Two members of the far-right Proud Boys were sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison for their roles in a street fight after a speech last year at New York's Metropolitan Republican Club.
Interested in Charlottesville? Add Charlottesville as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Charlottesville news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest
Judge Mark Dwyer said the lengthy sentences should deter people from engaging in what he called "political street brawls."
Maxwell Hare, 27, and John Kinsman, 40, were convicted in August on charges stemming from the October 2018 fight between members of the Proud Boys and the loosely organized anti-fascist group known as Antifa after a speech by Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes .
The trial was unusual in that no victims testified because they are not cooperating with police. Instead, prosecutors relied heavily on video, including security camera footage that showed Proud Boys members starting the fight.
Their lawyers have said they acted in self-defense when a masked protester threw a bottle. Members of the Proud Boys and groups that were protesting McInnes' speech were then seen kicking and punching each other on the sidewalk.
"I'm sorry about the whole mess. I regret the entire incident," said Kinsman, a married father of three from Morristown, New Jersey.
Hare, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said he "made a mistake that night" and blamed hasty decision making for his part in the melee.
Ten members and associates of the Proud Boys were arrested in the days following the clash. Hare and Kinsman were the first two to go on trial.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal advocacy organization, has designated the all-male Proud Boys as a hate group. The Proud Boys made headlines last week when the police chief in East Hampton, Connecticut ruled that an officer's membership in the group didn't violate department policies.
McInnes, a Vice Media co-founder, quit the Proud Boys a month after the clash outside the Metropolitan Republican Club.
In issuing the sentences Tuesday, Dwyer said the brawl reminded of violent clashes that went unchecked in Europe in the 1930s, fueling the rise of fascism.
Such violence won't be tolerated in New York City, "especially at this time in the country when people are so divided," the judge said.
Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com
spicytoastaficionado on October 22nd, 2019 at 23:45 UTC »
Just an FYI to the commenters alluding to the local legal system in NYC "protecting" Antifa, a few weeks ago an Antifa member plead guilty to two counts of felony assault over a separate incident in Manhattan and is heading to prison for 18 months.
So it's not that any one side is being "protected". You commit violent felony crimes and get caught, you're going to face the repercussions, regardless of your cosplay.
The reason Antifa weren't prosecuted in the Proud Boys brawl is because there was objective, indisputable video evidence which proved that the Proud Boys instigated the violence.
This destroyed the 'self-defense' narrative Proud Boys had been using and showed that Antifa protestors had a legitimate self-defense claim to legally protect themselves.
The prosecution of the Proud Boys has absolutely nothing to do with political favoritism and everything to do with rock-solid evidence against them.
Also, the Eric Clanton case was in California. FFS stop comparing different sentencing outcomes from different cases involving different people in different states under different jurisdictions!!!!
I get that people ITT do it to desperately paint a false equivalence, but I see it all the time on Reddit, even from people with good intentions, and it's become one of my internet pet peeves.
skremnjava1 on October 22nd, 2019 at 22:58 UTC »
The saddest part is that they'll just go to prison, join up with the neo nazis, and become even more radicalized than before.
ThePhalanx79 on October 22nd, 2019 at 21:21 UTC »
Remember when they posted videos making antifa members look like they began the fight? I remember that.