Sunday saw yet another Black Lives Matter march weave its way through New Port Richey, and while antiracist protesters outnumbered them, a contingent of pro-Trump and Proud Boy counter protesters showed up, too. The Proud Boys—which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a “hate group”—have been banned by Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In a 2018 statement to the Associated Press, a spokeswoman for Facebook, which also owns Instagram, said her employer “continues to study trends in organized hate and hate speech and works with partners to better understand hate organizations as they evolve.”
Besides acts of extreme violence and hate speech, the Proud Boys are also known for their strict policy of only masturbating one day a month, and, most notably, the fact that members of the group were present at the 2017 white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally, which resulted in the death of protester Heather Heyer.
Most recently, the group took to the social media site Parlor to glorify and praise Kyle Rittenhouse, who was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in connection with shootings that left two people dead in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay has reached out to New Port Richey’s City Council, mayor, and deputy mayor for any comment on the Proud Boy presence. —Ray Roa
