Members of the Proud Boys brought their neofascist presence to downtown New York on Saturday as part of an anti-vaccine-mandate protest. The Proud Boys continued to deploy their post-Jan. 6 strategy—that is, focusing their organizing around local right-wing protests and attaching their neofascist presence by providing “security”—this week by showing up to anti-vaccination marches in New York City and Los Angeles. They also turned up at a local school board meeting in a suburban Illinois village to intimidate officials over LGBTQ-friendly books in their school library. Their presence, as always, was intended to send a message of intimidation. But in the wake of Friday’s verdict of acquittal for Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, after which exultant Proud Boys fantasized online about “stacking bodies like cordwood,” the silence with which they were mostly met this weekend felt particularly ominous. The march in New York, which called itself the Worldwide Freedom Rally, attracted several hundred marchers, with a large contingent of Proud Boys in their black-and-gold garb and carrying various anti-vaccine and pro-Trump banners. Some of them could be seen flashing the white-nationalist “OK” symbol. At one point, a contingent of Proud Boys stopped to pose for photos in front of Donald Trump’s hotel in Manhattan. Another video showed Proud Boys entering New York subways through an unlocked emergency exit, thereby evading fares. A Proud Boys group from Miami boasted afterward on Twitter that the exit door had been held open for them by New York Police Department officers: “It’s a good thing that the New York City Police open the door for us, so we don’t have to pay the subway tolls,” he said, adding “not only do we live rent-free in antifas head we also ride free in New York City subways courtesy of the blue.” The march in Los Angeles also was an anti-vaccine-mandate protest, though the Proud Boys’ presence, while noticeable, was not as dominant. Among them were at least one Jan. 6 insurrectionist and a videographer who was present among the rioters that day. Marchers carried Gadsden “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, “Fuck Biden” banners, and other so-called Patriot Movement and Proud Boys symbols, along with signs with slogans like “No Vaxx” and “No Jabs 4 Jobs,” as well as others demanding “End Child Porn” and “Stop Human Trafficking,” both references to QAnon conspiracy theories. One, an apparent reference to Rittenhouse, read “Support Our Heroes.” These local COVID-denialist rallies are only one of the multiple ways that Proud Boys are insinuating themselves, following the same blueprint. Others have been showing up increasingly to school board meetings to intimidate local officials discussing racial education, LGBTQ-friendly library offerings, and vaccine mandates and masking measures.
via dailykos: Proud Boys march again by attaching themselves to New York, Los Angeles anti-vaccine rallies