Two members of the white nationalist hate group Proud Boys were convicted for beating up a protestor while shouting “faggot.”
Last October, a group of Proud Boys members beat up four alleged Antifa protestors outside of a Metropolitan Republican Club speaking event. Video circulated that showed over a dozen members of the hate group beating up a leftist protestor while calling him a “faggot.”
Ten of the Proud Boys were arrested and faced charges. Seven of them pled guilty, and now two of the others – Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman – have been found guilty of attempted gang assault, riot, and attempted assault.
The last Proud Boy’s trial has not yet started.
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Related: Founder of alt-right ‘Proud Boys’ defends calling victims ‘fa***ts’ during vicious beatdown
Hare’s and Kinsman’s lawyers argued that they were just defending themselves, even as video showed them as part of a group beating a man who was on the ground.
They also insisted at the trial that the Proud Boys, which the SPLC has described a hate group that rewards its members’ violence, is about “national pride and brotherhood,” not racism.
Kinsman said that the group is “a good bunch of drinking buddies that were right-wing.”
“It’s just a group of blue-collar men that love America,” Hare testified.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass showed footage of violent confrontations that the Proud Boys have engaged in, as well as a photo of Hare holding an assault rifle and an Antifa flag with the logo crossed out.
“As violent extremism rises in America, a Manhattan jury has declared in one voice that New Yorkers will not tolerate mob violence in our own backyard,” said District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. in a statement. “These defendants transformed a quiet, residential street into the site of a battle royal, kicking and beating four individuals in a brutal act of political violence.”
The two face up to 15 years in prison.
