On Friday, October 12th, following a speech by Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes at the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City, members of the far-right men’s group violently beat three apparent protestors, reports Buzzfeed News. According to the Daily Beast, the NYPD has enough evidence to charge nine members of the right-wing group, as well as three protesters, with rioting, assault, and/or attempted assault.
According to a local photojournalist, Shay Horse, who filmed a widely circulated video of the incident, approximately 30 members of the group participated in the alleged assault, after being escorted out of the club along with other event attendees by members of the NYPD.
“There was a big group of like 30 of them, and they came out grunting
trying to hype each other up,” Horse told Buzzfeed News. He said the police didn’t ask the crowd to disperse and shortly thereafter, the melee began, allegedly after a protestor knocked a hat off one Proud Boy’s head. Horse saw “two or three bodies on the ground” being kicked and pummeled by the group.
“I heard them screaming and swearing at some guy on the ground,” Horse said. “They were beating the shit out of him and kicking him in the head. One guy had his foot on the guy’s neck.
One dude started screaming, Do you feel brave now, faggot?’
It was just a pummeling it wasn’t really a fight, because the three people never really got a chance to even stand up.”
Video taken by freelance reporter Sandi Bachom shows an NYPD officer arrive at the scene on a scooter while the assault is still taking place, seeming to show little urgency about breaking up the violence. The video corroborates Horse’s account to Buzzfeed News that the officer “just went totally slack-jawed and stared at the fight,” and it wasn’t until he yelled at him “Do something!” that the officer dismounted his bike and ““ran into the crowd flailing his arms saying, That’s enough, that’s enough.’”
Basically, they believe that white men and only white men have any right to civilization, and everyone else is trying to steal it from them, so they have to take it to the street. They're Neo-Nazis. And this asshole is the founder.