Well, at least they didn’t cite the SPLC Morris Dees Piggy Bank as their source.
Well, at least not until the 4th paragraph. ?
VANCOUVER, Wash. — The FBI says the far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys, who have figured into incidents of political violence around the country, are actively recruiting in the Northwest and are seen as an extremist group by the federal agency, according to documents from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
“The FBI categorizes the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalism,” the sheriff’s office said in an internal affairs investigation obtained by good-government nonprofit groups Property of the People and The Sparrow Project. “The FBI has warned local law enforcement agencies that the Proud Boys are actively recruiting in the Pacific Northwest and that some Proud Boy members have contributed to the recent escalation of violence at political rallies held on college campuses, and in cities like Charlottesville, Va.; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle, Wash.”
I’m going to have to some digging on this group (I’m not familiar with them) because they say on their website that they did not attend UTR in Charlottesville (and posted about it before the rally), are not pro-white, not pro-Christian, not pro-straight. And they have a black guy doing their promos.
The internal affairs investigation was prompted by The Columbian’s reporting on a sheriff’s deputy’s ties to the Proud Boys group. The FBI’s description of the Proud Boys was first reported by The Guardian, which confirmed the authenticity of the document, and that the sheriff’s office learned of the designation in an August briefing with an FBI analyst regarding area extremist groups.
But the FBI must know something we don’t know.
Now here comes the SPLC. Which means nothing, since everyone to the right of them are a hate group.
The Proud Boys were labeled a hate group by extremism watchers at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Members of the Proud Boys, which was founded by Gavin McInnes in 2016, were seen during a rally in Charlottesville last year, where a right-wing extremist is accused of killing an anti-racism activist.