New York police arrest people during a violent brawl between Proud Boys

A man suspected of belonging to the far-right group Proud Boys was arrested Thursday at connection to a fight last week in New York after a speech by the group's founder. Geoffrey Young, 38, was charged with rioting and attempted assault, the New York Police Department said.

The fight, filmed by a video surveillance, took place near the Metropolitan Republican Club around 20:23. following the speech by Gavin McInnes, Fier Boys' leader. Anti-fascist protesters had gathered outside the building, prompting the police to escort some people inside the club in the opposite direction following the event. .

An altercation erupted one block away when six people dressed in black and wearing masks clashed with the group, Detective Chief of Police Dermot Shea said on Monday. One of those dressed in black threw a bottle at the Proud Boys group and a fight ensued for about 38 seconds, until the uniformed agents intervened. .

You may hear insults and curses in a video showing the fight as men kicked several demonstrators on the sidewalk. The NYPD released Monday a sequence showing the altercation from another angle in the hope of identifying the participants.

The NYPD announced Monday that it was suing 12 people, including nine members of Proud Boys. The NYPD said it was seeking more information from witnesses.

Three people were arrested as part of a separate incident that occurred several blocks away. A man reported an officer to report that a group of about ten people had stolen it, police said Monday. The police did not immediately say whether the detainees were affiliated with the Proud Boys or the group of protesters.

Before the speech, vandals broke windows, filled a keyboard lock with glue, and spray-painted the doors of the Metropolitan Republican Club. A note left on the scene stated that the damage was "just the beginning".

Proud Boys describes itself as a "pro-Western fraternal organization". The Southern Poverty Law Center has stated that the Proud Boys and their leaders "regularly broadcast white nationalist memes and maintain links with known extremists".

McInnes, co-founder of Vice Media in 2008 and who left the company in 2008, created the Proud Boys in 2016. The club's Facebook event has been termed "rebel of the right" and "banned from Twitter – this godfather of the Hipster movement has engaged and denounced the deep state socialists and defended Western values. "

As a result of the fray, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo accused Republicans and President Trump of violence. During a phone conversation with reporters on Sunday, Cuomo said that inviting McInnes to speak in front of the club was a "political tactic, because what they were trying to do, that is," he said. was to open their base "before the midterm elections, reported the Associated Press.

"Why would the Republican Party of their main club have invited the Proud Boys?" Cuomo asked.

The Democratic governor said that he had ordered the state police to assist the NYPD in the investigation. Elected officials were outraged by online videos showing violence, claiming to have shown that Proud Boys' members were involved and had to suffer the consequences.

Peter Martinez contributed to this report.