Twitter expelled them, but they took refuge on the new far-right social media, Parler, and, since November 3, the Proud Boys have marched twice on Washington against the “stolen election” of Donald Trump. Now they are back in the capital to protest again, tomorrow, “this time in disguise, scattered around the center in smaller teams”, as their boss, Enrique Tarrio, thirty-year-old of Cuban origins and also leader of Latinos for Trump, wrote about Parler , owner of a gadget shop in Miami called 1776, the year the nation was founded – from which he connected a few days ago for this interview via Skype. But yesterday, as soon as he arrived in Washington, Tarrio was arrested, accused of setting a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a church on fire last month. He was also charged with illegal possession of high-capacity ammunition.
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I Proud Boys are a far-right organization founded in 2016, which calls itself a drinking club, a group of drinking friends, but is accused in the American media of ties to white supremacists. Their target is both the Democratic party (“we will protest against every single Biden policy”) and the Republican party.
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What did that phrase mean to your movement? Trump who, called to distance himself from you in a TV debate, said: «Proud boys, stand back and stand by»?
«Simple: stand back, relax, wait until after the elections. Stand by: stay by my side. And we did it from day one ».
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How many are you?
“Twenty-two thousand in the world and twelve thousand in the United States before the debate, but thanks to it I think the number has doubled.”
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On another occasion, Trump condemned the Proud Boys.
«He said:“ I don’t know who they are but I condemn them ”, as if to indulge the interlocutor:“ all right, whatever you want ”. I don’t think it was a good move, but neither I nor the Proud Boys need the president to be who we are. There are those who think that once Trump is out of the White House it will be over. They don’t understand that Trump is no longer a person, he is a movement ».
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American and Republican like her, accused the Proud Boys of acting like Castro’s squads in Cuba.
“There are enemies on both fronts and snakes in the Republican party too. There are many establishment Republicans who don’t want to lose their seats. Dinosaurs like Rubio, Mitt Romney, these George Bush-style politicians are dying, they’re clinging to anything to stay in power, but there’s a new Republican punk party, made up of people like Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Laura Loomer, Governor DeSantis here in Florida: even under pressure they don’t compromise their conservative values. The Republican party was a comatose party, with no youthful energy or activism. Trump was the electric shock that was needed. We have managed to bring hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets and we will continue to do so, until the old guard dies. ‘
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In the last march in Washington you snatched a Black Lives Matter flag from one of the oldest black churches in Washington. You told the Washington Post that you set it on fire. A civil rights organization denounced you for hate crimes.
“It would be a hate crime if we targeted the church for religious or racial reasons, but we didn’t even know it was a black church. They had put out the flag of Black Lives Matter, the group that had stabbed four of our men. The Black Lives Matter people are terrorists and I’m proud of what I’ve done. Was it the destruction of private property? Yes, and if necessary I will pay. Did I do it out of hate? Absolutely not. And I don’t think they’ll be so stupid as to charge me. ‘
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Seven suprematisti bianchi?
“No. White supremacists probably hate us more than Antifa for electing black members like me. And we accept gays … “
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Ma gives it no?
“There is a parallel organization of women, but we don’t know anything about how it works and they don’t know anything about us. We don’t have to justify ourselves. Men need time between men ”.
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To join the Proud Boys you have to take an oath and there are four levels in the organization. First we must declare: “I am a proud Western chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for having created the modern world”.
“It’s the first step.”
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So you are not white supremacists but western supremacists?
“I am an American supremacist. The West is the best ».
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The second rite of passage is getting beaten …
«A form of hazing, like in a fraternity. They beat you in five until you say the names of five cereals. But let’s not hit hard. The media sensationalize … ».
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And is it true that your rules prohibit masturbation?
“We say it but I don’t think anyone takes it seriously. Let’s also say not to wear flip-flops, but I’m in Florida and I always wear them ».
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Is it true that you got to the fourth level by beating an Antifa?
“No it’s false, the fourth level consists in overcoming an adversity. I gave relief during Hurricane Harvey in Texas. In any case, if you participate in a fight looking for the fight, you still don’t level up. For us they are not ranks, but degrees useful for having something to work on ».
Why did he call his gadget shop 1776?
“It is the date of the founding of the nation, the time when a group of drunken carpenters, peasants and merchants gathered together to say enough to tyranny, and unexpectedly won, creating a country that should be free from tyranny. And I say “should” because I believe there is still a little bit of tyranny, and we have to fight it. Our drinking club it became a political force, just as it happened at the birth of this nation: the project of the revolution was born in a bar, among a group of citizens who drank. But we don’t want to compare ourselves to them … they have done much more, but we also love this country ».
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Do you plan to apply?
«Let’s see when the waters calm down. Who knows, maybe Tarrio will race against Marco Rubio ».
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January 4, 2021 (change January 5, 2021 | 01:37)
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