progressive think tanks.

The same weekend that Proud Boys were throwing a public tantrum in Washington, Cleveland's baseball team finally gave in to longstanding pressure and announced it would drop its venerable but racist name, the "Indians." The move comes after the NFL team in D.C. dropped its former name, which was a far more vicious slur against Native Americans. Trump, unsurprisingly, whined about the Cleveland decision on Twitter, calling it "Cancel culture at work," even though the team's private owners made the decision and its players will take the field next season as usual. Even in using that term, Trump tacitly admitted that his power as president, and as massive cultural icon to the right, can do nothing to stop the anti-racist pressure campaign that caused the name change.

Trump's ultimately futile war over the military's move to ban Confederate iconography and rename bases currently named after Confederate figures is similar. That's a lost cause, and not just because Trump will soon leave office and the military will just proceed with its plans under Biden. Military leaders are making these decisions themselves, reflecting changes that have already occurring within military culture as the services have become more racially diverse and more open to women.

There are any number of other examples. Even as the right keeps on railing against these cultural changes, it can't help but reflect them. For instance, Saturday's right-wing rally featured an extremely lame hip-hop act, juxtaposing right-wing cultural appropriation with overt acts of racism. But this seeming contradiction is just SOP for Trumpers. Trump himself would dance badly to songs by the Village People at rallies where he'd promise to appoint more right-wing judges to strip LGBTQ people of their rights.

What else are conservatives supposed to do? Have crap music at their events? Even "Western chauvinists" understand that if they limit themselves to white, straight, conservative-oriented music, they're doomed to host a lame party. So they borrow very heavily from the same cultures they view as an existential threat to "America."

Again, that's why right-wingers eternally act like victims, no matter how many electoral wins they rack up. "MAGA" was a promise to restore a fantasy version of an American white-bread past. The entire Republican National Convention was a lengthy whine about "cancel culture" and "political correctness," which are right-wing scare terms to demonize shifting social mores that reject open bigotry. The implicit promise was that, by electing Trump for four more years, he would make it socially acceptable to be shitty again. That promise turned out more than 74 million people.

Make no mistake, Trump did a lot of damage in four years: He wrecked the economy, unleashed a pandemic, made the lives of immigrants miserable and rolled back environmental protections — the list goes on. But he wasn't able to do the one thing that his supporters most dearly wanted, which was to remake the culture in their image. He couldn't do that in four years, and he wasn't going to do it in eight. It's not impossible to use political power to do such a thing — the Jim Crow South and Nazi Germany being the most obvious examples — but it generally requires heavy-handed state violence and censorship crackdowns that Trump flirted with but was never remotely able to implement on the scale necessary to fulfill those MAGA desires.

None of which is to say that everything will be just dandy now that Trump is leaving office. Racism, sexism, homophobia and other bigotries continue to be a major poison. Systematic racism still creates major inequalities in health, wealth and other social markers. To say that the culture is changing isn't to say that it has changed, and the right-wing assault on human rights is causing real people real pain every day. But none of these realities placate conservatives, who are still enraged that progressives continue to push for and often gain ground, especially in the cultural sphere.

And now a neofascist movement has been unleashed in the U.S. Trump's failed coup was, for him, about ego and power. For his supporters, however, it was a symbol of their long-term hopes of managing to wrest back control over the culture despite being both outnumbered and largely incapable of generating attractive cultural touchstones to lure other Americans to their side. The right is losing the culture war, and its anger over that will continue to grow, even as Trump himself is pushed out of the spotlight.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/maga/

The pattern has become clear: Wherever pro-Donald Trump "Stop the Steal" rallies are organized, the thugs who come out in large numbers to participate wreak violence on anyone who comes out to protest them. This weekend, even as Proud Boys and other Trump supporters were bringing violence to the streets of Washington, D.C., a similar but much smaller group of MAGA fanatics was doing the same thing across the country in the Washington state capital.

And for the second week in a row in Olympia, a Trump supporter fired a gun at counterprotesters for a "Stop the Steal" event—this time, hitting and injuring a man who was wounded and hospitalized at the culmination of a running series of brawls. Police arrested the man, along with three other people at the event.

[vid]

The shooter, identified as 26-year-old Trump supporter Forest Michael Machala of Seattle, was charged with first-degree assault, the state's equivalent of an attempted-murder charge. The victim, a Black man who has not been identified, was transported by street medics to a local hospital with a stomach wound.

One week before, a Proud Boy named Christopher Guenzler, 27, marching in a similar event, pointed a gun at counterprotesters and fired, but only inflicted a graze wound. He was also arrested and charged with first-degree assault.

Saturday's rally began at the state Capitol campus, where it was mostly peaceful. According to the *Washington Post,*several "Boogaloo" civil-war movement members dressed in Hawaiian shirts were among them. Many of them came armed with guns and knives.

But when the crowd there to protest Trump's defeat in the November election—estimated at 50 to 80 people—began to march into downtown Olympia, the much larger crowd of largely antifascist counterprotesters greeted them with jeers, insults, and hurled objects. Brawls broke out in short order.

Olympia and state police forces numbering around 100 attempted to keep the sides separate, and began making arrests. One Proud Boy was arrested for brandishing a gun to threaten protesters. Two counterprotesters were arrested for allegedly assaulting police officers, one with a baton and the other with a piece of concrete.

The shooting occurred as the pro-Trump crowd attempted to make its way back to their cars and were pursued by counterprotesters. Videographer Robert Zerfing, a Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys supporter, told the *Seattle Times* that "pretty much all of the 'Patriot' crowd came up here into the parking lot, they were running into their cars, trying to get out." As they were pursued by antifascists, "that's when I heard the shot."

Afterward, state police reported they found an undetonated improvised explosive device near the location of the shooting. "Device had been lit and thrown, but failed to detonate," they reported. "Had the device detonated, it could have caused significant injury."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/proud-boys-2649475794

Fueled by the words ofretired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, conspiracy-monger Alex Jones and other luminaries of Trump-sphere, thousands of Trump loyalists poured into Washington, DC on Saturday, pledging defiance to an orderly transfer of presidential power and looking for opportunities to clash with antifascists.

Police blocked off the streets several blocks back from the National Mall and Freedom Plaza — the two focal points of the Trump rallies — causing traffic to snarl and impeding ambulances from passing through.

Flynn, who served as Trump's first national security advisor and who received a pardon from the president after pleading guilty to the crime of lying to the FBI, was one of several speakers who described the effort to overturn Joe Biden's election as a "spiritual battle" at the event dubbed "Stop the Steal" and "Jericho March."

As President Trump buzzed over the National Mall in Marine One, Flynn lambasted the news media, echoing his former boss' scorn.

"Every time they throw an arrow at him, it is an arrow directed at us, and we cannot allow that," Flynn said. "We cannot allow that in this country. We the people have to continue to fight back."

Another speaker, conservative radio host Eric Mataxas, also engaged in media demonization. Spotting another helicopter prior to Marine One, he said, "That's the media?

We need to shoot that down. Anybody got a bazooka?"

weaving together the martial religious language of the Old Testament with Trumpist conspiracy-speak, Flynn concluded: "I'm gonna use a metaphor, because Jericho — we're inside the walls of the Deep State. There is evil and there is corruption, and there's light and truth. We're going to get to the light and we're going to get to the truth. And us inside of this barricade, we're gonna knock those walls down."

Earlier this month, Flynn retweeted a press release calling on Trump to declare martial law and temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of the elections, and have the military oversee a new election. Flynn signaled his approval with the hashtag #WeThePeople. And in an essay published on Thursday, Flynn characterized the incoming Biden administration as "tyrants" whose plan is "to eliminate dissent, subdue any criticism, and outlaw those who do not submit unconditionally to the dictatorship of the New World Order."

Aside from a few tweets expressing gratitude to his supporters, Trump's Twitter feed on Saturday featured a stew of resentment at various actors that have refused to cooperate with his scheme to overturn the election: The Supreme Court (for declining yesterday to consider a challenge filed by the Texas attorney general), the Republican governors in Georgia and Arizona (for affirming their states' electoral votes for Biden), and Attorney General Bill Barr (for not speaking publicly about a purported investigation into Hunter Biden).

Sebastian Gorka, a podcast host and former White House strategist under Trump, swatted aside his former boss' continued failures to get traction in the courts to overturn the election during a speech at a separate March for Trump rally organized by Women for Trump organizer Amy Kremer.

"Let's be very clear," Gorka said. "The first thing I said last night when I heard the decision: 'Stop. Take a deep breath. Count to ten. Read the Bible and pray. Because we are on the side of truth.'"

Back at the National Mall, Alex Jones of InfoWars, pledged unyielding resistance to a Biden administration.

"We will never back down to the Satanic pedophile globalist New World Order and their walking-dead reanimated corpse Joe Biden," he said. "And we will never recognize him…. So, I don't know who's going to the White House in 38 days, but I sure know this: Joe Biden is a globalist will be removed one way or another.

Trump supporters carrying American flags roamed in small bands between the National Mall and Freedom Plaza throughout the day. Supporters held a giant American flag on Pennsylvania Avenue outside Trump International Hotel, and enthusiastically posed for selfies with a Trump impersonator. Dozens of Proud Boys in tactical gear massed outside Hotel Harrington in the morning and roved through downtown.

In the early afternoon, Proud Boys knocked a man to the ground and began punching and kicking him on the National Mall near the Washington Monument, according to video showed on Twitter. Witnesses described an altercation involving Proud Boys in front of the Army Navy Club on 17th Street. Police completely blocked off Black Lives Matter Plaza to keep the Proud Boys and antifascists separated.Video shared on Twitter shows the police using a chemical spray on Proud Boys seeking to antagonize antifascists....

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https://www.bloodmoney.org/

Proud Boys calls itself a "pro-Western fraternal organization" but is a pro-white group that sends members to protests in an effort to create violence. One of the group's rules is that members must fight anti-fascists at protests. They've also formed the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights as a militant branch of their group.

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https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/fraternal-order-alt-knights-foak

Formed as the “tactical defense arm” of the Proud Boys, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK) has become an accelerant for violence at right-wing rallies.

The group’s founder, repeat-felon Kyle Chapman, organized FOAK after a melee with counter-protestors in Berkeley, California, to “protect and defend our right-wing brethren” through “street activism, preparation, defense and confrontation.” The Proud Boys argue that FOAK is the next “logical step” in the growth of their “pro-Western” movement. “The need for defense has grown since recent premeditated attacks by the radical Marxist group ‘Anti-Fa’ have become the norm at any cultural event politically to the right of Jane Fonda,” Pawl Bazile wrote in Proud Boys Magazinein April 2017. But the Alt-Knights — who attend rallies suited up in homemade armor and equipped with batons, hammers, daggers, tasers and pepper spray — seem to be less interested in defense than confrontation. “Did anybody get to bash a commie yet?” Chapman asked a group of his followers at a Portland pro-Trump rally held just over a week after the murder of two men allegedly committed by a self-described white supremacist. “Well, let me know when the time is right because I’m not going to miss out on the fun.”

For the Alt-Knights, violence is the only way to eradicate what Chapman calls the “unholy alliance” of “globalism, radical Islam, and communism” that seeks to enslave white, Christian Americans and, in the process, destroy Western civilization. Such mythical ideas pervade FOAK’s concept of itself, and the group’s leaders — especially Augustus Invictus, who was Chapman’s second-in-command before resigning in September 2017 — see themselves as the historically destined saviors of western (i.e. white) culture. Invictus speaks frequently of a coming Great War and the need for “total insurrection.” As Chapman has stated more crassly: “The only way we are gonna maintain our freedom in this country is to bleed and die for this shit.”

In its own words

“I was talking to a Ukrainian guy the other day. And about a year ago a bunch of Muslims beat a Ukrainian man to death. The Ukrainian people got together, they all picked up AR-15s, and about 70 of them went into the Muslim neighborhood and shot it the hell up. Now I’m not saying that’s what we need to do, but I’m telling you that spirit and the heart of these people is something to be commended. And the willingness to fight and die in defense of their civilization is a beautiful thing and we need to embrace that sort of spirit here in America.”

—Kyle Chapman, Unite American First Peace Rally, July 8, 2017

“How many of our children have to die before we rid our lands of Islamic invaders? Our civilization destroyed. WAKE UP YOU COWARDS! FIGHT!”

—Kyle Chapman, posted on Twitter, May 23, 2017

“Our brethren in Europe, they're struggling right now. Their societies are under vicious attack from Islam, Globalization and Neo-Marxism. Our European Brethren are in a struggle for their very existence. Let's send them our prayers and support their causes wherever we can.”

—Kyle Chapman, Reddit AMA, April 4, 2017

Background

Kyle Chapman was transformed from an obscure Bay Area commercial diver to celebrated right-wing meme in March 2017 when — sporting a gas mask, ski goggles, bike helmet and homemade shield with a design inspired by a Ron Paul campaign logo — he beat a counter-protestor over the head with a wooden rod during the #March4Trump in Berkeley, California. Footage of the attack spread online, transforming Chapman into “Based Stick Man” — “based” referring to an indifference toward other’s opinions, and “stick,” of course, being his weapon of choice. The right quickly embraced Chapman, and images of Based Stick Man in his Berkeley armor were photo-shopped into scenes of Captain America, on the Gadsden flag, and into a painting of a charging Confederate army. In the internet’s perpetual meme war, Chapman’s actions placed the racist so-called “alt-right” back on the offensive after suffering a blow when a video of Richard Spencer being sucker punched went viral.

The sudden fame provided Chapman with a platform to build both a brand and a ragtag vigilante movement. He began selling Based Stick Man apparel with Gruntworks (including a $35.99 sweatshirt printed with the slogan “F CK ANTIFA,” in which the “U” is replaced with a blood splatter) and building his online presence — even though, before Berkeley, he was only a casual Facebook user who wasn’t sure how to pronounce the word “meme.” He instructed his followers to make shields like his own using a wooden table top from Home Depot, and, in a Reddit AMA, told them to look for hickory or ironwood to fashion a stick that would ensure “max damage.”

His participation in the Berkeley protest also put Chapman into contact with Gavin McInnes, a co-founder of VICE who left the company in 2008 due to “creative differences” (and was subsequently nearly completely expunged from its online archive). In the midst of the 2016 presidential election, McInnes created the Proud Boys, a “pro-Western fraternal organization” made up of men who “refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” He reached out to Chapman after a Proud Boy had started a WeSearchr fund — which raised more than $87,000 after a promotional bump fromMike Cernovich –— to pay his bail and legal fees, and began featuring him as a guest on “The Gavin McInnes Show.”

After Chapman and the Proud Boys the violent “Second Battle of Berkeley” in mid-April, Chapman announced that his newly created organization, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, would be partnering with the pro-Western fraternity with McInnes’s “full approval.” “The weak or intimidated need not apply,” he wrote in a Facebook post announcing the new paramilitary organization’s launch.

To Proud Boys leadership, the partnership only made sense and was, in fact, necessary for the progress of their movement: with violent “neo-Marxists” stopping at nothing to destroy Western civilization, a contingent of men should be in place to defend against the ever-present threat. As Chapman explained to McInnes after the Berkeley rally, “I knew…it was going to be full of domestic terrorists that were intent upon attacking us and the chance of violence on their part was 100%.” Because “many people were going to be unaware of this…I knew I was going to have to protect those people.” Indeed, Chapman sees himself as a selfless warrior, constantly emphasizing that he has, through no choice of his own, been thrust into a position of leadership.

While Chapman insists FOAK only engages in violence as an act of self-defense, their attendance at left-leaning events is clearly meant to create a confrontation, and Chapman has been caught goading them on. In a tweet he posted before a June “Free Speech” rally in Portland where 14 people were arrested and dozens of weapons confiscated by police, Chapman told his followers to declare “open season on antifa” and “smash on sight.” He’s also endorsed lynching politicians who allowed a “dirty illegal” to enter the country. In speeches, he dips into moments of grander oratory, like when he told an audience at the Sacramento on July 8 that he was there to impress upon them “the necessity of sacrifice.” You’re going to “have to come to the realization that you may have to bleed to keep this going … and you very may well have to die,” he told the crowd, “I’m willing to die. Are you guys willing to die?”

In addition to his pending felony charge related to the March 4 rally, Chapman has three felony convictions that date back to 1993 and include armed robbery, grand theft, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to an investigation by “The Smoking Gun,” he has an extensive history of drug abuse — he apparently particularly enjoyed huffing Scotchgard fabric spray — and his own lawyer once described him as having “severe psychological problems.” The evidence of his erratic and violent behavior is all over YouTube. Even a cursory search of Chapman’s name reveals endless examples of him attacking even those who are supposedly on his side, like when he after he suggested that Chapman might be a white nationalist.

Though Chapman is quick to deny claims that he’s part of the "alt-right," his views are ideologically consistent with others in the movement, and he regularly borrows from the white nationalist playbookwhen identifying those he counts as enemies. Namely, it’s the “cultural Marxists” — a (fictitious) shadowy cadre of leftists hell-bent on toppling white, heteronormative, Christian society — who’ve pushed multiculturalism and convinced white people to feel “ashamed of their culture, their heritage,” blinding them to the threat of radical Islam.

“Western countries must place a moratorium on immigration from all countries NOW,” he tweeted in October 2017, “Stop the unholy alliance of Marxism and Islam.” It’s no surprise that he idolizes Tommy Robinson, an anti-Muslim activist and former leader of the English Defense League who in 2010 sent hordes of men into Muslim neighborhoods around London and Bradford to harass their residents and instigate violent clashes. Chapman has expressed hope that Robinson “will be leading an army in a short time.”

Like McInnes and the Proud Boys, Chapman hawks an “anti-white guilt” agenda, arguing that white people “are the least racist and most generous ethnicity on the planet” and “the worst sufferers of racism in the world.” He frequently cites an ongoing and intensifying war against whites, using the hashtags #WhiteGenocide and #TheWarAgainstWhitesIsReal. In August 2017 he outlined a supposed biological assault against Western men when he spoke at the “Make Men Great Again” event, warning they risk further decline due to low sperm mobility and birthrates, and implored men to stay away from BPA in plastics and to work out more in order to increase their testosterone levels.

Chapman has a wide reach — with his platform on McInnes’s show, upwards of 42,000 Facebook followers, and more than 33,000 followers on Twitter — and an assemblage of FOAK chapters and vetting groups have cropped up online expressing ideological agreement with Chapman, echoing his calls for violence, warnings about the threat of Islam, and eschewal of white guilt. Their accounts are filled with images of Pepe, Kekistani flags and “IT’S OKAY TO BE WHITE” Facebook profile filters. Several have meme-ified images of the car that killed Heather Heyer as she protested white supremacy in Charlottesville during the "Unite the Right" rally, including one that shows George Washington entering the car before it drove through counter-protestors and another that includes the caption “Communism is bad for your health.”

On the California-based Alt-Knight Facebook community, the page’s administrator advertises his homemade armor, ranging from $250 for a “functional” set to $1,500 for one that’s reminiscent of those worn during the Middle Ages. “This armor will protect against things such as pepper spray, tasers, knives (or anything else meant for stabbing), and blunt trauma,” they promise. If FOAK’s intentions were unclear, another associated Facebook group posted a photo-shopped image of a billboard featuring Based Stick Man and the message “Join Your Local Right Wing Death Squad.”

Some FOAK members cast their participation in the group as part of a greater historical and even divine mission to protect the white race. For instance, Travis Pinkerton — who holds a leadership position in the Alt-Knights and acts as an administrator for nearly all of the organization’s Facebook pages where they vet new members — is also a member of the Wotan Network. A creation of Stephen McNallen, a longtime peddler of a racist brand of paganism, is to “awaken the European peoples from their sleep, and to empower them so that they have — now and forever — complete control over their destiny.” They worship the Norse god Odin, apparently, as Pinkerton does, by posting images of blonde children alongside the slogan “The existence of our people is not negotiable” — one that sounds remarkably similar to the white-supremacist 14-word slogan coined by David Lane.

Medieval references — like the armor crafted by one member — suffuse the language and imagery of FOAK. Indeed, they make numerous references to Christian warriors who fought against the Islamic Empire during the Crusades and, in addition to Based Stick Man’s headgear and facemask, the Medieval battle cry “Deus Vult” graces the crest of the Alt-Knights. It’s an attempt to turn themselves into the latest iteration of white, Christian warriors in an ongoing mythical battle against Islam.

The same preoccupation with destiny pervades the rhetoric of FOAK’s former second-in-command, the 2016 Florida Libertarian Senate candidate Augustus Invictus, who was known as Austin Mitchell Gillespie before changing his name to the Latin for “majestic unconquered sun.” Identifying as pagan, Invictus once slaughtered a goat after a spiritual quest through the desert and drank its blood as part of a ritual sacrifice. Invictus doesn’t identify as a mere worshipper, however, but as a god who is here on earth to restore the “Ancient Ways.” His demeanor is likewise ostentatious, delivering his speeches in a bizarre JFK-inspired accent often while donning a three-piece suit. When he attended the Charlottesville rally, his usual clean-cut uniform made him stand out among the other ersatz armor-clad attendees.

Despite his transcendent pronouncements, Invictus is motivated by earthly prejudices: racism, sexism and antisemitism. Trained as an attorney, in 2012 he represented the white supremacist militia American Front against charges related to their preparation for a race war and, in a law school essay that shares its name with one of Hitler’s speeches and cites a number of racist academics, he defended eugenics. He’s also a Holocaust denier:

“Do I believe that 6 million Jews were killed by evil Hitler? Is that what you’re asking me?” he asked during an interview with Hatewatch. “Okay, then I am still waiting to see those facts.”

He is a prolific writer, and his fiction features frequent denigrations of women, including the graphic rape of a 14-year-old girl. Invictus himself has been accused of engaging in violence against women, although he has not been convicted. In February 2016, a woman called 911 to report Invictus had threatened her with a gun and, in March 2017, a former girlfriend filed a report against Invictus accusing him with domestic abuse, including sexual battery. According to the police report, in one incident “Mr. Invictus got angry, beat her until her eyes were shut, dragged her into the closet and put a gun to her head, asking her why he shouldn’t just kill her.” After breaking up with another woman, he concluded a rant about her on Facebook, “F--- you, ----. Kill yourself, worthless piece of shit.”

Invictus’s violent ideation is extensive, seeing as he deems bloodshed necessary to conquer the nebulous forces seeking to destroy Western civilization. On “The Gavin McInnes Show,” for instance, he called for journalists and lawyers to be hung from lampposts, and his writing is replete with calls for Westerners to take up arms against politicians who have forced Arab and African immigrants upon them. “You must execute the traitors,” he wrote in a longwinded letter addressed to the people of Europe.

Invictus’s penchant for violence puts him in good company with FOAK’s leader in Indiana, Brien James, who in 2003 helped found the racist skinhead gang Vinlanders Social Club. Before that, James belonged to the Outlaw Hammerskins and Hoosier State Skinheads – all organizations with extensive reputations for engaging in extreme violence. He now claims, however, that he’s left his racist past behind, and that both FOAK and his own organization, American Guard – based on the 19th-century nativist group the Bowery Boys and inspired by its violent leader, William “Bill the Butcher” Poole — are “civic nationalist” groups. Nevermind that James and his fellow Indiana American Guard members marched alongside neo-Nazis in Charlottesville.

Invictus, too, was a member of American Guard, acting as Sergeant at Arms for the Florida chapter of James’s organization. But in late September 2017, Invictus found himself ousted from the organization. His attendance at "Unite the Right," it seems, had drawn bad publicity for American Guard. “He will no longer be allowed to discredit our organization, or its membership,” an official statement read. “We reject his claim that disagreement with Nazis, Socialists, and other totalitarians makes one a coward, ‘c---’, or traitor.”

Only a month later, Invictus also withdrew his FOAK membership — not due to any clear ideological disagreements between him and Chapman, but because of petty infighting.After California FOAK member Johnny Benitez was forced to step down (after evidently challenging Chapman’s authority by getting “way too into” the fraternity), cracks started to appear in the organization’s fragile foundation. Chapman gave a “Green light” on Benitez if he showed up at any more rallies and, when someone on a Facebook thread suggested he should “Just put a f------ bullet in him and move on,” Chapman concurred by liking the comment. Though Invictus had to admit that “Every time Chapman has attacked a communist, he’s done a great service to America,” the drama was too much for him. Since his departure, he’s embarked on new extremist ventures, including joining Kyle Bristow’s Foundation for the Marketplace of Ideas and growing his online store and video channel called The Revolutionary Conservative.

Chapman has a lot to worry about in the coming days — aside from internecine squabbles, he was recently charged with violating the conditions of his parole after being caught with a small, knife-like weapon called a Kubotan and, once again, his supporters helped him make bail. But even if Chapman does wind up back in prison, there’s reason to believe the organization he built will continue to function without him, and men will keep showing up to rallies in hopes of beating a protestor on the other side. As one FOAK member recently said of Chapman, “He may be an icon, but he’s not the movement.”

stabbing becomes routine? harder to detect, less legal risk?

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/proud-boys/

no lnx pix vids

DC Cops meet Proud Boys' violent rampage with polite request to 'please stop'

Image via Screengrab.

Lauren Floyd and Daily Kos December 13, 2020

A Black policewoman was injured and at least four people stabbed when a day of demonstrations in support of President Donald Trump's election delusions ended in violence Saturday night in Washington D.C.Many have linked the violence to the white nationalist group the Proud Boys who Trump told to "stand back and stand by" during the presidential debate Sept. 29, 2020. Apparently, no longer standing by, they are shown in multiple videos attacking counterprotesters, burning a Black Lives Matter banner, and generally ignoring police orders with much-delayed punishment from authorities. In a video the New York Post obtained, white men in "America Strong" hats and wearing painted gold laurel wreaths associated with the Proud Boys attacked a man in all black, telling him to leave and shoving him when he tried.

"Get out! Get the f--- outta here!" they shouted outside of Harry's Bar, a gathering spot for the Proud Boys The Washington Post reported. When shoved, the man took out a knife to protect himself and tried to run away, the New York Post reported. "Get his ass!" someone in the crowd shouted. Police response as the targetted man vanished into the crowd was: "Stop guys stop — please stop."

"Today I saw proud boys attack legal observers, call people cockroaches, and mace and assault random people. They can call themselves whatever they want, but they're the new KKK. They're domestic terrorists," Black Lives Matter protester Joshua Potash tweeted early Sunday. He also compared police reaction to the violence with their response to Black Lives Matter protesters and journalists in the wake of George Floyd's death. Floyd, a Black man, was killed when a white Minneapolis cop kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes on May 25. At least eight people were partially blinded the same day police went on a rampage targeting protesters on May 30. "I've been at BLM marches all summer and fall where people are attacked and arrested by cops just for standing in the street. Tonight in DC dozens of Proud Boys maced and attacked people and cops didn't do shit," Potash said in another tweet.

Victims of the violence endured potentially life-threatening injuries D.C. fire spokesman Doug Buchanan told The Washington Post. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham told protesters: "We're doing the best we can." He told the Post officers were deployed throughout downtown to keep Trump supporters and counterprotesters separated, but portions of the crowd seemed "intent on conflict." By 9 p.m., 23 people were arrested and one person had an unauthorized Taser, police said. In total, two police officers were hospitalized with moderate injuries and six others suffered injuries of unknown severity, the Post reported.

Bree Newsome Bass, a grassroots organizer, asked in one tweet: "Is there a point at which all the people saying "I never thought this could happen" start listening to the people who've been saying for years that this was going to happen?" Author Wajahat Ali tweeted: "I can't even imagine hundreds of armed Muslims burning flags, beating up people, stabbing people in the streets of the nation's capital without dozens of folks being shot and killed by the police. Meanwhile it's Springtime for Proud Boys and White Supremacy right now."

Journalist David Leavitt tweeted:

"The proud boys are domestic terrorists...

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/donald-trump-proud-boys

kos

the violence following the November 14 'Million MAGA March' in Washington, D.C., helped establish a pattern for Proud Boys violence that's now expanded to other American cities.

It's become apparent that, even as Donald Trump tries to deny reality and continue claiming he won the election, the hate group that he ordered, on national television, to "stand back and stand by" now considers (per leadership's statements that "standby order has been rescinded," as well as other threatening statements on social media) those orders null and void: The Proud Boys are now playing the role of Trump's goon-squad defenders in the streets—and appear unlikely to stop anytime soon.

Following the initial burst of Proud Boy violence in Washington, D.C., during and after the "Million MAGA March" of November 14, the familiar black-and-yellow polos, red MAGA hats and thug tactics have been showing up on the streets of Raleigh, North Carolina; Sacramento, California; and Staten Island, New York. At each event, brawls broke out amid overheated rhetoric, much of it in Trump's defense.

The violence follows the pattern established over the previous four years—right-wing extremists organizing gangs of out-of-town thugs from rural and exurban areas to invade liberal urban centers on vague political pretexts in order to engage in threatening acts of intimidation and provoke violence that they can then blame on "antifa" and "left." And as with all those events, the Proud Boys' presence has been to act as street enforcers for a variety of far-right causes: Denouncing the election results, protesting about COVID-19 public-health measures, or whatever else might be the right-wing grievance du jour.

Mostly, it's about creating fear and violence on behalf of a white-nationalist agenda. That's what the Proud Boys exist for, and it's why the Southern Poverty Law Center lists them as a "general" hate group.

All during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Proud Boys have been whipping up a sense of public intimidation at the liberal cities where they hold rallies while spreading conspiracist misinformation about the virus, its spread, and the government orders to intended to fight it. These appearances have been part of the Proud Boys' steady drumbeat of bringing the politics of thuggery to American cities throughout 2020, as the Institute for Education and Research on Human Rights has mapped out in detail, for a variety of ostensible causes.

In Raleigh last weekend, Proud Boys came out to protest North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper's pandemic-related business restrictions, particularly those on indoor gatherings. Calling it a "Pilgrims and Patriots Thanksgiving in Raleigh" event, organizers with Reopen Carolina joined arms with the Proud Boys and a Latinos for Trump group at the state Capitol. Then, as usual, they proceeded to provoke brawls with counterprotesters who held an event called "Racists Out Of Raleigh."

There were no fights, since police kept the two sides separated assiduously. So the Proud Boys turned their thug tactics to the press who came to cover the event, including a reporter for the Indy who they harassed. Their report describes it:

A man in a Proud Boys bandana kept the INDY reporter from recording speeches by putting his hand in front of the camera, while others around pretended to sneeze. A woman in a white tank top and MAGA hat also told the reporter to leave. This happened a second time once the group was back at the Jones Street corner; this time,the man who had been blocking the camera told the reporter, "we can ask you to leave, or we can make you leave."

Proud Boys also showed up at another COVID-related protest in Staten Island—this time outside Mac's Public House, a tavern that had recently been busted for offering food and drinks beyond a 10 p.m. cutoff time mandated by New York City officials. A large, entirely maskless crowd gathered outside the pub on Wednesday night to protest the charges.

Inside the pub, there were chants of "Proud Boys in the house." According to the New York Post,a speaker also led a Proud Boys chant: "I am a proud Western Chauvinist." Afterwards, they segued into singing Queen's "We Will Rock You."

According to The Sun,protesters blamed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for the pandemic measures, with signs reading "Dictator Cuomo." One protester shouted at cops through a megaphone: "Where is your backbone? Where is your morality?"

The event in Sacramento had nothing to do with COVID, but instead was entirely a protest of the election results, and an insistence that Trump won the election—and heavily populated by Proud Boys and their militia cohort. One of the Proud Boys told the crowd that the organization's role was to defend "people like you that come out to rallies."

As Capital Radio reporter Scott Rodd observed, those were hollow words:

But the Proud Boys also played the aggressor. CapRadio observed one Proud Boy take a swing at a member of the press for filming him. Other members, after the demonstrators returned to the barricaded area near the Capitol, remained outside the perimeter and instigated counter-protesters and passersby. Several chased after one counter-protester. Some also followed and taunted observers from the National Lawyers Guild.

By day's end, multiple brawls had broken out, and police—who declared an unlawful assembly and issued a dispersal order—reported one arrest on "assault-related charges."

Reporter Gabe Stutman of *Jewish Weekly* was also present, and watched as, after their rally speeches ended, "they spilled into the streets of downtown Sacramento, chanting 'Whose streets? Our streets!' and 'F*ck antifa!' while butting up against police cordons that blocked their path. The demonstrators exchanged insults and threats with roughly a dozen people identified as part of antifa ..."

Stutman notes that "each protest has followed a similar pattern," one familiar to reporters covering Proud Boys events elsewhere: First, a peaceful demonstration with speeches in a public space, followed by a march into downtown or other urban areas with the intent of brawling with counterprotesters—or, for that matter, anyone who shouts at them or protests them.

The San Francisco-based office of the ADL for the Central Pacific region issued a statement decrying the event: "First, they bring attention and possibly attract new adherents to extremist agendas and groups like the Proud Boys," it read. "Second, their provocative and divisive rhetoric can and does lead to violence, as we saw in Sacramento and elsewhere."

Stutman also described getting the intimidation treatment from a right-wing protester, who shouted insults and blocked his cell-phone-camera lens. When Stutman asked if he was a Proud Boy, the man responded: "I'm a white boy, motherf*cker."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Trump condemns all white supremacists after Proud Boys row - BBC ... ›

Trump's debate callout bolsters far-right Proud Boys - CNNPolitics ›

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/proud-boys

no lnx pix vid [crisade shield on tshirts]

‘We will exterminate you’: Proud Boys and other right-wing Trump diehards confront counter-protesters at Raleigh rally

Image via Screengrab.

Jordan Green and Raw Story November 29, 2020

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

A band of COVID deniers, neo-Confederates and pro-Trump diehards, augmented by a 50-strong Proud Boy security detail, marched around the Governor's Mansion in downtown Raleigh on Saturday, firing up a far-right coalition to carry on the fight as their president faces the reality of leaving office.

The post-Thanksgiving rally was co-organized by Joshua Flores of Stop the Steal NC and Latinos for Freedom, who brought in Reopen NC to help him promote it on Facebook. But the Proud Boys — referenced by Flores as his "private security" in a Facebook Live video two days prior to the event — took the most prominent position in the rally as they spread out along a block of East Jones Street and taunted antifascist counter-protesters.

Flores had promoted the Thanksgiving potluck as a family-friendly event, and urged attendees to not engage with counter-protesters, warning that they would be asked to leave if they failed to honor the request, and adding that "the Proud Boys" would also "have the authority to kick you out." He also suggested, "Try not to use major cuss words, if you don't mind."

The request was almost farcical considering the Proud Boys' history of inciting conflict through profanity-laced taunts that are often barbed with misogyny and homophobia.

True to form, a Proud Boy named Jeremy Bertino picked up a bullhorn a couple minutes after the official 11:30 a.m. start time and addressed the counter-protesters across the street.

"America will never be a communist nation — never!" Bertino said as fellow Proud Boys lined the sidewalk wearing tactical vests and trademark yellow and black gear. "Your side will lose. We will exterminate you like the rats you are…. Exterminate you!"

[Proud Boys at COVID-denial/pro-Trump rally in Raleigh, NC

youtu.be]

Bertino kicked off a chant of, "Fuck antifa."

:{:{}:

Another Proud Boy wore a patch with the letters "S-B-S-B," a reference to Trump's infamous election-debate directive: "Proud Boys — stand back and stand by."

:{:{}:

Bertino wore a patch with the letters "R-W-D-S" — short for "right-wing death squads." Mass killing of political opponents is a theme widely promoted by Proud Boys and other far-right extremists who celebrate Chilean dictator Augosto Pinochet's grisly practice during the 1970s of disappearing opposition activists by dropping them out of helicopters.

Previewing the in-real-life showdown on Saturday, Bertino posted a photo of North Carolina antifascist Lindsay Ayling on the Parler social media platform, encouraging followers to make a contest out of Photoshopping her image, while making a violent and misogynistic claim that "she has an affinity for alpha males and helicopters" and hash-tagging the post #antifawhore.

Bertino told Raw Story he was merely "trolling" Ayling, but the Proud Boys' goofball presentation — naming cereals during their initation rite, for example — conveniently provides plausible deniability for any expressed fantasies of violence.

Bertino also denied that his "extermination" remarks were personally directed at the counter-protesters, although his own words say otherwise.

Throughout the four-hour event, unidentified men with bullhorns stood behind the Proud Boys and excoriated the counter-protesters.

"You guys are making lists," one of the men said. "We're making lists, too." He added a reference to "9mm" ammunition that was otherwise inaudible. Another time, the man addressed the counter-protesters, saying, "You are in a very dangerous position. You are in the vast minority." Bertino told Raw Story he did not hear the comment and could not identify the speaker.

Another unidentified man told the counter-protesters: "Donald Trump has stirred the pot. You think you've captured him. But all you've done is woken us up. You think this is gonna end? No!" The speaker also called the counter-protesters lazy and accused them of not understanding Christianity.

The right-wing group, which broadly expressed defiance of COVID restrictions and loyalty to Donald Trump, out-numbered counter-protesters almost two to one.

Drawn from Raleigh activists who have been protesting against police brutality since late May, along with antiracists and antifascists who are veterans of efforts to remove Confederate monuments, the counter-protesters responded in kind with taunts toward the Proud Boys. One sign held by a counter-protester read, "Proud Boy Thugs: 21st Century Nazi Brown Shirts." Another showed a depiction of a Confederate flag, a swastika and the name "Trump," concluding, "3 generations of losers."

"For individuals to still be conducting 'Stop the Steal' protest/rallies essentially 25 days after Election Day even after Gov. [Roy] Cooper has been declared the winner is in the same vein as the Confederate supporters still showing up places waving Confederate flags," Kerwin Pittman, a field organizer with Emancipate NC, told Raw Story. "They just can't accept the fact they lost. They must be called out on their denial and confronted when they attempt to sow seeds of intimidation in any community."

Pittman was appointed by Cooper, a Democrat, to serve on the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. Pittman served time in prison for first-degree murder, and he has been open about his past. All the same, North Carolina neo-Confederates never miss an opportunity to loudly confront him about his record, and on Saturday a detractor from Alamance County jeered Pittman, daring him to say the name of the man he killed.

Around 1 p.m., Tara LaRosa, an MMA fighter, led an advance team of Proud Boys into the street,with Bertino and others acting as marshals as the larger group of right-wing activists marched around the governor's residence. It's unclear whether they had a permit for the march.

The marchers chanted "Reopen NC," "No more masks," "We are the republic," and "Silent no more."

Reopen NC leader Ashley Smith and her husband, Adam Smith, addressed the crowd with a bullhorn at the entrance of the Governor's Mansion as the right-wing activists held the street, with tight security from the Proud Boys. At the direction of one of the co-organizers, the Proud Boys ejected two reporters, from Raw Story and INDY Week.

The right-wing activists staked out an alternate reality, with one woman insisting to reporters: "Donald Trump won the election."

Jay Thaxton, a North Carolina Proud Boy, blocked a reporter's camera. He said, "When you guys start writing real news, we won't have a problem with you."

A couple wearing shirts promoting QAnon — a conspiracy theory that posits Trump as a hero working beyond the scenes to vanquish an elite global cabal of pedophiles — strolled through the cordon of Proud Boys to join the rally. The man, who declined to give his name, told a reporter: "I pray that God would help you see both sides of the issue, not being right or left. We have a Bill of Rights."

Earlier in the rally, before the right-wing activists broke out covered dishes for their defiant potluck, Reopen NC leader Ashley Smith addressed them.

"I'm just so thankful to see so many patriots and people who love freedom and love America," she said. "Yes, we are here once again to stand in the face of tyranny and all that would destroy everything that we hold dear and love. And I'm here again to say, 'No, you cannot have my America. You cannot have my North Carolina.'

"Right now, we're going to have some food," Smith continued. "We're gonna hug our neighbors and say the Pledge [of Allegiance]."

In anticipation of Thanksgiving, on Nov. 10, Gov. Cooper issued an executive order limiting the number of people at indoor gatherings to no more than 10. On Nov. 23, he followed up with another executive order requiring masks in all public indoor settings.

As justification for the restrictions, the most recent executive order cited record high COVID-19 daily case counts and hospitalizations in North Carolina.

"We are at a critical point, and I am writing to update you on the worsening surge of COVID cases in our community and health system, and to share the actions we are taking," wrote Cone Health Chief Operating Officer Mary Jo Cagle in a memo to staff on Nov. 20.

Cone Health serves Greensboro, North Carolina's third largest city. Cagle said that during the previous week, the number of COVID patients in the hospital system leapt by almost 50 percent, from 95 to 142. She warned that the Green Valley facility, Cone's special COVID hospital, was nearing capacity.

Like the Proud Boys, Adam Smith, the husband of the Reopen leader, has expressed a willingness to resort to violence to uphold his belief system.

In May, he carried a rifle through downtown Raleigh while marching alongside a boogaloo-inspired group that flouted North Carolina's law against carrying dangerous weapons during a demonstration. The politically varied group included an array of Second Amendment hardliners, including a neo-Nazi, an avowed anarchist and self-described constitutionalists. One of the armed men who participated in the walks, Benjamin Ryan Teeter, is now facing federal charges of attempting to provide material support to Hamas.

In May, Adam Smith posted a Facebook Live video saying that people must be willing to kill, if necessary, to resist emergency orders — or what he described as "tyranny."

:{:{}:

"But are we willing to kill people? Are we willing to lay down our lives?" he asked. "We have to say, 'Yes.' We have to say, 'Yes.' Is that violence. Is that terrorism? I'm not trying to strike fear in people by saying, 'I'm going to kill you.' I'm gonna say, 'If you bring guns, I'm gonna bring guns. If you're armed with this, we're going to be armed with this.'"

:{:{}:

On Saturday, Lindsay Ayling, the antifascist activist, said she observed a Proud Boy point her out to Smith. Then, she said, Smith said, "Lindsay, I'm going to kill you."

Smith responded by text to Raw Story: "Of course I didn't say that!… That's ridiculous."

Ayling insisted that she heard the statement clearly and confirmed with another person that they heard it, too. She posted a video on Twitter showing Smith pointing in her direction and then wiggling his fingers in a motion that suggests pulling a trigger. Smith was standing next to Bertino at the time, and just before making the gesture, Smith yelled, "We are the people. We are the power."

Upon reviewing some footage, I noticed that Adam Smith (who later threatened to kill me) made a hand gesture miming… https://t.co/zM9K5ZHnrv

— Lindsay Ayling (@Lindsay Ayling)1606606531.0

As Trump's political and legal options for hanging onto the presidency evaporate, the Raleigh event and other rallies at state capitols are helping to maintain the tenuous alliance of violent nationalists, Christian-right extremists and conspiracy-mongers that are intent on preventing a left turn as Biden takes office. At the moment, much of that energy is focused on a planned pro-Trump rally on Dec. 12, two days before Biden's election is made official as states cast their electoral votes. The Proud Boys have promoted the event through their Telegram account, and the gathering is expected to be a reprise of the chaotic Millions for MAGA march on Nov. 14, which Proud Boys and other far-right groups treated as a moment of triumph.

Bertino stood at the side of Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio at the Washington Monument that night as Tarrio exulted after a clash with left-wing opponents.

:{:{}:

"I mean, we practically cleaned the streets right there where they're sitting at BLM Plaza," Tarrio said. "They're corralled in, and there's like a hundred of 'em, when usually there's thousands of 'em. And you know who we have to thank for that?

:{:{}:

"All of us," he continued. "And this right here shows you the power when we the right-wing unite, and we get together. And we don't bicker about stupid shit."

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one stabbed, jrnlist punched

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/olivianiland/dc-protests-million-maga-march-arrests-violence

no lnx pix twt

There Were Violent Clashes In DC After A Pro-Trump Rally

At least one person was stabbed and 20 people arrested following the "Million MAGA March."

Picture of Olivia Niland

Olivia Niland

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on November 15, 2020, at 2:02 p.m. ET

Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images

Police officers stand in line as they monitor a protest following the "Million MAGA March."

There were violent scenes in Washington, DC, on Saturday night amid clashes between Donald Trump supporters falsely disputing the outcome of the presidential election and counterprotesters.

Police said at least 20 people were arrested amid unrest after the so-called Million MAGA March attended by tens of thousands of Trump supporters in response to the president's baseless claims that Joe Biden's victory in the election was "rigged."

Video tweeted by both left- and right-wing attendees showed several instances of violence between the two sides.

"Fuck you, antifa!" alleged members of the far-right extremist men's organization the Proud Boys can be heard yelling in one video as they throw punches, followed by shouts of "Hey, we've got one on the ground!"

[twt this was Washington DC last night as the Proud Boys showed up and attacked us. What I say was proud boys mob beating people on the ground throwing glass bottles hitting someone next to me, and chasing people. Several folks were stabbed. One is in critical condition.

This was Washington DC last night as the Proud Boys showed up and attacked us. What I say was proud boys mob beating people on the ground throwing glass bottles hitting someone next to me, and chasing people. Several folks were stabbed. One is in critical condition.

Wayward.streamer

@StreamerWayward

02:15 PM - 15 Nov 2020

Favorite

At least one person was transported after being stabbed at 11th Street and New York Avenue Northwest, a DC Fire and EMS spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

Photos and videos showed Trump flags and hats being lit on fire and fireworks being thrown at apparent Trump supporters who were dining outdoors.

One graphic Getty photograph showed a woman supporting Black Lives Matter lying motionless on the ground and bleeding from the mouth after being injured. Another showed a Trump supporter being kicked as he lay on the ground.

Video also showed Trump supporters removing and stomping on Black Lives Matter signs that were displayed at BLM Plaza, and members of the Proud Boys speaking in defense of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who was charged with killing two people at Wisconsin protest against police brutality.

The Proud Boys' attendance contributed to a "notable extremist presence" at the march, the Anti-Defamation League said in a post Sunday.

Trump supporters are smashing the Black Lives Matter boards put up on the buildings here in DC #MillionMAGAMarch #MarchForTrump #DC

Brendan Gutenschwager

@BGOnTheScene

Trump supporters are smashing the Black Lives Matter boards put up on the buildings here in DC #MillionMAGAMarch #MarchForTrump #DC

05:04 AM - 15 Nov 2020

Favorite

Conservative commentators blamed so-called antifa for harassing Trump supporters, a sentiment echoed multiple times by the president himself Sunday morning.

"Antifa SCUM ran for the hills today when they tried attacking the people at the Trump Rally, because those people aggressively fought back. Antifa waited until tonight, when 99% were gone, to attack innocent #MAGA People. DC Police, get going — do your job and don’t hold back!!!" Trump posted on Facebook.

Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is a decentralized movement that protests against the far-right, with some occasionally resorting to violence. The far-right and some Republicans have repeatedly fearmongered about the group in a bid to denigrate all anti-racism protesters.

During the march, the largely maskless pro-Trump supporters pushed the president's false rhetoric of an unfair election with signs reading "Stop the Steal." They also continued the president's attacks on the US voting system, President-elect Joe Biden, and public health expert Anthony Fauci.

Among the attendees were right-wing figures including Alex Jones, MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter of the QAnon mass delusion who was recently elected to the US House of Representatives. All three gave speeches incorrectly claiming Trump had been reelected and falsely accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election.

In addition to the march in DC, a "Stop the Steal" protest in Sacramento Saturday stirred up clashes between Proud Boys and counterprotesters as well, according to ABC. No serious injuries were reported.

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/ivanka-trump

roger salon

As right-wing groups clashed with counter-protesters at pro-Trump demonstrations over the weekend, Ivanka Trump, the senior White House adviser and daughter of outgoing President Donald Trump, condemned the media on Twitter for "near total silence" over alleged assaults on conservatives. The tweet came as selectively edited video wrongly portraying Trump supporters as victims of violence circulated online in right-wing circles.NOTE THIS SETS UP RATIONALE FOR MORE RW VIOLENCE]

"The media's near total silence about the physical violence being perpetrated against conservatives is shameful & dangerous. Just image the outrage and indignation if this went the other way," Ivanka tweeted. "Violence is never the answer and instigators must be condemned and prosecuted." ATLAS, BANNON BOOGALOO...]

Donald Trump Jr. one-upped his sister's allegation an hour later by claiming, without evidence, that the media was "complicit." He also suggested that "they might as well" put Trump supporters on a non-existent Gulag list controlled by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. [THE NEW PELOSI?]

"The media's silence on the violence against Trump supporters is deafening. After four years of calling them Nazis, at this point they might as well just dox them all or add the[m] to AOC's lists for the Gulags," Don Jr. baselessly tweeted. "They are complicit in the violence. They are the worst of the worst."

Trump supporters and right-wing groups marched in several cities on Saturday in protest of the president's recent electoral loss to President-elect Joe Biden. The demonstrators echoed the president's evidence-free allegations of a stolen election.

Many of these groups were met by counter-protests, and violence broke out in some instances. The most serious of these incidents took place in Washington, where Proud Boys and other right-wing groups and militia members clashed with counter-protesters, according to multiple reports. Contrary to the Trump family's assertions, conservatives were filmed launching attacks. 2 STABBINGS ONE PROUD?]

It was not the first time Ivanka had misleadingly tweeted about political violence. In a tweet referencing "inner city communities," the first daughter cited the wrong number of people killed and wounded in the wrong location ("near a playground") over the course of a weekend in Chicago in August 2019.

In his first debate with Biden, President Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand back, and stand by." Unlike his offspring, the president outwardly applauded Saturday's violence in the streets.

"ANTIFA SCUM ran for the hills today when they tried attacking the people at the Trump Rally, because those people aggressively fought back," he tweeted.

The president also shared a selectively edited video posted by Andy Ngo, a right-wing sympathizer with a history of wrongly framing left-wing groups. The clip showed a man getting knocked out by a counter-protester after being attacked from behind.

"A close-up angle of BLM rioters knocking a man unconscious who was leaving the #MillionMAGAMarch in DC earlier today," Ngo wrote. "They also steal his phone when he's on the ground."

"Human Radical Left garbage did this," the president added, quoting Ngo's original tweet. "Being arrested now!"

But an extended clip appears to shows the man was with a group of Trump supporters who earlier attacked a counter-protester holding a bullhorn by pushing him down to the street and stepping on his head.

D.C. police on Sunday said they hadarrested nearly two dozen people, many of them on gun charges, according to The Washington Post. One person was stabbed,and four officers were injured.

Police Chief Peter Newsham told The Post that groups on both sides had descended on the city "intent on clashing," and "the police department was put directly in the middle of it."

In Sacramento, Calif., a group of Proud Boys met counter-protesters with bear spray, according to the Bay Area's ABC7 News. Police broke up the incident.

President Trump urged police to use force on counter-protesters, tweeting: "Antifa waited until tonight, when 99% were gone, to attack innocent #MAGA People. DC Police, get going — do your job and don't hold back!!!"

There is no evidence to support the protesters' accusations of widespread electoral fraud in the presidential election. Courts have summarily dismissed the vast majority of the Trump campaign's lawsuits.

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-politics/

amanda

the far right had a dream: That one day, people who had been exiled to the unacceptable margins of American political life could play the role of Donald Trump's brownshirts.

In the weeks leading up to the election, excitement was rising among those Americans who convinced themselves that Trump would be the glorious leader in a national purge of their perceived enemies. QAnon fans buzzed with excitement that "the storm" — their term for their belief that the entire Democratic establishment, as well as many popular celebrities, would be rounded up into prison camps — was coming soon. The Proud Boys, a neofascist group that claim to defend "Western civilization," were also riled up after Trump told them to "stand by" during a presidential debate in September. The menagerie of white supremacists and militia groups were stepping up recruitment efforts, stoked about what they believed would soon be the eruption of a new civil war.

Then came the election. Trump lost. This has been very difficult for those people to accept.

People with fanatical and delusional beliefs famously don't give them up just because they've been hit over the head with reality, of course. The various subcultures of crackpots that have sprung up under Trump are no exception.

Still, the election results have sent these groups reeling. All of them have spent the past four years growing their ranks and orbiting around Trump, convinced that he was a savior figure who would crush their perceived enemies.

For believers in QAnon, that belief manifested in a fantasy that Trump was going to round up all the members of the "deep state," their imaginary shadowy conspiracy of Democrats, Hollywood celebrities and progressive activists that they believe both secretly runs the world and is also a network of Satan-worshipping cannibal pedophiles. Trump, they told themselves, was secretly organizing "the storm" to round up and destroy this sinister global conspiracy.

But since Trump's election, Q — a user account that started on 8chan and drifted over to 8kun after 8chan was disbanded — has fallen silent. QAnon faithful believe the account is run by a current or former U.S. intelligence agent and Trump loyalist. In fact, it's probably run by the father-and-son duo Jim and Ron Watkins, who are conspiracy theorists and definitely not U.S. intelligence agents. Without Q's guidance, the QAnon cult appears to be confused and angry.

"They were not expecting him to lose, and they were not expecting Fox News to call it," Fredrick Brennan, the founder of 8chan — who has spent the past few months giving interviews accusing the Watkinses of running Q's account — told the New York Times. "It was really psychologically damaging."

Q believers haven't given up the faith yet, of course. But without guidance from its leader, the QAnon community is adrift and very likely to fracture into competing and antagonistic splinter sects, as is common in these kinds of communities.

Witness, for instance, what's happening to the Proud Boys, which started off largely as a male chauvinist group but has morphed into what looks very much like a neofascist organization that purports to defend "Western civilization." The Proud Boys had their proudest moment in September, when Trump refused to denounce them during a debate and instead told them to "stand down and stand by," clearly implying that they should be at the ready to defend his grip on the White House if he felt it was under threat.

But even though Trump is half-heartedly still trying to steal the election, he has so far disappointed the Proud Boys by not calling on them to commit violence against his enemies in a glorious coup. (Mostly, Trump is hiding from public view, tweeting out articles from fringe right-wing sites and playing golf.) So, as often happens with marginal subcultures full of deeply unpleasant people, the Proud Boys are breaking apart, torn asunder by infighting.

At heart is a fight between two figureheads, Kyle Chapman and Enrique Tarrio, over whether the Proud Boys should stick by their dubious claim that there is nothing racist about the ideology of "Western chauvinism," or should openly embrace white nationalism and anti-Semitism.Chapman is representing the blatant-racism side, declaring himself the new president of the splinter group calling themselves, no kidding, the "Proud Goys." Tarrio is insisting that Chapman is a flunkey, failing to understand that the same can be said of anyone associated with the Proud Boys.

Other right wing militia and white nationalist groups, such as the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers, spent the weeks before the election firing themselves up for what they believed was an upcoming civil war. Now that Trump's presidency is deflating like a day-after birthday balloon, they're not quite ready to give up the fantasy.

On Wednesday, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, appeared on Infowars with Alex Jones and promised the faithful that the violence against hated liberals is still coming.

"We have men already stationed outside D.C. as a nuclear option in case they attempt to remove the president illegally, we will step in and stop it," Rhodes declared, swearing that his forces are armed and "prepared to go in, if the president calls us up."

As with most of the threats made by far-right figures, this is both a fantasy and a dangerous one. It's just plain silly to imagine that a handful of middle-aged and badly organized conspiracy theorists, no matter how many guns they have, could manage the task of seizing the federal government in a paramilitary coup.

It's dangerous, of course, because these people do have guns. Unfortunately, as we've seen with mass shootings like those in El Paso and Pittsburgh, the car attacks on Black Lives Matter protesters, and the shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, men who have been radicalized by such talk are fully capable of acts of domestic terrorism against civilians.

On Saturday, these various groups of extremists are planning to descend on Washington for a demonstration in support ofTrump's fading effort to steal the election, which they of course spin as preventing Democrats from stealing the election. (As always with right-wingers, everything is projection.) As usual, far-right figures are over-hyping their efforts, calling the supposed rally the "Million MAGA March" or the "March for Trump."

In reality, almost none of the groups who claim they plan to show up have even applied for a permit, suggesting that they know what's likely to happen: An underwhelming display by a handful of loudmouths with angry signs, whose demands are incoherent and who have no plan of action to achieve their goals anyway.

As I witnessed in Philadelphia, even when the far right had a solid target and goal — stopping election officials from counting ballots — they could barely muster up a handful of people. The ones who showed up were easily run off by a group of leftists armed with cardboard signs and a boombox.Washington, D.C., doesn't permit the open carry of weapons, taking away yet another incentive to show up for the deeply insecure men of this movement.There's nothing they can do to save Donald Trump. All they have left is impotent flailing.

None of which is to say that we can just wash our hands of the far right and never think about them again. Far from it: The right-wing fringe has been enormously successful in recruiting conservatives to their way of thinking. Surveys suggest that more than 80% of Trump voters believe Joe Biden's victory was illegitimate, and about half of all Republican voters buy into the QAnon conspiracy theories to some degree. What were once whacked-out "far-right" beliefs are now just mainstream conservatism.

The difference between the fringe and the mainstream of the Republican Party now is less about belief and more about a willingness to take action. That fringe — the ones who've actually joined far-right groups and may actually show up at Saturday's "rally" — is scrambling now. But such people never really go away. They'll find some other cause to latch onto, some other justification for their fascist impulses. Some, unfortunately, will continue to seek violence or even to commit acts of terrorism.

But for now, Trump's defeat is a mighty blow to the far right. Their dreams of crushing the people they view as "the left" and of "reclaiming" the culture of America were always ludicrous, no matter how much tear gas Trump sprayed at Black Lives Matter demonstrators. But now, with Trump on his way to Palm Beach exile, they've lost their lodestar. The process of fracture and dispersal for these self-appointed warriors of the right has begun. We must hope they don't find another figurehead to rally around anytime soon.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/white-nationalism/univision-allows-proud-boys-leader-lie-about-groups-violent-and-fascist-nature

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The Spanish-language network Univision delivered a softball interview segment with the leader of the far-right street gang the Proud Boys, allowing him to go unchallenged on his claims about the organization, amid increased media attention after President Donald Trump told the group to “stand back and stand by” at the first presidential debate in September.

“We are a group that is anti-communist, anti-authoritarian,” said leader Enrique Tarrío, speaking in Spanish. “They say we are fascist. I think that fascism and communism are the same thing.”

The Proud Boys is a far-right organization with links to white supremacist movements, including the violent “Unite the Right” white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and 2018. The Anti-Defamation League also pointed out, in the wake of Trump’s comments at the debate, that some Proud Boys members “espouse white supremacist and antisemitic ideologies and/or engage with white supremacist groups."

[vid]

"They accuse you of provoking political violence,” news anchor Sandra Peebles asked. “Are you violent?

“We don't practice unjustified violence,” Tarrío said. “But if we are talking about defense, then yes we are violent.” Peebles did not push back on Tarrío’s claim.

Last year in New York City, two members of the Proud Boys were sentenced to four years in prison for an attack against counter-protesters outside a 2018 event at the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan. At the event, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes had brought a samurai sword to reenact the 1960 assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japanese Socialist Party, at the hands of a teenage ultranationalist. During his speech to the group, McInness also described the Proud Boys as“foot soldiers” for the right. In the wake of the brawl outside, McInnes exited the building and waved his sword in the air as he went to his car.

And just this week, a man was arrested in North Dakota for allegedly sending an anonymous email to a local newspaper, threatening to blow up a voting location. The message was signed, “The Proud Boys.”

Other mainstream media have also bungled their coverage of the Proud Boys, with CNN describing the group as being “a political fight club,” while Fox News has actively promoted McInness and the group for years.

Spanish-language media have also become vulnerable to disinformation campaigns. NBC News reported in September: “Conspiracy theories around the ‘deep state,’ billionaire Democrat philanthropistGeorge Soros and QAnon have become a constant fixture on Spanish-language YouTube programs, WhatsApp clips and pro-President Donald Trump Facebook groups aimed at a Latino audience.”

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biggs: rogue rt, borderland alt media, jnz

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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-proud-boys-the-hate-group-trump-told-to-stand-back-and-stand-by/

thequestion should’ve been an easy one. At the first debate between the major-party presidential candidates Tuesday night, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked President Donald Trump whether he would denounce white supremacists; instead of offering an unequivocal “No,” Trump told the Proud Boys hate group to “stand back and stand by.”

The Proud Boys, an organization designated as ahate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has a long history of violence, hateful rhetoric, and coziness with GOP stars and operatives, most notably Trump confidant, Republican fixer, and convicted felon Roger Stone. The group, founded by Canadian media personality Gavin McInnes and currently led by Enrique Tarrio, held a Sept. 26 rally in Portland, Oregon, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency. Although the rally attracted far fewer attendees than anticipated, the event was spun by Tarrio withexpressions of pride in having not incited violence—aneffort to make their group more palatable. The group is, of course, better known for its members’ attendance at the 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which counterprotester Heather Heyer was murdered by a white supremacist.

At Tuesday’s debate, which devolved into chaos with Trump interrupting Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at every turn, Wallace turned to a question about race, policing, and riots, and challenged the president to condemn white supremacist and militia groups.

“You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out antifa and other extremist groups,” Wallace said. “Are you willing to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and say they need to stand down and not to add to the violence in these cities as we saw in Kenosha and in Portland?”

“Give me a name,” Trump said, to which Biden called out “Proud Boys.”

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what, somebody’s gotta do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem,” Trump said.

Different subgroups of the extreme right have fear-mongered about socialism, antifa (short-hand for anti-fascist demonstrators), baseless warnings of a “rigged” election and either called for violence or hinted at it—fromradical right-wing commentator Josh Bernstein calling for Ilhan Omar to be executed for alleged ballot harvesting(for which there’s no verifiable evidence), to right-wing pastorRick Joyner calling on military veterans to head up Christian militias to fight against the “tyranny of Marxism.”

So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the president who said that there were “very fine people on both sides” of a 2017 white supremacist melee would call on a hate group to “stand by” and wait to be called on in the same debate he fear-mongered about anti-fascist activists, ballot harvesting, and unfounded claims of mail carriers selling ballots and dumping them into a river.

On the social media platform Telegram, the hate group took Trump’s comments as marching orders.

“Standing by sir,” Tarrio wrote.

The Proud Boys incorporated the president’s words into their logo.

“Trump basically said to go fuck them up! this makes me so happy,” wrote Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys leader. “President Trump told the proud boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA…well sir! we’re ready!”

Before the end of the night, the self-described “western chauvinist” group hadshared an image with the president’s words as a slogan around their logo.

The Proud Boys are well-known for showing up at events for left-wing causes, where they often attempt to escalate and incite violence.

And though the group claims no connection to the racist “alt-right,” Proud Boys founder McInnes (who abandoned the group in 2018 after its members assaulted people who protested a McInnes speech to the New York Metropolitan Republican Club), seems to have an affinity for Nazis. On McInnes’ web broadcast program CRTV, he has hosted countless white supremacists and bigots in favorable contexts.

In 2018, hetold listeners to his web broadcast show that he believed it should be considered a hate crime if a person is called a “Nazi” while they are being hit. Earlier that year, Right Wing Watch’s Jared Holtreported that in 2016, McInnes said, “I want violence. I want punching in the face. I’m disappointed in Trump supporters for not punching enough [protesters].”

As Holt reported then, “The qualifier for the highest rank of Proud Boy—known as the ‘Fourth Degree’—necessitates entering a physical conflict for their cause. Members of the Proud Boys havejoked about wanting to shoot and kill ‘antifa.’”

Now the group is emboldened by the incumbent president, who refuses to say whether, should he lose the election, he will respect the Constitution’s prescription for a peaceful transfer of power.

Tags: Donald J. Trump Enrique Tarrio Joe Biden Joe Biggs Roger Stone Proud Boys

https://theintercept.com/2020/09/30/neo-fascist-proud-boys-exult-trump-telling-stand-not-stand/

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Robert Mackey

September 30 2020,

neo-Fascist Proud Boys Exult Over Trump Telling Them to “Stand By,” Not Stand Down

Asked to tell white supremacists and militia groups to stay away from protests, the president told some to be on alert.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP thrilled members of the violent far-right gang known as the Proud Boys on Tuesday when he responded to a question from debate moderator Chris Wallace, about whether he would be willing to tell white supremacists and militia groups that support him to stand down, by instead telling that group to “stand back and stand by.”

While the president’s reply struck some observers as more evidence of his inability to stem the torrent of half-digested thoughts and phrases that fly from his lips in an incoherent jumble, leaders of the neo-fascist group exulted on the social media platforms Telegram and Parler, seeing the answer as a call to inflict violence on left-wing antifascist activists and protesters.

A screenshot from the Parler account of the Proud Boys founder, Gavin McInnes.]

“Trump basically said to go fuck them up! this makes me so happy,” Joe Biggs, who organized a Proud Boys rally that drew an embarrassingly small crowd of a few hundred in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, wrote. Biggs had reason to be encouraged, since Trump did stop short of actually condemning the group, pivoting instead to say: “But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem… this is a left-wing problem.”

A screenshot from Parler, a right-wing social media platform.]

In response to Trump’s comment, Biden noted that Christopher Wray, “his own F.B.I. director, said the threat comes from white supremacists; antifa’s an idea, not an organization.” Wray told Congress two weeks ago that “we look at antifa as more of an ideology or a movement than an organization.”

“Oh come on,” Trump replied, clearly shocked to hear the truth — that loosely affiliated antifascist groups dedicated to confronting white supremacists and neo-fascists like the Proud Boys are not a domestic terrorist organization. “Antifa is a dangerous, radical group,” Trump insisted, echoing the core imaginary belief of the Proud Boys he was supposed to be condemning.

The Proud Boys founder, Gavin McInnes, who also co-founded Vice media, has described what the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a hate group as a “Western chauvinist” fraternal order that promotes violence against left-wing protesters, and embraces anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim bigotry that dovetails with Trump’s own beliefs.

Trump’s failure to disavow the group echoed his refusal to condemn the white supremacists who marched with torches in Charlottesville in 2017, chanting, “Jew will not replace us!” at the Unite the Right rally, which was organized by Jason Kessler, a former member of the Proud Boys.

On Wednesday afternoon, Trump tried to undo the damage by telling reporters at the White House that he really did not know what he was saying during the debate.

“I don’t know who the Proud Boys are — you’ll have to give me a definition, cause I really don’t know who they are,” Trump said.

“I can only say they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work,” the president continued, apparently equating the violence inflicted on left-wing protesters by the Proud Boys to the work of the police.

He then continued to deflect a question about right-wing violence by his supporters with the suggestion that it was entirely justified by the behavior of protesters. “Law enforcement will do the work, more and more, as people see how bad this radical, liberal, Democrat movement is.”

On Tuesday night, however, the Proud Boys founder had posted video of himself watching Trump’s comments with excitement during a livestream.

A screenshot from Parler.]

The group’s current chairman, Enrique Tarrio, a Cuban-American from Miami who attended the Charlottesville rally, also boosted an excited comment about Trump’s apparent endorsement posted on Tuesday by another member, who describes himself as a “33rd Degree Proud Boy,” as well as a“right-wing death squad general,” an “ANTIFA Butcher,” a “Commie Killer” and a “BLM Skull Stomper.”

A screenshot of a Parler post from a member of the neo-fascist Proud Boys gang.]

Tarrio, who spent a year in federal prison for his part in a scheme to rebrand stolen diabetic test strip kits and sell them online, wrote on his own Parler account that he was “extremely PROUD of my Presidents performance tonight,” saying that Trump “did an excellent job and was asked a VERY pointed question. The question was in reference to WHITE SUPREMACY…which we are not.”

Despite Tarrio’s comments, photographs of the rally in Portland on Saturday showed him and other members making the O.K. hand gesture, which has evolved in recent years from a 4chan hoax — intended to trick the media into reporting that it meant “white power” on the internet — into a symbol actually embraced by racists in real life.

PORTLAND, OR - SEPTEMBER 26: Proud Boys flash the OK hand signal, a gesture often associated with far-right groups, during Proud Boy rally on September 26, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency prior to Saturdays rally as fears of political violence between Proud Boys and Black Lives Matter protesters grew. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)Proud Boys flash the OK hand signal, a gesture often associated with far-right groups, during a rally in Portland on Saturday. Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty ImagesGetty Images]

Even if they don’t consider themselves racist, it is quite clear that the Proud Boys are openly antagonistic to racial justice protesters in Portland and other cities.

As my colleague Ryan Devereaux reported from the rally on Saturday, it was largely dedicated to praising two new martyrs of the far-right: Aaron Jay Danielson, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, who was shot and killed by a self-described anti-fascist in Portland last month, and Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Trump supporter who was charged with two counts of murder for killing two Black Lives Matter protesters and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The debate moderator, Chris Wallace, had specifically referred to the way violent right-wing groups had stoked violence in both Kenosha and Portland.

Moments before he failed to condemn the Proud Boys in the debate, Trump had seemed to take credit for the police killing of Michael Reinoehl, the suspected left-wing gunman who had fatally shot Aaron Jay Danielson, a right-wing activist from a group allied to the Proud Boys, following a raucous pro-Trump caravan confronting Black Lives Matter protesters in downtown Portland.

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“I sent in the U.S. Marshals to get the killer of a young man — in the middle of the street, they shot him, and for three days Portland wouldn’t do anything,” Trump claimed. “They took care of business,” he said with obvious satisfaction.

In fact, the new, progressive district attorney for Portland, Mike Schmidt, had charged Reinoehl with murder and obtained a warrant for his arrest hours before he was shot and killed by police officers in Washington state working with the U.S. Marshals Service to track down the fugitive. While the police said Reinoehl had a handgun, one witness told The Oregonian that the officers had made no attempt to arrest the suspect, who did not seem to be armed. Antifascist activists in Portland then accused law enforcement of carrying out an extrajudicial execution of a man who was wanted for killing a member of a pro-police group.

Trump also seemed to be overstating what role, if any, he had played in the effort to detain Reinoehl. In fact, on September 3, the president tweeted a public complaint about the case — demanding that the Portland Police arrest the suspect — a full hour and 40 minutes after he had already been killed by the federal fugitive task force. The president’s tweet was sent 13 minutes after the suspect’s death had been reported by The New York Times.

On Wednesday, District Attorney Schmidt announced that a member of the Proud Boys, “50-year-old Alan Swinney is in custody and is being charged with multiple offenses for alleged crimes and assaults that involved weapons.” Swinney was charged with assault, the unlawful use of mace, threatening a protester in Portland with a gun and using a paintball gun to wound people at recent demonstrations in the city.

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Trump’s praise of Reinoehl’s shooting in the debate also echoed his own previous bloodthirsty remarks, in which he sounded more like a sectarian warlord than the president of a democracy. “U.S. Marshals killed him,” Trump said of the suspected left-wing gunman in an interview with the debate moderator’s Fox News colleague Jeanine Pirro. “And I’ll tell you something, that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution,” he added.

Trump’s rush to declare the killing of the left-wing gunman from Portland perfectly justified contrasted with the staunch defense he has offered of Kyle Rittenhouse, the right-wing gunman who has become a hero to neo-fascists worldwide for bringing a rifle to a Black Lives Matter protest and provoking a confrontation that left two men dead.

At a news conference last month, Trump was asked if he would disavow the provocative behavior of armed supporters like Rittenhouse, who was charged with six crimes based on evidence gathered by the Kenosha police department. Suddenly skeptical of the police, the president said that video of the teen gunman being pursued by protesters before the second and third shootings, which was played without context in heavy rotation on Fox News, suggested to him that the young vigilante had acted in self-defense.

What the president left out of his description of the video that showed Rittenhouse, in his words, “trying to get away from” protesters who were chasing him, who then “very violently attacked him,” is that those three men were trying to disarm him because he had just shot another man in the head, minutes earlier.

“I guess he was in very big trouble — he probably would’ve been killed,” Trump claimed, ignoring the sequence of events laid out in clear detail in the police complaint charging Rittenhouse with murder.

That context was mostly absent from Tucker Carlson’s selective presentation of the facts of what Rittenhouse did, but it was carefully detailed in the indictment based on the work of three Kenosha homicide detectives. It is not hard to imagine which source of information Trump had studied more carefully. So when Trump excused the reckless killing of protesters by Rittenhouse, a young man who had been in the front row at one of the president’s rallies in January, the self-described “law and order” candidate was choosing to disregard the actual work of law enforcement carried out by Kenosha’s police department because it was politically inconvenient for him.

At another point in the debate, Trump claimed that his provocative approach to the protests in Portland was endorsed by the city’s sheriff, “who just came out today and said, ‘I support President Trump.'” While the city of Portland does not, in fact, have a sheriff, the county it is in, Multnomah, does. Before the debate was over, Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese had tweeted to debunk the president. “I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him,” Reese wrote. “Donald Trump has made my job a hell of a lot harder since he started talking about Portland,” he added, “but I never thought he’d try to turn my wife against me!”

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ref

https://theintercept.com**/2020/09/28/**portland-proud-boys-rally-journalists/

the PROUD BOYS claimed that they would bring legions of dedicated patriots to the city of Portland, Oregon, in a powerful show of strength against their anti-fascist foes, but when the moment of truth came on Saturday, the right-wing gang failed to deliver.

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Despite weeks of hype and deep concerns over the possibility of severe and deadly violence, the organization, which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a hate group, drew a modest crowd of angry men and women, whose brief gathering mostly consisted of swilling cheap beer and hard seltzers and assaulting journalists in a park on the edge of town. The absence of large-scale violence, which has so often defined the group’s forays into Portland over the past few years, came as a relief to a city that has been blanketed in wildfire smoke in recent weeks and targeted by the Trump administration as an “anarchist jurisdiction” for its nightly protests against police brutality.

In the run-up to the rally, Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency and established a law enforcement task force led by the Oregon State Police, which reportedly deployed approximately 500 officers to police the event. At most, several hundred people turned out for the demonstration, a far cry from the 20,000 participants and observers the Proud Boys had estimated in their request for a permit — the city denied the request, citing coronavirus restrictions that cap group gatherings at 50 people.

“The events over the weekend show that law enforcement knew how to keep the far-right groups from unleashing violence in Portland all along, they simply chose not to in previous instances,” Michael German, a former FBI agent, now at the Brennan Center, said in an email to The Intercept.

What the event lacked in numbers, it made up for in paranoia and talk of persecution. Billed as demonstration against “domestic terrorism,” the day’s speakers focused their rage against the left broadly and against the anti-fascist movement known as antifa in particular. Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who was charged with two counts of murder after killing two Black Lives Matter protesters and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, came up often, as did Aaron Jay Danielson, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, who was shot and killed by a self-described anti-fascist in Portland last month.

''This is a war, folks, and we have got to fight back,” Carol Leek, the founder of Oregon Women for Trump, told the crowd. Connecting the day’s events to President Donald Trump’s reelection efforts,Leek railed against the threat of encroaching Marxism and the dangers of “Black supremacy,” while self-styled Proud Boy security guards roamed through the crowd questioning journalists about their affiliations and attempting to intimidate those whose answers they found unsatisfactory.

Police in tactical gear were mustered near overpasses outside Delta Park on the northern edge of the city, but with the exception of occasional visits from a handful of liaison officers, the Proud Boys were largely permitted to police themselves. Attendees were well-armed: carrying rifles, sidearms, knives, bats, bear spray, and at least one electrified Taser shield. Nearly all of the demonstrators wore some type of tactical gear. The letters “RWDS,” an abbreviation for “right-wing death squads,” were commonly seen on patches, and there was an abundance of pro-police “Thin Blue Line” flags fixed to pickup trucks, body armor, and the merchandise table.

A handful of gunmen ran a checkpoint near an entrance to the park, and an RV in a Walmart parking lot appeared to serve as a weapons and body armor depot for some of the protesters. Neither attracted attention from the police. Demonstrators also received a load of branded shields from a man driving a box truck who said he was with a group called American Wolf. One of the shields was scooped up by a man who looked to be a middle-aged skinhead, dressed in heavy black boots with white laces. Another shield ended up in the back of a truck that was later pulled over by police. Law enforcement seized several guns from the vehicle and a third shield spray painted with the words “FUCK BLM.” Two of the men in the truck were given criminal citations for possession of loaded firearms in public.

Authorities also said they were investigating an incident in which a man was filmed kicking a livestreamer in the face — one of at least three instances in which demonstrators were recorded putting their hands on members of the media. The victim said he was also punched in the head and received a concussion. The assailant, who was also photographed chatting with state police, gave a casual TV interview after the attack.

German, who has closely tracked law enforcement response to far-right violence in Portland under the Trump administration said the means for protecting the public have been long clear. “It’s not as if it required aggressive police action, just proper planning, a presence, and a few token citations and weapons seizures made a huge difference,” he said. “Yet, law enforcement still left room for criticism. Allowing the militants to man armed checkpoints and harass and beat journalists and others without interference reinforces the idea that the police condone these armed out-of-state groups coming into Portland and intimidating, threatening, and assaulting residents.”

Days before the Proud Boys rally took place, The Guardian and Bellingcat, an investigative journalism organization, reported on a trove of leaked chats obtained by anti-fascists in Eugene, Oregon, which showed a network of Pacific Northwest-based pro-Trump and pro-law enforcement activists planning to engage in acts of targeted political violence, including the assassination of elected officials. “People will get shot, stabbed and beat,” one of the members of the so-called Patriot Coalition said in a leaked message. On Saturday, one of the participants in the chat group, a man named David Willis, who had identified legal advocates and the press as “targets,” threatened a reporter while holding a paintball gun. Shane Burley, the experienced Portland-based journalist and author whom Willis targeted, later described the demonstration as “the most paranoid far right-rally I have ever been to.”

Read Our Complete CoverageProtests for Black Lives

Despite the low turnout, the Proud Boys sought to paint a picture of a mission accomplished. Standing on the stage with a sunburned face and wide grin, Proud Boy leader Joe Biggs said the rally gave him a “boner,” while National Chair Enrique Tarrio opted for a more measured tone, praising the governor’s decision to declare a state of emergency in interviews with reporters. Both men were involved in ordering the physical removal of an independent journalist. According to a detailed, firsthand account published by Courthouse News Service, the two men and their organization engaged in extensive collaboration with law enforcement throughout the day, including meeting with the FBI Saturday morning to discuss the violent chats that had leaked online. Biggs told the news service “They’re not with us,” referring to participants in the chat, and said the meeting with the bureau was part of an ongoing dialogue with the feds.

“We’ve talked to state and federal law enforcement for every event we do,” he said. “The feds say, ‘you’re the only group out there that’s willing to sit down and tell us stuff.’ They know every move we do before we do it because we tell them.”

The demonstration wrapped up ahead of schedule and many of the Proud Boys drove across state lines to celebrate their demonstration in Washington state. Two separate anti-facist and anti-racist demonstrations a short drive from the scene drew considerably larger crowds.

Last month, a caravan of amped-up Trump supporters drove into downtown Portland and opened fire on counterprotesters with bear spray, paintballs, and live rounds. As day turned to night, speculation swirled as to whether the Proud Boys would return to the city in similar fashion — they did not.

[Portland police disperse a crowd of protesters on September 26, 2020 in Portland, Oregon.

Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images]

In the end, it was the local police who were responsible for violence in the streets, as dozens of riot cops chased protesters and the press from Multnomah County Justice Center downtown and pummeled them with fists and clubs following an order to disperse. Ahead of Saturday’s rally, roughly 50 police officers assigned to the Portland Police Bureau’s Rapid Response were deputized as federal marshals, allowing members the local police to bring federal charges against individuals accused of assaulting an officer. The move is seen as an end-run around District Attorney Mike Schmidt, who in August established a policy in which his office would decline to prosecute certain protest related offenses.

“The perception that the police favor the far-right agitators was further informed by the sharp contrast with how the police treated those protesting police violence and racism later that day,” German, the former FBI agent, said. “That they would modify the law enforcement command structure specifically to avoid restraints on police violence ordered by courts and local political leaders demonstrates complete disregard for the law, democratic restraints on police power, and the security of Portland residents from unaccountable law enforcement actions.”

Among the members of the media who received the worst of the authorities’ treatment on Saturday night was 73-year-old John Rudoff, a beloved local photojournalist, who was tossed onto the concrete on video. In a statement posted on Facebook Sunday, the veteran journalist said the helmet he was wearing may have saved his life.

“The cops need to understand that an action like this — shoving a guy down on the cement with no warning — can fracture a hip or an arm or a skull, and can be a life-ending or career-mobility ending move,” Rudoff wrote. “Actions have consequences; and they should gauge some of their less-warranted actions accordingly.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/proud-boys-try-to-assimilate-into-florida-gop-as-trump-denies-knowing-extremist-group/

Donald Trump isn’t alone in distancing himself from the Proud Boys. Florida Republicans who’ve snapped photos with the group’s members say they don’t know much about the self-described militia group either.About 48 hours after the president told the organization to “stand back, and stand by” during the first presidential debate, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott condemned “all forms of racism, violence, or discrimination, including the Proud Boys” when asked about a picture he took two years ago with the group’s Miami-based chairman. Also Thursday, a spokeswoman for Miami Congressman Mario Diaz-Bal...miami herald

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/we-will-kill-you-video-shows-what-the-proud-boys-gang-is-really-like

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‘We will kill you’: Video shows what the Proud Boys 'gang' is really like

Aysha Qamar and Daily Kos October 01, 2020

White supremacist and far-right group the Proud Boys has garnered more attention this week after Donald Trump mentioned the hate group during Tuesday night's presidential debate. Instead of denouncing white supremacy as he was asked to do, Trump gave the group orders: "Proud Boys: Stand back and stand by," he said. "But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing [problem]."

Since its inception in 2016, the Proud Boys group has engaged in politically motivated violence.Trump's words were taken as a call to prepare for action by many members, who also happen to be his supporters. Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have noted that the "gang" is violent and hateful, with "anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric." In a video that resurfaced and went viral Thursday, multiple clips of Proud Boys co-founder Gavin McInnes depict the reality of the group. McInnes is depicted not only openly calling "for violence generally" but emphasizing that he encourages members to use violence to express themselves. "We need more violence from the Trump people," he says in one of the video clips.

But of course, as he does with most of his statements, Trump denied knowing who the Proud Boys are Wednesday—a day after mentioning them in the debate. It seems like Republicans wanted him to distance himself from the violence the group perpetuates.

"I don't know who the Proud Boys are. You'll have to give me a definition because I really don't know who they are. I can only say they have to stand down and let law enforcement do their work. ... As people see how bad this radical liberal Democrat movement is and how weak, the law enforcement is going to come back stronger and stronger. But again, I don't know who Proud Boys are, but whoever they are, they have to stand down and let law enforcement do their work."

Yet the foundation of the Proud Boys lies in the fact that they believe they should commit violence and be strategically ignored by law enforcement. "I think it's our job to do it and the cops to turn a blind eye," McInnes can be heard saying in the video. Throughout the gruesome video, acts of violence performed on behalf of members of the group in addition to audio with McInnes clearly instigating violence are portrayed. "Choke a motherfucker, choke a bitch, choke a tranny," McInnes encourages.

The video first made appearances on Twitter in September following an interview Joe Rogan conducted during which he spoke of McInnes as a "mostly fun" guy. Popular video editor Vic Berger IV shared the video with commentary, including a recollection of the Proud Boys allegedly visiting his home to threaten and scare him. Berger IV notes that Rogan, in addition to other popular media hosts, often introduce people like McInnes with a "soft" image that ultimately, whether they know it or not, normalizes their behavior. While McInnes has publicly disassociated himself from the group since 2018 following advice from his legal team, his words and mission for the group still remain.

Since Trump's statement at the debate, white supremacists and other members of the alt-right group have taken the words as a call to action. A current chairman of the group, Enrique Tarrio, who also serves as Florida state director for Latinos for Trump,wrote: "I will stand down sir!!! Standing by sir. So Proud of my guys right now," on the alternative discussion network Parler on Wednesday. Other members also took to Parler to express their reaction, the Daily Beast reported. "Trump basically said to go fuck them up! this makes me so happy," Proud Boys leader Joe Briggs said.

Tarrio was one of the organizers of a recent event in Portland, Oregon. Hundreds of people gathered in Portland last week, many of them wearing military body armor and no masks, for a rally organized by the Proud Boys. While local law enforcement claims the rally ended without serious violence, footage shared on social media shows an assault, including an incident during which a man allegedly kicked another man who was live-streaming the rally. Just like the Proud Boys want, law enforcement in Portland seem to turn a blind eye to their violence while creating violence and fear in peaceful spaces where anti-ICE and Black Lives Matter demonstrators gather.

Interest in the Proud Boys group reportedly increased following the election of Trump and continuous sexist and Islamophobic comments made by McInnes. By the end of 2017, more than 20,000 people joined the group, which had started only a year before, according to Forbes. While the group emphasizes the importance of being "American" and proud of it, McInnes himself isn't American. That's right—the man encouraging violence in the U.S. in the name of Trump is actually Canadian.

According to BBC News, because of its nature and advocacy for violence, the group has been banned from social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Trump's statement to the group acknowledges that not only does he know what Proud Boys are, but that he supports them and knows he has an influence over them. Official shirts and gear endorsed by the Proud Boys quickly made it to the market following the debate with a reply to Trump's words: "Standing by."

The video speaks for itself: The Proud Boys are a violent and terroristic organization.

FWIW - these are the Proud Boys... https://t.co/yFSUCvmvZE

— Rex Chapman???? (@Rex Chapman????)1601500378.0

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grift cf paypal tarrio

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/extremist-hate-group-proud-boys-merchandise-with-trump-order-to-stand-by-already-on-amazon/

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an 920

only winner of last night's 'debate' was dictatorship and oligarchy

Thom Hartmann Common Dreams

September 30, 2020

What we saw last night was the dictator's playbook.

Tell violent white supremacist racists to "stand by" and encourage them to s...

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SOME Talk 4 26

Joe Biggs - Wikipedia

Joseph Randall Biggs (born 1983/1984) is an American veteran, media personality, organizer of the Proud Boys, and convicted seditionist who participated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack.

After serving in the United States Army and suffering a traumatic brain injury, Biggs began working for various conservative media organizations, including Infowars and Censored.TV. As a leader for the far-right Proud Boys group, he organized and promoted the End Domestic Terrorism rally; was found jointly culpable for an over-$1 million judgment for trespass and vandalism at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church; and helped lead the organization's destructive efforts in the attack on the United States Capitol.

For the last of these, in 2023, he was found guilty on six criminal counts (including seditious conspiracy), and sentenced to 17 years in federal prison. He served 1.39 years before his sentence was commuted by President Trump on January 20, 2025.

Military

Biggs is a combat veteran of the United States Army.^[8] He suffered a traumatic brain injury during a deployment to Iraq, for which he received a Purple Heart.^[9] As reported by Salon, Michael Hastings' book The Operators corroborates Biggs' service in Afghanistan as well as the sergeant's involvement "in a gruesome suicide-bombing incident". In 2007, he was stationed at Fort Bragg when arrested for domestic violence. Biggs claimed his separation from the Army was a medical retirement^[5] after eight years enlisted.^[10]

Media

He also worked as a correspondent for Infowars, where he covered the Oath Keepers' actions at the 2015 Ferguson unrest, the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge,^[11] conspiracy theories about the 2015 San Bernardino attack, and the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.^[6]

In January 2017, Biggs posted online that he had been hired by Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN; "the unofficial version of Trump TV") to make a program focusing on the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution;^[6] RSBN refuted that in April, saying they were merely speaking with Biggs and "are anything but racist or sexist here."^[12]

In August 2017, Biggs was a speaker at the Boston Free Speech Rally;^[2] by 2019, he was the host of a right-wing talk radio show.^[13] In September 2020, Biggs was employed by Censored.TV,^[14] though his show had been removed by late January 2021.^[15]

Proud Boys

By 2019,^[7] Joseph Biggs was an organizer of the Proud Boys, a neofascist^[16] "far-right,^[17][11][18] all-male group of self-described 'Western chauvinists'"^[17] which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a hate group.^[19]

Biggs was an organizer^[7] and the main promoter of August 2019's End Domestic Terrorism rally in Portland, Oregon.^[19] In the wake of that event, in response to Biggs' threat to return with the Proud Boys on a monthly basis, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler chastized Biggs "for frightening Portlanders with the prospect of violence in the streets", and told the Floridian he was not welcome in Portland.^[13]

Biggs' lawyer—J. Daniel Hull—alleged that in late July 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation approached his client and enlisted his assistance collecting on-the-ground intelligence about antifa activists.^[3]

At the September 29, 2020 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, when pressured to condemn the Proud Boys as a white supremacy group, the president said, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by". The next day, Biggs filed a police report with the Volusia County sheriff's office, alleging receipt of threatening phone calls and social-media messages, and requesting police protection. His identity in connection with the report was obfuscated under Marsy's Law.^[15]

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.

On December 12, 2020, Proud Boys trespassed the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., destroyed church property, and then celebrated the same. The church filed a lawsuit for compensatory damages against the Proud Boys' limited liability corporation, and specifically named Biggs, Jeremy Bertino, Enrique Tarrio, and John Turano. On June 30, 2023, Judge Neal E. Kravitz of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia issued a default judgment against the defendants for over one million dollars.^[20]

Capitol attack

Planning and participation

In 2021, prior to the January 6 United States Capitol attack that delayed the certification of Joe Biden's presidential-election win, Biggs exhorted for Proud Boys to "turn out in record numbers [...] We will be blending in as one of you ... We are going to smell like you, move like you, and look like you. The only thing we'll do that's us is think like us!"^[18] On January 5, via encrypted social media channels, he communicated with other members: "trying to get our numbers. So we can plan accordingly for tonight and go over tomorrow's plan. [...] info should be coming out [...] we have a plan".^[21]

[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Biggs_and_Ethan_Nordean_cropped_%28cropped_to_Biggs%27_torso%29.png)Biggs marching by the United States Supreme Court Building

Outside the Capitol Building, Biggs spoke privately with Ryan Samsel, who immediately thereafter was the first person to breach the security perimeter.^[10] Biggs was one of the first to breach the building itself at about 2:13 p.m., 20 seconds behind Dominic Pezzola, who smashed a Senate window with a riot shield;^[18] he was identified by the FBI via photos and videos taken there.^[17] Biggs and other Proud Boys were wearing walkie-talkies to allow real-time communication,^[18] and Biggs was recorded on video saying of the breach, "This is awesome!"^[17] He later left the building, but returned 30 minutes later alongside some Oath Keepers, pushing their way past a law enforcement officer.^[21]

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testified during the Jan. 6 Committee hearings in 2022 that it was Biggs who started "turning the tables" on a handful of police officers and as they faced off with a crowd of Proud Boys and others on Jan. 6, 2021. She said Biggs, using a megaphone, led the rioters in the face off with police at a bike rack at the Peace Circle.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daytona_Beach_News-Journal)*^[22]}:

Legal repercussions

On January 18, Biggs admitted to the FBI that he entered the building, but claimed he neither forced his way in, nor knew about the plan to do so.^[17] On the morning of January 20, 2021, he was arrested in Florida,^[11] charged with knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority; obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding; and willfully and knowingly engaging in disorderly conduct to impede a session of Congress.^[17] In Orlando court, Biggs did not enter a plea; magistrate judge Embry Kidd released him to home detention^[18] with an unsecured bond of US$25,000 (equivalent to about $30,000 in 2025),^[23] pending his trial in Washington, D.C.^[17]

Biggs and three other Proud Boys leaders (Charles Donohoe, Ethan Nordean, and Zachary Rehl)^[24] were indicted (*United States of America v. Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Charles Donohoe*) on March 10, 2021, charged with planning and executing the Capitol attack.^[3] On March 20, and based on these new charges, federal prosecutors requested Biggs return to pre-trial detention.^[21] Hull attempted to leverage Biggs' alleged prior cooperation with the FBI to keep his client out on bail.^[3] Judge Timothy J. Kelly revoked his bail that April, saying, "The defendants stand charged with seeking to steal one of the crown jewels of our country, in a sense, by interfering with the peaceful transfer of power. [...] It's no exaggeration to say the rule of law and ... in the end, the existence of our constitutional republic is threatened by it."^[25] In July 2021, Hull complained to Kelly that Biggs' time in the Seminole County, Florida jail was subjecting his Proud Boys client to threats of violence, exacerbating his medical problems, and complicating their defense prep due to a lack of technology.^[26]

On June 6, 2022, a superseding grand jury indictment (*United States of America v. Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Enrique Tarrio, and Dominic Pezzola*) was issued by the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew M. Graves.^[27] In addition to Hull, at the D.C. jury trial, Biggs was also represented by the Connecticut-based Norm Pattis, who was briefly removed from the case when his law license was suspended due to mishandling confidential documents in Alex Jones' trial for defamation.^[28]

On May 4, 2023, after the three-month trial in D.C.,^[29] Biggs was found guilty of seditious conspiracy; obstructing an official proceeding and criminal conspiracy thereto; conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties; interference with law enforcement during civil disorder; and destruction of government property. Judge Kelly ruled that Biggs' destruction of a fence separating rioters and police qualified the defendant for "a terrorism sentencing enhancement sought by prosecutors", who asked for a 33-year sentence. Prior to sentencing, Biggs apologized to the court, blaming his actions on personal and familial difficulties,^[4] and conceded that "I know that I have to be punished and I understand".^[30] On August 31, Kelly sentenced Biggs to 17 years of federal imprisonment.^[4]

:{:{Two days later, Biggs told Alex Jones that his veteran's pension had been revoked, and that if Donald Trump was successful in the 2024 presidential election, "I know he'll pardon me. I believe that with all my heart". On CNN Republican Town Hall with Donald Trump, the former president said that he—if elected—would look into pardoning a "'large portion' of the Capitol riot defendants."^[31]}:

In the run up to Ohio's Republican primary for the 2024 US Senate election, incumbent senator JD Vance was trying to redefine the extent of the Capitol attack, saying that Biggs and the other men who destroyed barricades, led the intruders, and attacked Capitol officers were sentenced too harshly in comparison to other criminals.^[32] On January 20, 2025, President Trump instead commuted Biggs' sentence, effective immediately; he was released from federal prison that same day (having previously been scheduled for release on December 7, 2035).^[22]}:

Post-incarceration

In the months after his release from prison, Biggs was living in Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida. In an interview with USA Today, Biggs "unequivocally" said that he would again commit the acts for which he was tried and convicted. He also told the paper that he wanted to pursue prison reform, by working to free "people unjustly imprisoned by the federal justice system", with the help of Kim Kardashian.^[33]

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Boys

Proud Boys is a far-right^{[4][5][6][7][8]} neo-fascist^{[9][10][11][12]} male-only organization that promotes and engages in political violence.^{[2][13][14][15]} It is based in the United States and has a presence in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.^[16][17] The group was started as a joke in the far-right Taki's Magazine^[18] in 2016 by Vice Media co-founder and former commentator Gavin McInnes, taking its name from the song "Proud of Your Boy" from the Disney musical *Aladdin*.^[19][20]

The Proud Boys emerged as part of the alt-right, but McInnes began distancing himself from the alt-right in early 2017, saying the alt-right's focus is race while his focus is what he defines as "Western values." This re-branding effort intensified after the Unite the Right rally.^[21][22]

The group believes men—especially white men—and Western culture are under siege; their views have elements of the white genocide conspiracy theory.^[23][24][25] While the group claims to condemn white supremacy, its members have organized and led multiple neo-Nazi and white supremacist marches centered around anti-left violence. A Proud Boy and neo-Nazi, Jason Kessler, organized the neo-Nazi Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.^[26] In addition to Kessler, Unite the Right's chief organizer, numerous other Proud Boys marched in the neo-Nazi rally.

The organization glorifies violence^{[27][28][29][30]} and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called it an "alt-right fight club."^[26][31][32]

The organization has been described as a hate group by NPR's The Takeaway^[33] and the SPLC.^[34] In February 2019, despite having said that he broke his ties with the group in November 2018,^[35][36] McInnes filed a federal defamation suit against the SPLC over their "hate group" designation, saying that it was untrue and had damaged his career.^[37]

4 26 update sanitized?

After serving in the United States Army and suffering a traumatic brain injury, Biggs began working for various conservative media organizations, including Infowars and Censored.TV. As a leader for the far-right Proud Boys group, he organized and promoted the End Domestic Terrorism rally; was found jointly culpable for an over-$1 million judgment for trespass and vandalism at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church; and helped lead the organization's destructive efforts in the attack on the United States Capitol.

For the last of these, in 2023, he was found guilty on six criminal counts (including seditious conspiracy), and sentenced to 17 years in federal prison. He served 1.39 years before his sentence was commuted by President Trump on January 20, 2025.

Organization

Gavin McInnes co-founded Vice magazine in 1994, but he was pushed out in 2008 after several years of turmoil following a New York Times interview in which he talked about his pride in being white. After leaving, he began "doggedly hacking a jagged but unrelenting path to the far-right fringes of American culture", according to a 2017 profile in the Canadian Globe and Mail.^[38]

The Proud Boys organization was launched in September 2016, on the website of Taki's Magazine, a far-right publication for which white nationalist Richard B. Spencer had once served as executive editor.^[39] It existed informally before then as a group centered around McInnes, and the first gathering of the Brooklyn chapter in July 2016 resulted in a brawl in the bar where they met.^[19] The name is derived from the song "Proud of Your Boy" used in the soundtrack of the Disney film version of Aladdin (1992) which had become a running theme on McInnes' podcast hosted by Anthony Cumia's Compound Media. McInnes had heard the song at a children's talent show in December 2015 and took immediate dislike to the perceived "fake, humble, and self-serving" nature of the lyrics.^[19]

The organization has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center^[34] and NPR's The Takeaway.^[33] Spencer, McInnes and the Proud Boys have been described as hipster racists by Vox^[40] and Media Matters for America.^[41][42] McInnes says victim mentality of women and other historically oppressed groups is unhealthy, arguing that "[t]here is an incentive to be a victim. It is cool to be a victim." He sees white men and Western culture as "under siege" and described criticism of his ideas as "victim blaming".^[38] Their views have elements of the white genocide conspiracy theory.^[23][24][25] The group is part of the "alt lite" and it is "overtly Islamophobic".^[43]

In early 2017, McInnes began to distance himself from the alt-right, saying their focus is race and his focus is what he calls "Western values"; the rebranding effort intensified after the Unite the Right Rally.^[21][22][44] In 2018, McInnes was saying that the Proud Boys were part of the "new right".^[45]

The organization glorifies political violence against leftists, re-enacting political assassinations, wearing shirts that praise Augusto Pinochet's murders of leftists and participating directly in political violence.^[26][31] McInnes has said "I want violence, I want punching in the face. I'm disappointed in Trump supporters for not punching enough."^[26][39]

He further stated that "[w]e don't start fights [...] but we will finish them."^[46] Heidi Beirich, the Intelligence Project director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that this form of intentional aggression was not common among far-right groups in the past. She further said that the far-right's claim that "[w]e're going to show up and we're intending to get in fights" was new.^[47] In August 2018, Twitter shut down the official account for the group as well as McInnes' account under its policy prohibiting violent extremist groups. At the time, the group's profile photo was a member punching a counter-protester.^[48]

In late November 2018, it was reported, based on an internal memo of the Clark County, Washington Sheriff's Office, that the FBI had classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalism.^[14] However, two weeks later the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Oregon office denied that the FBI made such designations, ascribing the error by the Sheriff's Office to a confusion over the FBI designating the group as such, as a designation made by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and other outside agencies.^[49]

The organization is opposed to feminism and promotes gender stereotypes in which women are subservient to men.^[38][39] The organization has a female-member-only auxiliary wing named "Proud Boys' Girls" that supports the same ideology.^[50] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) states that McInnes and the Proud Boys are misogynistic and states that they call women "lazy" and "less ambitious" than men and “venerat[e] the housewife". McInnes has called for "enforced monogamy" and criticized feminism as "a cancer".^[43]

Some men who are not white have joined the Proud Boys, drawn by the organization's advocacy for men, anti-immigrant stance, and embrace of violence.^[51] The ADL states that the Proud Boys' "extreme, provocative tactics—coupled with overt or implicit racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and misogyny and the fact that the group is so decentralized, inconsistent, and spread out—suggest the group should be a significant cause for concern".^[43]

Membership

Proud Boys stand next to Joey Gibson at a 2017 rally in Seattle

According to David Neiwert, they recruit with emphasis on right-wing 15–30 year old white males who come primarily from suburbs and exurbs.^[52] The Proud Boys say they have an initiation process that has four stages and includes hazing. The first stage is a loyalty oath, on the order of "I’m a proud Western chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world"; the second is getting punched until the person recites pop culture trivia, such as the names of five breakfast cereals; the third is getting a tattoo and agreeing to not masturbate; and the fourth is getting into a major fight "for the cause."^{[20][31][53][54][55][56]}

The Daily Beast reported in February 2018 that the Proud Boys have amended rules. Prohibition against cargo shorts, use of opioids and crystal meth. The article states restrictions were not placed on cocaine. The masturbation policy was modified to read: "no heterosexual brother of the Fraternity shall masturbate more than one time in any calendar month".^[57]

Women aren't allowed to be Proud Boys^[39] and the unnamed president of Proud Boys L.A. told the Los Angeles Times the group only admits "biological men".^[58] In July 2018, the group had 160 members and up to 300 pending applicants, according to the unidentified president of Proud Boys L.A.^[58]

Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys

Leadership

Gavin McInnes founded the group and served as its leader. In November 2018, shortly after news broke that the FBI had classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalists—a claim later disavowed by an FBI official, who said they only intended to characterize the potential threat from some members of the group^[59]—McInnes said that his lawyers had advised him that quitting might help the nine members being prosecuted for the incidents in October. During the announcement he defended the group, attacked the reporting about it, said white nationalists don't exist, and at times he said things that made it appear he was not quitting, such as "this is 100% a legal gesture, and it is 100% about alleviating sentencing", and said it was a "stepping down gesture, in quotation marks".^[35][36]

As of November 2018, the group named its leaders as Enrique Tarrio, designated as "chairman",and the "Elder Chapter", which consists of Harry Fox, Heath Hair, Patrick William Roberts, Joshua Hall, Timothy Kelly, Luke Rofhling and Rufio Panman.^[60][3] Jason Lee Van Dyke, who was the organization's lawyer at the time, had been briefly named as chairman to replace Gavin McInnes when he left the group, but the organization announced on November 30 that Van Dyke was no longer associated with the group in any capacity, although his law firm still holds Proud Boys trademarks and is the registered agent for two of the group's chapters.^[61] In December 2018, arrest warrant was issued for Van Dyke over his death threat to a person he previously sued.^[62] Although McInnes had earlier said that any Proud Boy member who was known to have attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was kicked out of the organization, the new chairman Enrique Tarrio admitted to having attended the event, but "he had misgivings about the torchlight march and did not participate in it".^[56]

Activities

New York University

In February 2017, McInnes arrived at New York University to give a speech, accompanied by a group of about ten Proud Boys. Minor scuffles broke out between Proud Boys and antifa protesters, and the NYPD said that eleven people faced criminal charges. One member of the Proud Boys who encouraged others to fight the "faggots wearing black that won't let us in" was later arrested for punching a reporter from DNAinfo.^[63][64][26]

2017 Berkeley protests

Main article: 2017 Berkeley protests

At the 2017 March 4 Trump rally in Berkeley, California, Kyle Chapman was recorded hitting a counter-protester over the head with a wooden dowel. Images of Chapman went viral, and the Proud Boys organized a crowdfunding campaign for Chapman's bail after his arrest. After this, McInnes invited Chapman to become involved with the Proud Boys, through which he formed the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights.^[47]

On April 15, 2017, an alt-right rally was organized in Berkeley by the Liberty Revival Alliance, which did not seek or receive a permit, and was attended by members of the Proud Boys, Identity Evropa (an American neo-Nazi group)^[65][66][67] and Oath Keepers (an anti-government far-right group).^{[68][69][70][71][72]} Many of these people traveled to Berkeley from other parts of the country and the rally was counter-protested and violence broke out, resulting in 21 people being arrested.^[73][74]

2017 Islamberg caravan

In 2017, the Proud Boys joined a caravan to ride through Islamberg, New York, a community of around twenty black Muslim families who moved upstate to escape the racism and violence of New York City, and which has been a target of conspiracy theories from various Islamophobic hate groups and right-wing terrorist plots.^[75][76][77]

Portland protests

In 2017 and 2018, the Proud Boys participated in several rallies organized byPatriot Prayer in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Vancouver, Washington.^[78][79][80] Scenes of violence from one of these rallies was turned into a sizzle reel for the Proud Boys and was circulated on social media.^[2][81]

Halifax Indigenous Peoples' protest disruption

Main article: Statue of Edward Cornwallis § Recent discussions about the statue's removal

On July 1, 2017, five Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members who self-identified as Proud Boys disrupted a protest organized by indigenous activists, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at a statue of Edward Cornwallis, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. Indigenous activists had previously protested at the site and called for the removal of the statue because of Cornwallis's actions againstNatives, including ordering a bounty for scalps of Mi'kmaqpeople. The Proud Boys carried the Canadian Red Ensign flag from the time of Cornwallis and one of them said to the indigenous protesters, "You are recognising your heritage and so are we."^[16]

General Jonathan Vance, the head of the CAF, announced an investigation,^[82][83] Rear Admiral John Newton, Commander of the Maritime Fleet of the Royal Canadian Navy, was "personally horrified" by the incident and said the Proud Boys were "clearly a white supremacist group and we fundamentally stand opposed to any of their values."^[84] The CAF's investigation concluded by August 2017,^[85] Later that month, Newton announced the CAF had taken "appropriate measures to address individual shortcomings" and that four of the members had returned to duty, warning, "Any further inappropriate behavior could result in their termination from the Canadian Armed Forces."^[86] In 2018, the statue was removed from the site by the City of Halifax.

Unite the Right rally

Main article: Unite the Right rally

In June, McInnes disavowed the planned Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.^[38] However, Proud Boys were at the August 2017 alt-right event, which was organized by white supremacist Jason Kessler.^[87] Kessler had joined the Proud Boys some time before organizing the event.^[88][89][90] McInnes said he had kicked Kessler out after his views on race had become clear.^[38] After the rally, Kessler accused McInnes of using him as a "patsy" and said: "You're trying to cuck and save your own ass."^[22] Alex Michael Ramos, one of the men convicted for the assault of DeAndre Harris which took place at the rally, was associated with the Proud Boys and Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights.^[91]

2018 Metropolitan Republican Club

In October 2018, McInnes gave a talk at the Metropolitan Republican Club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He stepped out of his car wearing glasses with Asian eyes drawn on the front and pulled a samurai sword out of its sheath. Police forced him inside. Later, inside the event, McInnes and an Asian member of the Proud Boys re-enacted the 1960 murder of Inejiro Asanuma, the leader of the Japanese Socialist Party; a captioned photograph of the actual murder had become a meme in alt-right social media.^[39] The audience for the event was described by The New York Times as "a cross-section of New York’s far-right subculture: libertarians, conspiracy theorists and nationalists who have coalesced around their opposition to Islam, feminism and liberal politics."^[92]

Anti-fascist activists had started protesting outside the club before the event and had reportedly engaged in vandalism. Following cross-provocations between the opposing sides, the Proud Boys charged towards the protesters, who threw a bottle in response, resulting in a fight.^[92][93] NYC police present at the protest reportedly did not respond.^[39][94]

On November 21, shortly after news broke that the FBI had classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalists—a claim later disavowed by an FBI official, who said they only intended to characterize the potential threat of some members of the group^[49]—McInnes said that his lawyers had advised him that quitting might help the nine members being prosecuted for the incidents in October and he said "this is 100% a legal gesture, and it is 100% about alleviating sentencing", and said it was a "stepping down gesture, in quotation marks".^[35][36]

The fallout from the incident left the group in internal disarray.^[92] After McInnes nominally left the group, the "Elder Chapter" of the group reportedly assumed control. Jason Lee Van Dyke, the group's lawyer, was appointed as the chapter's chairman.^[60][95] Van Dyke was previously known for suing news media and anti-fascist activists for reporting on the group, and for making violent online threats with racist language.^[96][97] The group then publicly released its new bylaw online, with the names of its "Elder Chapter" members listed and redacted. The redaction was later discovered to be botched, as the list of names can be accessed by selecting over the black bar of the released document.^[60] A day later, the chapter announced that Van Dyke was no longer leader of the group, and Enrique Tarrio is the group's new chairman.^[3]

Arrests and prosecutions of the Proud Boys in connection with incident

Video evidence from three separate videos showed conclusively that the Proud Boys had instigated the fight after the Metropolitan Republican Club event. John Miller, New York City's deputy police commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said that "incidents like [the post-MRC fight] make it more likely" that the Proud Boys would be "higher on the radar" of authorities.^[92]

Ten men connected to the Proud Boys were arrested in connection with the October 2018 incident.^[98] Seven Proud Boys pleaded guilty to various charges including riot, disorderly conduct and attempted assault.^[98][99] Two of the men who accepted plea deals were sentenced to five days of community service and did not receive jail time.^[100] In August 2019, two of the Proud Boys, Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman, were convicted following a jury trial of attempted gang assault, attempted assault and riot; the jury deliberated a day and a half of deliberations before rejecting their claims of self-defense.^[98] Hare and Kinsman were each sentenced to four years in prison.^[101] The final defendant is awaiting trial.^[98][99]

The four anti-fascist victims of the beating are not cooperating with prosecutors, even to the extent of revealing their identities, and are known only as "Shaved Head", "Ponytail", "Khaki" and "Spiky Belt". Because of their non-cooperation, the Proud Boys could not be charged with assault—which requires evidence of injury—and were instead charged with riot and attempted assault, which merely require an attempt to cause injury. Without the victims to testify, the bulk of the evidence in the trial came from videos of the incident, including footage shot by a video documentarian, and video from security cameras.^[98][99]

Portland mayor threat

In January 2019, Reggie Axtell, a member of the Proud Boys, threatened Ted Wheeler, Portland, Oregon's Democratic mayor, in a Facebook video post. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Axtell said in the video that Wheeler's "days are fucking numbered ... I promise you this, Ted Wheeler: I’m coming for you, you little punk." Axtell also said that he would "unmask every [anti-fascist] son of a bitch that I come across", referring to a campaign initiated by Patriot Prayerleader Joey Gibson, Proud Boy Tusitala "Tiny" Toese and former Proud Boy Russell Schultz to tear off the bandanas of anti-fascist (antifa) demonstrators and taking pictures of their faces, thereby "demasking" them. The announcement of the campaign came shortly after an altercation that took place whenProud Boys and Patriot Prayer members attempted and failed to invade a chapter meeting of the left-wing organizationDemocratic Socialists of America. The groups clashed with anti-fascist activists nearby after being denied entry to the meeting, and said that they had been attacked.^{[102][103][104]}

Connection with Roger Stone

In early 2018, ahead of an appearance at the annual Republican Dorchester Conference in Salem, Oregon, Stone sought out the Proud Boys to act as his "security" for the event; photos posted online showed Stone drinking with several Proud Boys.^{[105][106][107]}

In February 2018, the Proud Boys posted a video on Facebook which they described as Stone undergoing a "low-level initiation" into the group. As part of the initiation, Stone says "Hi, I'm Roger Stone. I'm a Western chauvinist. I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world", making him a "first-degree" member, which Kutner characterizes as being a "sympathizer". Stone denies being a member of the group. In July 2020, Facebook announced it had shut down the accounts and pages linked to Stone and Proud Boys. This network of over 100 Facebook and Instagram accounts spent more than $300,000 on ads to promote their posts and included false personas.^[108]

In late January 2019, when Stone was arrested by the FBI on seven criminal counts in connection with the Mueller investigation, Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys, met Stone as he left the courthouse in Florida. Tarrio, who wore a "Roger Stone Did Nothing Wrong" T-shirt, sold by a company owned by Tarrio, told a local TV reporter that the indictment was nothing but "trumped-up charges", and was later seen visiting Stone's house. The next day, in Washington D.C., a small number of Proud Boys demonstrated outside the courthouse where Stone pleaded not guilty to the charges, carrying "Roger Stone did nothing wrong" signs and others that promoted the InfoWars conspiracy website. The Proud Boys got into an argument with anti-Stone hecklers.^{[4][109][110]} Tarrio was later filmed behind President Donald Trump in February 2019, during a televised speech in Miami, where he was seen wearing the same message on a T-shirt.^[111]

Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes said Stone was "one of the three approved media figures allowed to speak" about the group.^[112] When Stone was asked by a local reporter about the Proud Boys' claim that he had been initiated as a member of the group, he responded by calling the reporter a member of the Communist party.^[107] He is particularly close to the group's current leader Enrique Tarrio, who has commercially monetized his position.^[107]

SPLC lawsuit

Although he has supposedly cut his ties with the Proud Boys in November 2018, stepping down as chairman,^[35][36] McInnes filed a defamation lawsuit in February 2019 against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in federal court in Alabama over the SPLC's designation of the Proud Boys as a "general hate" group.^[37][113] The SPLC says on its website that "McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: rejecting white nationalism and, in particular, the term 'alt-right' while espousing some of its central tenets," and that the group's "rank-and-file [members] and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville".^[34][113] McInnes is represented by Ronald Coleman. In addition to defamation, McInnes claims tortious interference with economic advantage, "false light invasion of privacy," and "aiding and abetting employment discrimination".^[114]

The SPLC filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in July 2019.^[115]

Mcinnes re-hired by The Rebel Media

The day after filing the suit, McInnes announced that he had been re-hired by the Canadian far-right media group The Rebel Media.^[116]

1776.shop

In February 2019, Slate magazine reported that Square, Chase Paymentech, and PayPal had pulled their payment processing services from 1776.shop, an online far-right merchandise site associated with the Proud Boys. 1776.shop lists itself as a project of Fund the West LLC, a Miami business registered to Henry Tarrio. In the past, Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of Proud Boys, has said that he is the "business owner" of 1776.shop, raising the probability that "Henry Tarrio" and "Enrique Tarrio" are the same person. Henry Tarrio is also the registered owner of "Proudboys LLC", which uses the same address as Fund the West.^[117]

May 2019 federal lawsuit

On May 17, 2019, Bill Burke of Ohio filed a $3 million lawsuit against the Proud Boys, Kessler, and multiple other people and groups associated with the Unite the Right rally. Burke was seriously injured in the August 2017 Charlottesville car attack which followed the event.^[118][119] The 64-page initial complaint alleges that the named parties "conspired to plan, promote and carry out the violent events in Charlottesville". According to Burke, his physical and mental injuries have led to "severe psychological and emotional suffering".^[120][121]

"Demand Free Speech" rally

A Proud Boys rally called "Demand Free Speech"^[122] took place on July 6, 2019, in Washington, D.C.'s Freedom Plaza and Pershing Park, drawing about 250 people.^{[123][124][125]} McInnes, Laura Loomer and Milo Yiannopoulos appeared, but former Trump advisor Roger Stone and Jacob Wohl did not. A counter-protest/dance party across the street drew more people than the main rally. Police said there were only minor skirmishes between the far-right and antifa, and no arrests were made.^{[123][124][125]}

Republican candidate Omar Navarro, a perennial challenger for Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters' congressional seat, withdrew from speaking at the event, tweeting that his ex-girlfriend DeAnne Lorraine, a self-described "MAGA relationship expert," had threatened him, using cocaine and having sex with members of the Proud Boys.^[122] In response to Navarro's tweets, the Proud Boys issued a video featuring former Infowars staff member Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean—the star of a viral video showing him beating up an antifa protester—in which they "banished" Navarro from the Proud Boys. The Proud Boys' chairman, Enrique Tarrio, described the group as "pro-drugs". Other speakers who had been scheduled for the rally, includingPizzagate promoters Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, had already cancelled their appearances,for reasons not apparently related to Navarro's charges.^[122]

Menacing critics

In July 2019, it was reported that on several occasions Proud Boys had gone to the homes of their critics and menaced them. In June 2018, Vic Berger, who posts videos online mocking far-right figures, including Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes, reported that he was visited at his home by a Proud Boy who told him that "You’re really hurting the Proud Boys. You need to stop making these videos." Berger later said he had come into possession of an internal Proud Boy document which called for Proud Boys to find the addresses of their opponents and those of their relatives and "SHOW THEM THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES!!!"

On June 29, 2019, a group of Proud Boys showed up at 11 p.m. at the Philadelphia home of Gwen Snyder, who tracks the movements of the Proud Boys. Snyder wasn't home at the time, so the group spoke to a neighbor, telling them that Snyder needed to stop posting on Twitter the names of Proud Boys and other information about them; "You tell that fat bitch she better stop", one of the group allegedly said. Snyder reported the threat to the Philadelphia police, giving them security camera footage of the incident. Prior to the menacing of Snyder, an anonymous Proud Boy posted on Telegram, an encrypted Russian messaging app, a comment which called for action against "Philly's biggest shit stains."^[126]

Taunting soccer fans

After Major League Soccer (MLS) ruled that the Emerald City Supporters (ECS), anti-fascist fans of the Seattle Sounders Football Club, could not the fly the flag of the 1930s anti-Nazi Iron Front paramilitary group at Sounders' matches, eleven members of the Proud Boys met the group of about 100 people as they marched into the stadium on August 4, 2019 to taunt and yell expletives at them. There was additional police coverage, with the only incident occurring when the Proud Boys attempted to enter a bar which is a known place for ECS members to gather. The MLS had categorized the Iron Front flag as "political imagery", which is forbidden under league rules, however a number of groups in Seattle and elsewhere are challenging the League's ruling.^[127]

"End Domestic Terrorism" rally

Main article: End Domestic Terrorism rally

The Proud Boys and radio talk show host and former InfoWars staff member Joe Biggs organized a demonstration held in Portland on August 17, 2019 which members of numerous far-right groups attended.^[128][129] The rally, which was sometimes subtitled "Better Dead Than Red",^[130] was intended to promote the idea that the "antifa" anti-fascist movement should be classified as "domestic terrorism". It received national attention, including a Tweet from President Donald Trump.^[131][132] The event drew more counter-demonstrators than participants—with at least one group urging its members in advance not to attend—and ended with the Proud Boys requesting a police escort to leave.^[129]

Haverford, Pennsylvania volunteer fire company

In September 2019, Haverford Township, Pennsylvania announced that one of its volunteer fire companies, the Bon Air Fire Company, had been permanently relieved of duty at the end of business the previous day because of its unwillingness to dismiss a leader in the fire company, Bruce McClay Jr., who was in the "initiation" process of joining the Proud Boys; McClay had offered his resignation, but the fire company had declined to accept it.^[133][134] Four days after the township cut ties with the Bon Aire Fire Company, the fire company reversed its decision and accepted McClay's resignation, saying its initial decision to refuse it was a "mistake"; this cleared the way for the township to re-open the company.^[135]

2020 protests

Proud Boys at 2nd Amendment Rally in Richmond, VA

Proud Boys attended a large 2nd Amendment rally in Richmond, Virginia in January 2020. They are opposed to Black Lives Matter protests, and see the attempts to remove statues of Confederate leaders and other historical figures as a left-wing plot to "destroy American history". Members of the Proud Boys rallied in Seattle, Washington, at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in June 2020 in an effort to confront protesters.^[136]

2020 Presidential debate

In the first 2020 presidential debate, President Trump was asked by moderator Chris Wallace: "Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups, and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha, and as we have seen in Portland." Trump replied "Sure" and "Sure, I am willing to do that" and then asked for clarification, saying "Who would you like me to condemn?" Wallace mentioned "white supremacists and right wing militia".

During the exchange, Biden prompted "Proud Boys" and Trump replied "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem."^[137] Shortly after, one of the Proud Boys organizers, Joe Biggs, shared through his Parler social media account a logo with the president's words "Stand back" and "Stand by".^[138]

Subgroups

Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights

In 2017, Kyle Chapman, nicknamed "Based Stickman" after the 2017 Berkeley protests, formed a paramilitary wing of the Proud Boys called the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights (FOAK).^[47] Alt-right figure Augustus Sol Invictus acted as FOAK's second-in-command until he left the group.^[34]

Association with Fred Perry clothing

[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Proud_Boys_in_Pittsboro_%282019_Oct%29_-_01.jpg)

Proud Boy in a Fred Perry polo at a neo-Confederate protest in North Carolina

The Proud Boys do not have an official uniform, however many members had taken to wearing black and yellow Fred Perry polo shirts as an unofficial uniform.^[139][140]

The brand, having previously been negatively associated with skinheads and the British National Front in the 1970s,^[140] issued several public statements distancing themselves from the beliefs of the Proud Boys, and calling on members to stop wearing their clothing.^[141][142] In 2017, Fred Perry's CEO John Flynn denounced the affiliation with the Proud Boys in a statement to CBC Radio, saying: "We don't support the ideals or the group that you speak of. It is counter to our beliefs and the people we work with."^[143]

In September 2020, Fred Perry announced that they would be discontinuing the sale of its black and yellow polo shirts across North America and Canada, due to its growing association with the Proud Boys group.^[144]

Reference

https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/09/30/the-app-that-the-proud-boys-used-to-celebrate-donald-trumps-debate-performance

who emerged the winner from the presidential debate between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden?

To many, it was hard to tell. It seemed like cacophonous chaos, the night producing less of a clear victory for either man than an overall loss for a country that had to sit through 90 minutes of barbs, cross talk and ill will. But the crowd on Parler, a new social media app that courts conservative America, including the far-right Proud Boys, seemed to reach a more definitive conclusion: This was a total victory for Trump.

“People were on Parler tonight because they can freely express their views without fear of being throttled, banned, deplatformed,” says John Matze, the app’s founder. He sees Parler as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook, the mainstream platforms that Matze and others believe try to silence conservatives. “Overall, I think their Parler experience contributed to a fair and free election.”

Parler, founded in 2018, has become a beacon for Republicans during the past few months, and in June, Trump publicly flirted with the idea of leaving Facebook and Twitter to concentrate efforts on Parler. He didn’t, though he, his son Eric and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani all made official accounts and became active on the app. So did plenty of Trump supporters. At one point this summer, Parler was getting 500,000 downloads a week, and its user base neared 2 million, many times the amount on the app before Trump highlighted Parler, a place that the Proud Boys have made a home for themselves since Twitter and Facebook suspended the group in 2018.

[Recommended For You

Unsurprisingly then, Parler was a hotbed of activity throughout Tuesday’s debate. John Solomon, the founder and editor in chief of the right-leaning News.com, labeled the evening a “Biden blunder.” The event was characterized in violent terms by one self-described “supremacist” on the app, @MidnightMarauder: “The equivalent of #trump bringing a gun to a pillow fight.” While another user, @HouseofTrump, simply concluded that Biden “truly has no clue.”

Those words glow with only low luminosity when compared to the 10,000-watt intensity on the app after Trump told the Proud Boys during the debate to “stand back and stand by,” a phrase that the group understandably interpreted as a call to arms.

Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs could hardly contain his glee,typing out this on Parler: “Trump basically said to go fuck them up! this makes me so happy.” (He reportedly made similar comments on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app that has attracted nationalist groups because of its anonymity-protecting technology.) Biggs has a sizable following on the app, some 34,000 people, and he describes himself in his Parler profile as a “Singer, Motorcycle rider and freedom fighter.”

Enrique Tarrio, another Proud Boys chief, echoed Biggs’ comment. “I’m am [sic] extremely PROUD of my Presidents performance tonight,” he wrote on Parler. The Proud Boys’ widely followed main account, @TheProudBoys, which has 50,000 subscribers, offered up a brief summation of the evening, punctuating their excitement with capital letters: “THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!” Below those words was a picture of a black T-shirt with the words “Proud Boys Standing By” emblazoned on it in canary yellow.

Matze, the app’s founder, had this to say about the talk on his app. “We are a neutral town square. As long as [the Proud Boys’] speech is legal . . . and they follow our [terms of service] . . . we do not discriminate based off group or association.”

As it happens, the boys did not, actually, have the last word on Parler last night. An hour after the debate, user @IceQueenAsh, who has decorated her Parler profile with Pepe the Frog and characterizes herself as a “#proudmom” and a “#proud patriot,” wrote: “Screw it I’ll say it! #TheProudGals are here in spirit and damn proud how #TheProudBoys have handled themselves!”

“The Proud Boys are awesome,” she concluded. “Good old fashion red white and blue!”

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db no lnx

Far-Right Proud Boys Rally After Trump’s Debate Defense: ‘Fuck Them Up’

‘STAND BACK AND STAND BY’

Given the chance to finally explicitly condemn right-wing extremism, Trump insisted “This is a left-wing problem” and gave a shoutout to the Proud Boys.

Hanna Trudo

Will Sommer

Spencer Ackerman

Updated Sep. 30, 2020 10:12AM ET / Published Sep. 29, 2020

President Donald Trump refused to condemn right-wing extremist groups when put on the spot during a segment about Black Lives Matter protests during the first presidential debate.

“I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. I’m willing to do anything, I want to see peace,” Trump said in Cleveland.

“Well, then do it sir,” Fox News moderator Chris Wallace replied, giving the president an ample opening to disavow such violent militias.

“Who would you like me to condemn? The Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s gotta do something about antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing problem,” Trump said.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden then stepped in with an attempt to correct his opponent on stage. “Antifa is an idea, not an organization,” he said, before Trump cut in.

“You have to be kidding,” the president scoffed.

The former vice president was referencing comments made by FBI director Chris Wray, who said earlier this month during testimony that antifa is “not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology.” Wray also testified that white supremacist violence makes up the lion’s share of the U.S. domestic terrorism threat.

Outside of the debate, Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs saw Trump’s remarks as permission to “fuck” up the group’s foes.

The Proud Boys on Telegram have now posted an image with its logo and Trump's remark. https://t.co/xSySGrohcm pic.twitter.com/UAJFsKCsbX

— Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC) September 30, 2020

“Trump basically said to go fuck them up!” Biggs wrote on Parler, an alternative social media network that courts conservatives. “This makes me so happy.”

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Other Proud Boys leaders posted on Parler and Telegram, another social network popular with far-right figures banned, that they would follow Trump’s request to “stand down and stand by.”

:{:{}:

“I will stand down sir!!!” Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio wrote on Parler. “Standing by sir. So Proud of my guys right now.”

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Tarrio predicted that “stand back, stand by,” would become a Proud Boys slogan. Earlier Proud Boys mottos have included “The West Is the Best” and “Fuck Around and Find Out,” a warning to the group’s perceived enemies.

“I think this ‘stand back, stand by” thing will be another Proud Boy saying,” Tarrio said.

Daryl Johnson, a former Department of Homeland Security intelligence analyst who in 2009 warned of the growing threat of far-right militias, told The Daily Beast that “within the context of Trump’s statements which insinuate future voter fraud, a rigged election, etc., [it] sounds like a subtle endorsement of future use violence by the Proud Boys. Again, another statement by the president that fans the flames of fear and seems to support violent far right groups, rather than condemn them.”

On a briefing call with reporters after the debate, Kate Bedingfield, the Biden campaign’s communications director, addressed the shock and significance of Trump’s failure to distance himself from the group.

“I think that was an incredibly critical moment in this debate,” Bedingfield said in the on-the-record call. “He had multiple opportunities to say he disowns white supremacy. He was asked explicitly to do so and once again he openly refused. Even after citing the Proud Boys by name, he refused to condemn that group and to condemn white supremacy.”

CNN political commentator Van Jones, who has worked with the White House in the past on criminal justice reform issues, tore into the president over his refusal to condemn far-right extremism and racism Tuesday night.

“Only three things happened for me tonight,” Jones noted during CNN’s post-debate show. “Number one, Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacy. Number two, the President of the United States refused to condemn white supremacy.”

“Number three, the commander-in-chief refused to condemn white supremacy,” he continued, his voice rising. “On the global stage, in front of my children, in front of everybody’s families, and he was given the opportunity to condemn white supremacy and he gave a wink and a nod to a racist, Nazi, murderous organization that is now celebrating online!”

Trump also declined to pledge to accept the outcome of the election. Asked if he would instruct his followers to react calmly and avoid “any civil unrest,” he went in the opposite direction: “I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully because that’s what has to happen.”

“I am urging my people… I hope it’s going to be a fair election… but if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that,” he said.

— Justin Baragona contributed reporting

---

https://www.thedailybeast.com/proud-boys-rally-rocked-by-sex-cocaine-allegations

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Proud Boys Rally Rocked by Sex, Cocaine Allegations

WANKERS

Top speakers are fleeing and one-time allies are feuding as the gathering of MAGA faithful teeters.

Will Sommer

Updated Jul. 05, 2019 6:05PM ET / Published Jul. 05, 2019 5:16PM ET

A far-right rally scheduled for downtown Washington on Saturday has been thrown into disarray by dramatic allegations centering on cocaine, a love triangle, and the far-right Proud Boys men’s group.

“The Proud Boys? More like the Joke Boys,” Republican congressional candidate Omar Navarro, a key player in the bizarre feud, told The Daily Beast.

The drama has torn apart one-time allies prominent on the pro-Trump internet and cost the so-called “Demand Free Speech” rally at least one speaker, after other prominent right-wing celebrities already cited other reasons for not appearing. While the rally was meant to protest the banning of conservative figures from social media, the surrounding drama has cast a shadow over the event.

On one side of the fight: Navarro, a perennial challenger to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) whose losing campaigns against the liberal stalwart have become a cause celebre on the right.

On the other: the Proud Boys, the all-male group of self-described “Western chauvinists,” and DeAnna Lorraine,a self-styled MAGA relationship expert and Navarro’s ex-girlfriend.

The clash became public late on Wednesday night, when Navarro tweeted that Lorraine had been using cocaine and “sleeping with the proud boys.” Navarro declared that he would no longer speak at Saturday’s rally, which was organized in part by top Proud Boy leaders.

“I found this girl I dated is doing cocaine and sleeping with the proud boys I cannot agree with the drug lifestyle they follow,” Navarro tweeted.

Navarro’s withdrawal from Saturday’s rally comes after the event has already lost other speakers. Former Pizzagate conspiracy theory promoter Mike Cernovich had also been on the event’s bill, but said earlier this week that he wouldn’t attend. Fellow former Pizzagate advocate Jack Posobiec has also suggested he may not attend, despite being listed as a speaker on the rally’s website.

In his tweets, Navarro made a series of allegations, claiming that Lorraine had, through the Proud Boys, threatened him “because I said I would expose the cocaine use including hers.” (Lorraine has denied using cocaine, while the Proud Boys describe themselves as “pro-drug.”)

“I denounce the proud boys as of today,” Navarro wrote.“@DeAnnaTLorraine used the proud boys to threaten my life with eminent danger [sic] because I said I would expose the cocaine use including hers. I don’t mind getting kicked out of free speech rally to stand for truth”

Complicating matters further, Navarro is still married to another woman, who he describes in a tweet as “my soon to be ex-wife.” In one tweet, Navarro chastised Lorraine, who says she dated Navarro for a few months earlier this year, for having a relationship with him while he was married.

“@DeAnnaTLorraine didn’t have a problem having an affair with me, so you shouldn’t be dating married men,” Navarro wrote.

Navarro’s tweets followed a tense confrontation that night at Harry’s Restaurant, a divey downtown Washington restaurant popular with that set of pro-Trump personalities.

Lorraine and other conservative figures associated with the rally had gathered at Harry’s the night before the Trump-centric 4th of July celebration in Washington. They were joined by the Proud Boys, a far-right club designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Proud Boys have been charged with violent attacks against their political opponents and must adhere to a series of rules, including restrictions on how much they can masturbate.

Just a few months earlier, Navarro and Lorraine had organized a “Tribute to Men” at the same restaurant. But when Navarro arrived there on Wednesday night, he wasn’t in a celebratory mood.

Accounts differ on what happened at the restaurant. Navarro claims that he was upset about organizational details of Saturday’s rally, and was confronted by a Proud Boy behaving “like an animal.”

Lorraine and other witnesses, meanwhile, claim that Navarro was acting aggressively towards Lorraine and had to be separated from her by a Proud Boy.

“He started intimidating and threatening me and another woman,” Lorraine said.

Rally organizer Adrienna Dicioccio told The Daily Beast that Navarro “tried to start a situation” at the restaurant.

“He got really disgusting that night,” said Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio.

As Navarro left the restaurant, the Proud Boys yelled that they were banning him from their men’s club, according to Lorraine.

“They said ‘we’re disavowing you, you are no longer one of us, you can’t claim to be one of us,’” she said.

In response, Lorraine said, Navarro vowed to blast the Proud Boys on social media.

“He said at the bar, ‘I’m going to go off on you guys on Twitter,’” Lorraine said, adding that Navarro had regularly threatened in the past to ruin her career as a conservative personality with allegations on Twitter.

Navarro denies any wrongdoing at the restaurant.

“The Proud Boys are just as bad as antifa is,” Navarro said. “The Proud Boys are a bunch of drunk guys who are accusing me of being drunk.”

Navarro sent his tweets shortly after leaving the restaurant. But the feud didn’t end there.

The Proud Boys responded to Navarro on Wednesday with a late-night Periscope livestream shot in a backyard somewhere in the Washington area, starring right-wing personality and former InfoWars staffer Joe Biggs.

“A punk-ass bitch named Omar Navarro is running his fucking mouth, and he’s about to get the smackdown, know what I’m saying,” Biggs said, adding that Navarro was attacking the Proud Boys because “he can’t satisfy his motherfucking woman.”

Tarrio chimed in, claiming that Navarro runs his quixotic campaigns against Waters in an attempt to make money from gullible conservative donors. Navarro lost his last two races against Waters by more than 50 percentage points.

“He admitted to me that he stands no chance against Maxine Waters, and he admitted to me that he’s doing it just to get donations from you guys,” Tarrio said in the video.

Ethan Nordean, who has become something of a celebrity Proud Boy in the group because of a viral clip of him punching a left-wing antifascist in a fight, fumed in the background.

As the video ends, Biggs declares that Navarro has been “fucking banished” from the Proud Boys.

“The helicopter blades are spinning,” a person off-camera warns as the clip ends, a reference to the Proud Boys’ fondness for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose regime executed its opponents by throwing them from helicopters.

Navarro said the Proud Boys in the video were clearly on drugs.

“They’re disgusting, they’re reprehensible, they are a joke of an organization,” Navarro said. “They should be the Proud Jokes, not the Proud Boys.”

The feud has also drawn in other right-wing personalities. On Telegram, anti-Muslim British activist and Saturday rally speaker Milo Yiannopoulos called Navarro “a piece of work.”

Now that he’s on the outs with his one-time allies, Navarro is happy to detail more allegations against them. He urged The Daily Beast to find evidence of Lorraine using cocaine at Harry’s, and asked The Daily Beast to send a reporter to the Proud Boys annual Las Vegas convention, where he promised there would be “some pretty compromising stuff.”

“These guys are completely disgusting—they sleep with women that are married,” Navarro said.

Lorraine denied using cocaine, and said she has never had a relationship with a Proud Boy.

“I’ve never even kissed a Proud Boy,” Lorraine, the author of pro-Trump relationship guide Making Love Great Again, said.

The Proud Boys, on the other hand, aren’t as reluctant to discuss drug use. In a post to Telegram, which Proud Boys and many of their allies have been forced to use after being kicked off Twitter and Facebook, the Proud Boys mocked Navarro for his prudish attitude towards cocaine.

“I’m sure people are shocked to hear there was cocaine at a party in DC too!” the group wrote. “Shocking development asshole.”

Tarrio said he wasn’t sure what cocaine use Navarro was referring to, but wasn’t concerned about the allegation.

“Regardless, we’re pro-drugs,” Tarrio said.

As for Navarro, he’s running against Waters in 2020—this time without even the right-wing allies who helped him in the past. While he had been planning to protest social media bans at the rally on Saturday, he now says Twitter was right to ban some of the people coming to the event.

“Most of them are blocked on Twitter for the right reasons,” he said.

---

Joe Biggs

News Reporter at Looking for Work

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About

I spent many years in the Army where I learned a lot about finding out who you are as an individual, finding ones limits and pushing them to the breaking point. Discovering the real meaning behind leadership and how to stay calm in chaotic situations. Pointing out problems and coming up with solutions on the fly while under extreme pressure.

I have been in many leadership roles in the military and out.

I also worked in media, as an investigative journalist I was solely in charge of finding stories, chasing them and formulating a report based off of facts. I had to learn to edit and use all the equipment. I have experience in Adobe premier, Lightroom and after effects. I know my way around a TV studio. I currently have the Black magic ATEM studio HD TV switcher. I'm very comfortable going live in and out of a studio. I have filmed many on the street interviews both pre-recorded and live. I have covered terrorism and riots all over the planet.

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Experience

Rogue Right

Investigative Reporter

Rogue Right

Mar 2018 – Present2 years 7 months

Austin, Texas Area

Looking for Work TM

News Reporter

Looking for Work

2018 – Present2 years

Daytona Beach, Florida Area

Borderland Alternative Media

Chief Operations Officer

Borderland Alternative Media

Apr 2017 – Present3 years 6 months

Austin, Texas Area

Joe Biggs American Patriot

Host of Web Series

Joe Biggs American Patriot

Feb 2017 – Present3 years 8 months

United States

Infowars.com

6 years 8 months

Investigative Journalist

Feb 2014 – Present6 years 8 months

reporter

Feb 2014 – Present6 years 8 months

US Army

Staff Sergeant

US Army

Oct 2004 – Feb 20149 years 5 months

Licenses & Certifications

combat Lifesaver

US Army

Publications

Infowars.com

View Joe’s full profile

joe biggs proud 3

Members of Proud Boys plan to sue Department of Justice for wrongful incarceration

In its own words

Background

only winner of last night's 'debate' was dictatorship and oligarchy

Military

Media

Proud Boys

Capitol attack

Planning and participation

Legal repercussions

Post-incarceration

See also

References

Organization

Membership

Leadership

Activities

New York University

2017 Berkeley protests

2017 Islamberg caravan

Portland protests

Halifax Indigenous Peoples' protest disruption

Unite the Right rally

2018 Metropolitan Republican Club

Portland mayor threat

Connection with Roger Stone

SPLC lawsuit

Mcinnes re-hired by The Rebel Media

1776.shop

May 2019 federal lawsuit

"Demand Free Speech" rally

Menacing critics

Taunting soccer fans

"End Domestic Terrorism" rally

Haverford, Pennsylvania volunteer fire company

2020 protests

2020 Presidential debate

Subgroups

Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights

Association with Fred Perry clothing

See also

Reference