Proud Boys Entered Portland's Fray With Their Anti-Semitism and Hate Doctrines

Nadene Goldfoot                                           

             Gavin McInnes, founder of Proud Boys, a Canadian writer            Gavin McInnes is a Canadian writer and political commentator. McInnes is known for his controversial promotion of violence against political opponents, and has been described as far-right, although he denies this label." He's 50 years old and a father of 3 children, but refers to his group as boys.   

"Established in the midst of the 2016 presidential election by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys are self-described “western chauvinists” who adamantly deny any connection to the racist “alt-right,” insisting they are simply a fraternal group spreading an “anti-political correctness” and “anti-white guilt” agenda."  That may have been their first fleeting thought, but they're showing they're a most anti-Semitic group; a regular hate group.                                            

              Portland Police on September 26, 2020 on duty
 A rumble was expected to happen the other night in Portland.  The Proud Boys appeared ready to take on Black Lives Matter, only they came and they left;  it didn't happen.  They had rolled into town in their automobiles and that was pretty much it.  So who are these Proud Boys and what are they so proud of, themselves, I gather. Where are they from?  Are they home-grown or from out of state? How well organized are they?   

Days before the Proud Boys rally took place, The Guardian and Bellingcat, an investigative journalism organization, reported on a trove of leaked chats obtained by anti-fascists in Eugene, Oregon, which showed a network of Pacific Northwest-based pro-Trump and pro-law enforcement activists planning to engage in acts of targeted political violence, including the assassination of elected officials.  Bellingcat is an investigative journalism website that specializes in fact-checking and open-source intelligence. It was founded by the British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014.

 Their  "brief gathering mostly consisted of swilling cheap beer and hard seltzers and assaulting journalists in a park on the edge of town. The absence of large-scale violence, which has so often defined the group’s forays into Portland over the past few years, came as a relief to a city that has been blanketed in wildfire smoke in recent weeks and targeted by the Trump administration as an “anarchist jurisdiction” for its nightly protests against police brutality."

Police in tactical gear were mustered near overpasses outside Delta Park on the northern edge of the city, but with the exception of occasional visits from a handful of liaison officers, the Proud Boys were largely permitted to police themselves.

 "Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. Indeed, former Proud Boys member Jason Kessler helped to organize the event, which brought together Klansmen, antisemites, Southern racists, and militias. Kessler was only “expelled” from the group after the violence and near-universal condemnation of the Charlottesville rally-goers."   

"Jason Eric Kessler graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor of arts in psychology in 2009. Prior to his involvement in political extremism, Kessler wrote that he was employed in various working class jobs as a dishwasher, gym technician, truck driver and handyman. "He was  (born September 22, 1983) is an American neo-Nazi, white supremacist and anti-semitic conspiracy theorist.  Kessler organized the Unite the Right rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 11–12, 2017 and the Unite the Right 2 rally held on August 12, 2018.  Kessler is a supporter of Neo-Nazism, far-right politics, and the alt-right.  In April 2017, Kessler was contracted to write two pieces for The Daily Caller.  He wrote another piece in May about the first protests in Charlottesville over the statue of Lee. Kessler also wrote several posts for the anti-immigrant white nationalist site VDare.  One of Kessler's posts claimed that the government was waging genocide against white people by policies that cause low Caucasian birth rates.                                      

“Let’s not bullshit,” Brian Brathovd, aka Caeralus Rex, told his co-hosts on the antisemitic The Daily Shoah — one of the most popular alt-right podcasts. If the Proud Boys “were pressed on the issue, I guarantee you that like 90% of them would tell you something along the lines of ‘Hitler was right. Gas the Jews."   "They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric" (hatred of women). "The group admits only men and glorifies political violence. "                                        

The leader of The Daily Shoah is another hater, mainly of Jews.  Michael Isaac Peinovich (born 1977), commonly known by his pseudonym Mike Enoch, is an American neo-Nazi. He grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey in an upper-middle class Episcopalian family of Norwegian and Serbian descent.  His parents were divorced.  His only education was high school, and he was a dropout from several higher educational facilities as well as vocational ones.  Working at programming, he revealed his ani-Jewish conspiracy theory and therefore lost his job. Now he's a blogger and podcast host. He founded the alt-right media network The Right Stuff and podcast The Daily Shoah. Through his work, Peinovich ridicules African Americans, Jews, and other minorities, advocates racial discrimination, and promotes conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial and white genocide.  This is what the Proud Boys listen to. 

 Proud Boys is based in the United States and has a presence in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. The group was started as a joke in the far-right Taki's Magazine in 2016 by Vice Media co-founder and former commentator Gavin McInnes, taking its name from the song "Proud of Your Boy" from the Disney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX4YR3ItBswfilm Aladdin.   The Proud Boys emerged as part of the alt-right, but McInnes began distancing himself from the alt-right in early 2017, saying the alt-right's focus is race while his focus is what he defines as "Western values". This re-branding effort intensified after the Unite the Right rally.

In late November 2018, a news story which attracted national attention reported that the FBI classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalism.  Two weeks later, an FBI official briefing Clark County, Washington, law enforcement officials on the group denied that it was their intent to classify the entire group in this manner and ascribed the mistake to a misunderstanding. During the briefing, FBI agents suggested the use of various websites for more information, including that of the SPLC.  The official said that their intent was to characterize the possible threat from certain members of the group.  

Could it be that they only have their skin color to be proud of; not any manly accomplishments, are basically afraid of women, and that's why they cling to each other against all others?

                                                

All people should be raised to be proud of themselves and their origins.  Parents should complement their children enough to give them confidence in life.  Somehow, these "boys" have no pride at all having felt that being "white" was their only accomplishment in life, and felt denigrated by other non-whites and their achievements.  Too much pride is not good, however.  

Pride goeth before fall. (People who are overconfident or too arrogant are likely to fail. This saying is adapted from the biblical Book of Proverbs.).Pride is G-d's gift to little men.  Pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.  Remember, when the peacock struts his stuff, he shows his backside to half the world.                           

                         

  "In July 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would commute the sentence of Roger Stone, a political ally who was convicted of seven felony charges, including witness tampering, lying to congress, and obstruction, in relation to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.  His only occupation is that of a conservative political consultant and lobbyist. Stone was for many years a lobbyist for Donald Trump on behalf of his casino business and also was involved in opposing expanded casino gambling in New York State, a position that brought him into conflict with Governor George Pataki.

      Donald Trump's longtime friend, Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty to charges in the special counsel's Russia investigation on January 29, 2019. Video shows him leaving the federal courthouse in Washington after his arraignment. BY ASSOCIATED PRESS with Proud Boys; not the picture referred to.

Shortly after the news broke, a photograph started to circulate online that supposedly showed Roger Stone and members of the Proud Boys flashing a white power gesture at a bar:" Snopes reports that this is true.  According to the Anti-Defamation League, white nationalists started to appropriate the common "OK" hand gesture in 2017.

"The perception" in Portland "that the police favor the far-right agitators was further informed by the sharp contrast with how the police treated those protesting police violence and racism later that day,” German, the former FBI agent, said. “That they would modify the law enforcement command structure specifically to avoid restraints on police violence ordered by courts and local political leaders demonstrates complete disregard for the law, democratic restraints on police power, and the security of Portland residents from unaccountable law enforcement actions.”

According to Wikipedia, (In early 2018, ahead of an appearance at the annual Republican Dorchester Conference in Salem, Oregon, Stone sought out the Proud Boys to act as his "security" for the event; photos posted online showed Stone drinking with several Proud Boys. In February 2018, the Proud Boys posted a video on Facebook which they described as Stone undergoing a "low-level initiation" into the group. As part of the initiation, Stone says "Hi, I'm Roger Stone. I'm a Western chauvinist. I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world", making him a "first-degree" member, which Kutner characterizes as being a "sympathizer".                                                   

A man hold his hand to his heart as a Proud Boys organizer recites the Pledge of Allegiance during a Proud Boys rally at Delta Park in Portland, Oregon on September 26, 2020. A Proud Boys supporter has been filmed warning that there will be a "civil war" if Donald Trump does not get re-elected in November.MARANIE R. STAAB/AFP/GETTY Stone denies being a member of the group. In July 2020, Facebook announced it had shut down the accounts and pages linked to Stone and Proud Boys. This network of over 100 Facebook and Instagram accounts spent more than $300,000 on ads to promote their posts and included false personas.  In late January 2019, when Stone was arrested by the FBI on seven criminal counts in connection with the Mueller investigation, Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys, met Stone as he left the courthouse in Florida. Tarrio, who wore a "Roger Stone Did Nothing Wrong" T-shirt, sold by a company owned by Tarrio, told a local TV reporter that the indictment was nothing but "trumped-up charges", and was later seen visiting Stone's house. The next day, in Washington D.C., a small number of Proud Boys demonstrated outside the courthouse where Stone pleaded not guilty to the charges, carrying "Roger Stone did nothing wrong" signs and others that promoted the InfoWars conspiracy website. The Proud Boys got into an argument with anti-Stone hecklers Tarrio was later filmed behind Donald Trump in February 2019, during a televised speech in Miami, where he was seen wearing the same message on a T-shirt.  Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes said Stone was "one of the three approved media figures allowed to speak" about the group. When Stone was asked by a local reporter about the Proud Boys' claim that he had been initiated as a member of the group, he responded by calling the reporter a member of the Communist party. He is particularly close to the group's current leader Enrique Tarrio, who has commercially monetized his position.  At a televised Trump rally in Miami, Florida on February 18, 2019, Tarrio was seated directly behind President Trump wearing a "Roger stone did nothing wrong" tee shirt.Update: 10/16/20

Resource: 

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/proud-boys

https://ucommblog.com/section/national-politics/proud-boys-greatest-threat-america

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Boys

https://theintercept.com/2020/09/28/portland-proud-boys-rally-journalists/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/23/oregon-portland-pro-trump-protests-violence-texts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Enoch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Kessler

https://www.newsweek.com/proud-boys-trump-civil-war-qanon-1538208?fbclid=IwAR1yfckIXuCeW0iE-f3PK5kHmSFVnguXjDmvaA86zfY0AjFyIF6liSobYx0