WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Dozens of Proud Boys members from South Florida hopped on planes or made the 15-hour drive to Washington, D.C., last weekend where they joined hundreds of other angry election protesters and far-right celebrities in a #stopthesteal protest that turned violent.
Bobby Pickles, the leader of the Proud Boys' West Palm Beach chapter, came home with a ripening bruise on his shoulder from what he says was a blow from an antifa member's baton.
"We were just on the street doing a night patrol – a night rally kind of thing," Pickles said, blaming antifa – short for anti-fascists, an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups – for starting the violence. 'We were just walking the streets, and antifa had knives and stuff."
Police reported that 38 people had been arrested for protest-related actions, and D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said eight officers were injured, one seriously.
Ten people were charged with assault on a police officer, according to The Washington Post. It is not known if any of those arrested are affiliated with the Proud Boys or other anti-Trump groups.
Four churches were vandalized over the weekend, and police released photos of white men marching with and burning a Black Lives Matter banner ripped down from one of the churches, according to the Post's report.
Police estimated that Proud Boys outnumbered anti-Trump protesters by about 6 or 7 to 1, but that when fights broke out, “there seemed to be mutual combatants," Newsham told the newspaper.
Pickles said from what he saw, the Proud Boys were not the instigators. But a 53-minute video recorded by Pickles and posted on YouTube shows many Proud Boys came to Washington ready and looking for a fight.
"They have to attack us first. We don’t attack them," Pickles said. "You can’t say that was all Proud Boys doing that, because it’s not – there were other people there."
On the video, groups of Proud Boys, some in body armor, roamed the D.C. streets chanting "F--- antifa!" and taunted anti-Trump protesters and left-wing activists with claims that they "live in their mommies' basements."
About 20 minutes into Pickles' video, cheers erupted when "InfoWars" talk-show host Owen Shroyer predicted there would be violence if Trump was not declared winner of the election.
"This is our final warning to the deep state," Shroyer said. "If they do not comply with we the people, we will take this country back by force."
Although the Proud Boys have been regulars at Trump rallies throughout Florida and have chapters throughout the U.S., Europe and Australia, it was the uproar over Trump's call for the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" during the first presidential debate Sept. 29 that garnered the group widespread national notoriety.
The group has been widely described as racist, xenophobic, violent and vehemently opposed to political correctness. Members proclaim to be "Western Chauvinists ... who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world," according to the group's website.
Pickles said the group is "just a fraternal organization."
"We like to get together, we like to drink beer and we all support Trump, and that’s it," Pickles added.
Florida is divided into six Proud Boys zones, each with different names. The regions are divided into chapters and sub-chapters, Pickles said. The region that covers South Florida, from West Palm Beach to Key West, is called Vice City and has about 150 members, said Pickles, who leads the West Palm Beach chapter.
Pickles, whose T-shirt company, Fat Enzo T-SHIrTs in downtown West Palm Beach, produces nearly all the "merch" for the Proud Boys, said the Proud Boys have no plans now for an event protesting the election results.
Asked how the Proud Boys would respond to Joe Biden becoming president on Jan. 20, Pickles said he did not know.
"I can’t really speak on behalf of the organization if that happens," Pickles said. "Most likely just going to go along with it and take different approach for the next four years."
