Now that the FBI is involved, Gavin McInnes throws himself on the Proud Boys

Gavin McInnes, the founder of the far-right group Proud Boys, denies the organization after repressive documents released by Washington state have been leaked, indicating that the FBI was considering it as a "group" extremist linked to white nationalism ". McInnes' hasty departure follows a wave of arrests of group members as part of a street fight with protesters in New York in early October. It also follows reports that the NYPD, which had been criticized for arresting only protesters involved in the conflict, confirmed to New York City Council that it considered the Proud Boys a national terrorist group.

In a 36-minute video posted on YouTube and asking fans to donate to a so-called defense fund, McInnes said, "I officially disassociate myself from the Proud Boys. In all respects, I leave definitely. He described the group as a "fraternal organization" unjustly persecuted by the authorities, presented himself as a victim of hysteria and declared that he was resigning "only reluctantly" Because "rumors and lies and terrible journalism has made its [sic] to the judicial system. "

McInnes also testified that lawyers and law enforcement officers told him that his resignation could "lighten" the sentences for nine of the group members being prosecuted as a result of the fight.

"It will show jurors that they are not dealing with a gang and that there is no chief of operations," added McInnes, apparently under the impression that his resignation at the end of November could have a impact on criminal proceedings related to an incident in October. He further asserted that he had never been the "leader" of the Proud Boys, but simply the "founder". As the Daily Beast observed, this explanation does not stand up to any kind of factual examination:

McInnes, a Vice The co-founder who left the magazine in 2008, created the Proud Boys, their rules and their membership levels, including a fourth degree reserved for Proud Boys who are fighting "for the cause".

In the rest of the interminable clip, McInnes claimed that most of his targets are jokes taken "out of context"; "we are not far right, we are ultra-nationalists"; and that the group could not be affiliated with white nationalists because "such people do not exist". The rest of the video consists mainly of bizarre non-sequiturs and pleas for a crowdfunding campaign.

News that the FBI saw the Proud Boys as an extremist group came after the sacking of Clark County Sheriff's Office Member Erin Willey, who had violated anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies of the department by joining the affiliated organization Proud Boys Girls.

McInnes denies being racist, even though he regularly shouts sectarian thoughts hidden in a "politically incorrect" humor. As Bedford + Bowery noted, the fight in New York followed an event in which he was celebrating the murder of Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japanese Socialist Party, with a skit featuring petty cartoons of Asian speech patterns. He often had neo-Nazis declared on his show, stopping himself just to say "the 14 words", a slogan of white supremacy. "

The publication also wrote that, although McInnes is a defender of freedom of expression, he generally invokes the principles of freedom of expression to justify assertions such as "the use of the word N, or claiming that Muslims are violent because of the "consanguinity" or simply disgust of transgender people. "According to the Washington Post, an essay in which he disputed accusations of racism would read rather as a defense of white pride:

"When they laughed at their pedagogy, the politically correct left insisted that they had to control our language because" words are powerful "and" words make sense, "he writes in an essay. of 2011. "It's not racist for Whites to be ashamed of their race. Few people are worried about hearing 'Navajo Power', but that means that for Whites to be proud they want to put out other breeds. It's as absurd as saying that a fan of the Dallas Cowboys wants the death of all the other teams. To say that blacks are totally responsible for their fate in life now that 2011 is not racist. "

McInnes is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Canada and lives in the United States with a green card, according to The Globe and Mail. There is no indication for the moment that his involvement with the Proud Boys could be prosecuted in the United States, although the New York Times reported in mid-October [NYPD] An Australian police official, Roman Quaedvlieg, recently called for the ban to enter Australia.

In other Thanksgiving Eve news about eternal scholars of the far right, the former Rebel Media personality, Laura Loomer, was recently banned from Twitter for Islamophobia, reported the Daily Beast. Previous Loomer successes include Donald Trump's stage production Julius Caesar in New York, accusing the antifascist tires of being damaged by a tire eruption and banned from Uber and Lyft, also for racism.