6-6-2021
Proud Boys chapter fractures as national leader faces backlash for being FBI ‘snitch’.
The national chairman of the Proud Boys hate group faced a vote to expel him from the local chapter he founded, the Miami New Times reports.
Enrique Tarrio has faced backlash after it was revealed he had been an informant for the FBI.
"At a meeting on the night of Tuesday, August 3, several founding members of the "Vice City" Proud Boys chapter, which encompasses Miami-Dade County, voted to leave the chapter and create their own, Tarrio tells New Times.
Now, more than half of the group's original members have split off to form a new Proud Boys branch, which will split territory with the remaining Vice City members," the weekly reported. "This split comes three days after an internal July 31 vote to remove Tarrio from the Vice City chapter."
A former member of the Vice City chapter says the group has been infiltrated by ethnonationalists.
"The Vice City chapter is full of straight-up thuggery, Mafia gangster crap," the former member said. "In July they had five guys in the vetting process who are active members of the Latin Kings. You've got chapters — and unfortunately, the rest of us don't condone this — where Nazis have gotten in. They don't recognize Proud Boys leadership, but who is gonna tell 'em no?"
Tarrio says he survived an in-person vote on whether to disavow him, although a screenshot of a partial, online vote showed 95% voting to remove.
The Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights published screenshots showing the rift playing out in the Proud Boys' Telegraph channel.
The screenshots show Tarrio being called a "snitch" and "rat" and being given the nickname, "Fedrique."
Multiple suspected members of the group have been among those arrested for the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Dominic Pezzola of New York, known as "Spaz" and "Spazzo," was arrested in January. Later in January, William Pepe of New York was arrested and the two were also indicted for conspiracy.
Ethan Nordean of Washington state, Nicholas DeCarlo of Texas, and Nicholas DeCarlo of Texas were arrested early in February. Later in February, six suspected Proud Boys members were arrested and charged with conspiracy. The indictees were William Chrestman, Christopher Kuehne, and Ryan Ashlock of Kansas State along with Enrique Colon of Missouri. Felicia Konold and Cory Conold of Arizona were also indicted.
Jonathanpeter Allen Klein of Oregon was arrested in April and Matthew Greene of New York was charged with conspiracy.
Ricky Christopher Willden of California, Shawn Price of New Jersey, Daniel Lyons Scott of Florida, and James Russell Davis of Virginia have also been arrested.
In July, Tarrio pleaded guilty to burning a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from a Washington, DC church.
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