Proud Boys show up to support Pence, Philly police while harassing protesters
The far-right Proud Boys—designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center—have been lurking around the fringes of both the Trump reelection campaign this year and the police brutality protests of the past month and more. This week in Philadelphia, members of the group made the connection explicit.
At an appearance by Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday—in which he gave a stoutly pro-police speech at the Friends of Police Lodge 5 in Northeast Philadelphia—a group of about 10 Proud Boys stood outside and harassed a small group of protesters. The same men later appeared at a gathering of police officers after the Pence speech and were apparently welcomed warmly.
“You literally are what separates order from chaos … but we live in a time when the radical left presenting the American people with one false choice after another,” Pence told the gathering. “Under this president and this administration we are not going to defund the police, not now, not ever,” he added.
Outside, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, the gathered Proud Boys and other supporters of the police stood in the street and exchanged shouted epithets with anti-police protesters. When some men supporting Black Lives Matter began engaging them, they chanted: “All lives matter!”
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/10/1959772/-Proud-Boys-show-up-to-support-Pence-Philly-police-while-harassing-protesters?detail=emaildkre
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