We’ll see just how proud they are now.
The leader of the far-right hate group the Proud Boys, Erinque Tarrio along with several of his members were charged with seditious conspiracy yesterday for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2020, riot at the Capitol.
Tarrio was originally arrested March 8 in connection with the insurrection and was originally hit with federal conspiracy charges. Yesterday’s indictment by a federal grand jury on “seditious conspiracy” is more serious for him and his co-defendents Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola, Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs. The crime is defined in the United States Code as when “two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”
It carries a potential for fines, a 20-year prison sentence or both.
Prior to the Capitol riot, the Proud Boys were probably best known for organizing 2017's “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., which itself turned violent and led to the death of a woman who was run over by a white supremacist who plowed his car into a group of counter protestors.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as “known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric” and for leadership that espouses white nationalism, ironic given Tarrio’s Afro-Cuban ethnicity.