Members of the far-right group known as the “Proud Boys” brawled with protesters after their leader held a rally at the vandalized Manhattan GOP headquarters on the Upper East Side, officials said Saturday.
Gov. Cuomo urged an investigation of what witnesses described as multiple violent clashes with the “Western chauvinist” group.
Witnesses reported several bare-knuckle fights were reported in which combatants ended up wrestling on the sidewalk.
In one incident, cops arrested three protesters accused of attacking a 30-year-old New Jersey man leaving the rally. During the brawl, the protesters took his backpack, which contained his wallet, police said.
Finbarr Slonim, 20, and Caleb Perkins, 35, both of the Upper East Side, and Kai Russo, 20, of Brooklyn, were charged with misdemeanor assault, larceny and harassment. They were released without bail after arraignment Saturday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
In another incident, someone flashed a sword before cops ordered him back into his car.
The man — identified by some as Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes, who was the main speaker at the rally — drove off without getting arrested, witnesses said.
“Followed the Proud Boys as they left the event,” photojournalist Shay Horse tweeted. “About 1-2 blocks away a 30 (proud boys) vs. 3 fight broke out.”
“It ended with 30 proud boys pummeling a guy on the ground screaming, ‘ARE YOU BRAVE NOW F—–?!’” he wrote.
The Proud Boys then posed for a picture on the street before going to an East Side bar, he tweeted, adding that “many fights were happening at once.”
In a statement late Saturday, Cuomo urged police to review videos of the incidents and “make arrests and prosecute as appropriate. Hate cannot and will not be tolerated in New York.”
“Here’s a message from a Queens boy to the so-called ‘proud boys’ – New York has zero tolerance for your BS,” Cuomo said.
Mayor de Blasio also denounced the violence. “If you know anything, the NYPD wants your help,” he said on Twitter. “Hate is never welcome in NYC and we will punish those responsible — whether they threw punches or incited violence — to the fullest extent of the law.”
Police said they were “reviewing additional video and other evidence” to see if other crimes were committed.
“If so, (we will) identify those perpetrators and make further arrests as warranted,” NYPD spokesman Phillip Walzak said.
Anyone with video or information about the fights is asked to reach out to the NYPD, he said.
“There is no tolerance for violence anywhere in New York City, and the NYPD will do everything in its power to ensure public safety,” Walzak said.
As McInnnes spoke at the Metropolitan Republican Club on Friday evening, about 80 protesters outside changed, “No racists, no KKK, no fascist USA.” They also held signs and banners, including some opposing white supremacy.
Around 50 people attended McInnes’ 7 p.m. talk. Some mocked the protesters as they waited to get in, dancing along to their chants.
City Councilman Rory Lancman of Queens was outraged that no Proud Boys members found themselves in handcuffs.
“It is revolting to see white supremacists commit a hate crime on the streets of New York City — in full view of the NYPD — and for none of them to be arrested or prosecuted,” Lancman said in a statement Saturday. “We have seen this in other cities, but it is shocking to see it here.”
“Hateful and violent behavior has no place in New York City, and those responsible must be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Lancman also called for the creation of a task force that would develop strategies “to combat white supremacist violence in our city.”
Meanwhile, cops have yet to make an arrest in the vandalism on the GOP headquarters that occurred Thursday night.
After scrawling the anarchy symbols on the door, vandals left a warning note “to put the Republican Party on notice,” officials said.
The missive railed against Republican and U.S. government policies — including what it called “concentration camps around the country for Latino people,” the killings of black and Muslim people and mass incarceration.
‘While these atrocities persist unabated, the Metropolitan Republican Club chose to invite a hipster-fascist clown to dance for them, content to revel in their treachery against humanity,” it said.
The screed was aimed directly at McInnes, who was touted on the club’s web page as the “Godfather of the Hipster Movement” who “has taken on and exposed the Deep State Socialists and stood up for Western Values.”
McInnes’ “Proud Boys” have been involved in several physical conflicts with left-wing and anti-fascist protesters.
The group, which insists it is not part of the so-called “alt-right,” is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
With Ken Lovett
