Proud Boys: NYPD to Prosecute 9 Right-wing Group Members for Fight in New York

The New York Police Department will prosecute a dozen people, including nine members of a far-right group known as Proud Boys, in connection with: a violent fight Friday in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, said Monday the chief detective of NYPD, Dermot Shea. He urged the public to provide information that could help identify the people involved.

"We have nine people (…) who, we are convinced, can face charges of riot or attempted aggression", Shea has said at a press conference. Shea said the police were also prosecuting three anti-fascist protesters for their role in the altercation.

The fight, filmed by a video surveillance, took place near the Metropolitan Republican Club around 20:23. following a speech by the leader of the Proud Boys team Gavin McInnes. 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, Shea said. 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 New York police on Monday released a new footage showing the altercation from another angle in the hope of identifying the participants.

The 19th constituency of the NYPD also released images of "people of interest"which the police hope to identify and interrogate.

"We will not tolerate violence on the streets of New York," Shea said Monday. "Anyone, whoever his group, who wishes to take part in the violence (…) will be the subject of investigation and vigorous pursuit."

Shea said that a separate incident had occurred several blocks away, when a man signaled an officer to report that a group of about ten people l & # 39; He had stolen. He stated that he wished to file a complaint and that three people had been arrested. 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 scrum, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Republicans and President Trump blamed the 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.

Caroline Linton contributed to this report.