Two members of the Proud Boys have been arrested since Thursday over their involvement in an attack in New York City last week, according to the New York City Police Department. Authorities are looking for seven other members in connection to the incident.
Geoffrey Young, 38, was arrested at his home in New City, New York, around 7 p.m. Thursday on charges of attempted assault and rioting, the NYPD said. He was one of three Proud Boys ― a violent, fascist street gang that now acts as an enforcement wing of sorts for the GOP elite ― who the police began searching for after a brutal street fight outside a Metropolitan Republican Club event in Manhattan last week.
A second man with links to the Proud Boys, Jay Kinsman, was reportedly taken in on Friday and charges against him are pending.
Video footage from the night of the attack shows dozens of Proud Boys approaching a small group of anti-fascist protesters on a sidewalk, then punching and kicking them as they lay on the ground. They screamed “faggots” during the assault, and later marched down the street chanting “I like beer,” an apparent reference to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The Proud Boys had been escorting their leader, Gavin McInnes, out of a GOP event where he had been a speaker when they broke off to fight six anti-fascists, according to The Daily Beast.
The NYPD also released footage showing the melee from a new angle, in an attempt to help identify more individuals to arrest:
Anti-fascist activists correctly identified Young on Twitter shortly after police said they were looking for him. They also released the personal information of plenty of other Proud Boys on scene that night, although the NYPD wouldn’t confirm whether officers were using that information as part of their investigation.
That attack, along with violence carried out by the far-right in Portland, Oregon over the weekend, put the Proud Boys on the national stage this week. Profiles popped up in several publications ― including The New York Times ― that downplayed the hatefulness of the neo-fascist group and McInnes.