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Ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio just found out that when you ride for Donald Trump, you crash and burn like a Cheeto-backed business investment.
Yesterday (Sept. 5), Enrique Tarrio, the face of the white nationalist movement was sentenced to 22-years in prison for his role in the now infamous Jan. 6 insurrection in which thousands of Donald Trump supporting fanatics attacked the U.S. Capitol in hopes of keeping Trump in office and preventing the peaceful transfer of power to newly elected President of the United States, Joe Biden.
NPR is reporting that the Cuban-American was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging their duties, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, and destruction of government property. Though Tarrio’s defense argued that he was innocent as he wasn’t actually at the actual insurrection on Jan. 6. He was still ultimately held responsible for cultivating the violence that erupted that day that led to numerous Capitol police officers being injured and members of congress fleeing for their lives.
NPR reports:
Tarrio wasn’t at the actual Capitol riot because he had been arrested days earlier for setting fire to a Black Lives Matter banner, stolen from Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., and was ordered out of the city.
Prosecutors say from a hotel outside of D.C., Tarrio directed his Proud Boys to attack the Capitol without him.
Tarrio’s attorney have said he wasn’t in contact with any members of the organization during the riot and pointed to Nordean and Biggs as being the orchestrators of the riot. Further, they said, “Participating in a plan for the Proud Boys to protest on January 6 is not the same as directing others on the ground to storm the Capitol by any means necessary.”
Though one would think that authorities cracking down on the Proud Boys members along with Tarrio’s sentencing would be enough to slow down the Trump supporting group from their nefarious activities, that doesn’t seem like it will be the case.
“They remain active organizing, recruiting,” said Cassie Miller, senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “And this authoritarian movement that they are a part of has continued to grow, as well.”
It will be interesting to know which prison group will accept the self-proclaimed Afro-Cuban-American who led a white nationalist group while on the outside. Keep in mind that Tarrio is accused of being an FBI informant back in the day, and heads in jail tend to frown upon such allegations. Couple that with him facing 22 years in prison and you might find a man willing to sing to get himself out of this sticky situation. Just sayin’.
What do y’all think about Enrique Tarrio getting slapped with a two-decade bid? Sound off in the comments section below.
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Members of the Proud Boys met with fierce resistance at a drag event held in New York City, with one going viral after a video of them sustaining an injury was released.
On Sunday (March 19th), the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village in Manhattan held the Drag Story Hour Read-A-Thon with New York Attorney General Letitia James. It took place from 11 A.M. to 3 P.M.
and was met with protests from right-wingers and the far-right Proud Boys group members. James shared a tweet of her attending and supporting the event later in the afternoon.
Counter-protesters clashed with the Proud Boys, with one group member storming away after having his face bloodied though it was unclear if it was due to fighting a counter-protester. That moment was captured on video, where he said to the cameramen, “I came here to help people, not to get the s*** beaten out of me.” The video currently has over two million views on social media.
Other members of the group were chased away by counter-protesters who yelled at them to leave. One person was jailed after breaking through NYPD-mandated boundaries throwing punches and yelling “Antifa” while trying to grab press cameras. James’ office offered no comment on the clash outside of the center when contacted by the press. But her support didn’t go unnoticed. “The LGBT Center is incredibly important to me personally, and to our community. The fact that there is a drag story hour and that the Attorney General of the State of New York is attending and is in support of this means something, to me,” activist Jay W. Walker said to the press. “We knew these evil, disturbed people were going to show up here and try to cause trauma for kids and their parents and we just want to be here to block that.”
The right-wingers are part of a larger movement that has sprung up in recent months across the country targeting drag performers and other members of the LGBTQ community. They’ve zeroed in specifically on events that are accessible to children such as drag story hour events where performers read at libraries. Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee recently signed SB003 into law, which criminalizes any drag event held within 1,000 feet of a school or park or any time a day a minor might be near. 18 other states are looking to adopt similar legislation.
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Federal prosecutors revealed messages that a D.C. police officer exchanged with the leader of the Proud Boys before the January 6th insurrection during his trial.
On Wednesday (Feb.15th) in the trial of the far-right group’s leader, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, and four associates, prosecutors for the federal government presented a series of text messages between him and Metropolitan Police Lt. Shane Lamond. These messages included internal information that Lamond shared with Tarrio. Lamond was an intelligence officer with the Metropolitan Police tasked with investigating the group, and a 23-year veteran of the force.
One exchange on December 18th, 2020 featured Lamond asking Tarrio if he had called in an anonymous tip claiming his responsibility in burning a Black Lives Matter banner taken from a historically Black church in downtown Washington D.C. after a Trump rally. Tarrio responded that he had done “more than that”, confirming he shared the deed on social media. On the same day, Tarrio had expressed to other Proud Boys members that he “got the jump on the narrative” on the burning in an effort to make it difficult to charge him with a hate crime. He cited his “contact at DC Metro”, advising those members to keep the info to themselves. Tarrio would also get word that he was to be arrested on January 4th, 2021, changing the settings in his chat with Lamond to have messages “self-destruct”.
Another startling exchange took place a week later as Lamond informed Tarrio that he had ID’d Tarrio to the criminal investigation department in a photo the leader had posted to Parler. “They may be submitting an arrest warrant to the U.S. Attorney’s office,” he wrote. Justice Department prosecutor Conor Mulroe asked FBI Special Agent Peter Dubrowski if he had ever observed law enforcement disclosing sensitive information in that manner, to which Dubrowski replied, “I’ve never heard of it. I see no benefit [to law enforcement].” Sabino Jauregui, Tarrio’s attorney, stated to the judge when the jury was removed that further exploration of Lamond’s texts would show that Tarrio provided heavy information to federal and local authorities to help stem the damage from the riots on January 6th.
In a statement released that day, Lamond’s attorney Mark Schamel said that the officer (who was placed on administrative leave in February 2022) aided in Tarrio’s arrest for the banner burning and that his job “was appropriate and always focused on the protection of the citizens of Washington, DC.”
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