‘Raise the black flag’: How 4 Proud Boys secretly deliberate to overthrow American democracy

“No quarter. Raise the black flag.”

Enrique Tarrio is raging on-line about President Joe Biden’s election victory. It’s November 2020, a few months earlier than the January 6 rebellion.

But Tarrio is not simply an indignant Donald Trump supporter posting on the web. He’s the chief of the right-wing Proud Boys group with maybe hundreds of members in the end reporting to him.

He wished Mr Trump to stay in workplace, warning of a second civil struggle. So he and others hatched a plan, one which culminated within the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021.

A collection of paperwork and messages, revealed by prosecutors at trial, exhibits the lengths they went to: from secret textual content chains to planning 50-man groups to occupy buildings within the capital.

Tarrio and his affiliate Ethan Nordean, one other senior Proud Boy, will now be sentenced as we speak after being discovered responsible of seditious conspiracy, a uncommon cost carrying as much as 20 years in jail.

Two others – Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl – will likely be sentenced tomorrow for a similar cost.

The sentencing comes the identical month as Mr Trump was charged within the US state of Georgia with making an attempt to illegally overturn the 2020 election.

Sky News reveals under precisely how the 4 males deliberate to overthrow democracy and asks a key query: are the Proud Boys nonetheless a menace?

Trump: ‘Proud Boys, stand again, and stand by’

Formed through the alt-right explosion of 2016, the exclusively-male Proud Boys regard themselves as “Western chauvinists” who “refuse to apologise for creating the modern world”.

Variously described as a road gang, a hate group or “kids who were picked last at kickball”, the Proud Boys have been designated as a terror group in two international locations – Canada and New Zealand.

The group’s roots are as a “boys drinking club”, Katherine Keneally, an knowledgeable on political violence on the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, tells Sky News.

“But what we saw, especially with the emergence of Trump, is this shifted from it being a drinking club to them going out on the streets, particularly at COVID-related protests, racial justice protests, and engaging in violence with protesters.”

As the motion grew, dozens of chapters of the Proud Boys sprang up within the majority of US states.

The watershed second got here in September 2020, and the notorious line from Trump dwell on tv: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”

This precipitated a direct shift of their behaviour, Ms Keneally says, with the group emboldened by the idea that that they had help from the President.

“They had already been garnering public support leading up to January 6, and that helped them translate to them actually directing people unaffiliated with the Proud Boys during the insurrection.”

“They viewed themselves as the president’s own military in some respects,” she added.

The plan for January 6

“Fill the buildings with patriots and communicate our demands,” the plan says.

This is the incendiary ‘1776 Returns’ doc, a secret Proud Boys inside plan prosecutors say was despatched to Tarrio.

Its acknowledged targets embody sustaining management “over a select few, but crucial buildings in the DC area for a set period of time” and getting as “many people as possible inside these buildings”.

“These are OUR buildings, they are just renting space,” the doc reads. “We must show our politicians We the People are in charge.”

The doc set out plans intimately for a way Proud Boys would occupy buildings, with specialist roles given to leads (“covert sleeper”), “hypeman” and “recruiter”.

“Have leads and seconds open the doors for the crowd to enter,” it says. “This might include causing trouble near the front doors to distract guards who may be holding the doors off.”

Readers are instructed to make use of COVID-19 to their benefit by carrying face coverings to guard their identities.

Prosecutors say that Tarrio was despatched the 1776 Returns doc by an unnamed particular person, who instructed him: “The revolution is more important than anything.”

Tarrio responded: “That’s what every waking moment consists of… I’m not playing games.”

What occurred on the Proud Boys trial?

Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl together with a fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, had been placed on trial charged with conspiring to oppose the lawful switch of presidential energy by drive (seditious conspiracy) and quite a few different fees in relation to January 6.

In his 80-minute opening assertion, assistant US legal professional Jason McCullough mentioned within the days after the 2020 election the defendants had began “calling for action, calling for war, if their favoured candidate was not elected.”

Alluding to Mr Trump’s comment, the prosecutor added: “They did not stand back. They did not stand by. Instead, they mobilised.”

The indictment laid out how Tarrio, enraged at President Biden’s victory, posted on social media in November 2020: “F*** unity. No quarter. Raise the black flag.”

Associated with navy battle, the phrase ‘no quarter’ means that enemy combatants ought to be killed fairly than taken prisoner.

The jury heard how after the election Tarrio posted on social media that the presidency was being stolen and vowed his group would not “go quietly”.

Mr McCullough additionally cited messages from Tarrio on January 6, together with: “Make no mistake… We did this.”

“Those are his words, his thoughts, just minutes after Congress had been forced to stop its work,” McCullough mentioned. “They did what they’d set out to do.”

And whereas Tarrio himself wasn’t on the Capitol on the day of the rebellion, he messaged with members all through the riot, prosecutors mentioned.

‘Their commander-in-chief bought them a lie’

Defence attorneys denied their shoppers deliberate or led an assault on the Capitol and steered they had been being focused for his or her political opinions.

Tarrio’s legal professional, Sabino Jauregui, instructed jurors his consumer was being made a scapegoat as a result of he “wrote and sent a lot of offensive things”.

“Speaking what you think is not illegal in this country yet,” he continued, earlier than he closed with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Rehl’s lawyer, Carmen Hernandez, mentioned her consumer got here to the nation’s capital merely to protest. “I submit to you that Mr Rehl came to DC to exercise his First Amendment rights,” she instructed the jury.

Nick Smith, a lawyer for Nordean, who led a Proud Boys chapter in Washington state, instructed jurors they’d see no proof of a “complicated, long-running plot”.

“What you will see in the Telegram chats is a bunch of text messages that are tempting you to find guilt based on your dislike of these people,” he mentioned. “Do not take the bait.”

Norm Pattis, a lawyer for Joe Biggs, mentioned the defendants got here to Washington as a result of their “commander-in-chief” instructed them it could “be wild”, referring to Mr Trump’s notorious tweet that known as on supporters to return to Washington on January 6.

“Their commander-in-chief sold them a lie,” he mentioned.

Pezzola’s lawyer, Roger Roots, downplayed the assault on the Capitol, which quickly halted the counting of Electoral College ballots.

“Believe it or not, this entire case is about a six-hour delay of Congress,” Roots instructed the jury. “The government makes a big deal out of this six-hour recess.”

Guilty of seditious conspiracy

Tarrio, Biggs, Nordean and Rehl had been discovered responsible of seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to impede an official continuing.

Pezzola was cleared of seditious conspiracy and a jury couldn’t attain an settlement on the cost of conspiracy to impede an official continuing.

Pezzola, who was caught on video smashing in a window with a Capitol Police defend through the riot, was individually charged with stealing the police defend and located responsible.

He was additionally convicted of assaulting, resisting or impeding sure officers, whereas the 4 different defendants had been acquitted on that cost.

The choose declared a mistrial in respect of varied different counts within the trial upon which the jury didn’t attain conclusions.

How massive are the Proud Boys now?

With the subsequent US presidential election barely a 12 months away some are asking if we’re more likely to see a repeat of the violent scenes of January 6… or one other try to overturn the end result if Mr Trump just isn’t the victor.

Are the Proud Boys nonetheless a menace to American democracy?

Their numbers have grown dramatically since 2020, reaching 78 chapters in 2022, in keeping with the Southern Poverty Law Center organisation.

But that will not inform the entire story, because it doesn’t essentially imply that the variety of Proud Boys members has elevated, consultants say.

“I think many would have expected the Proud Boys to kind of fade away by now,” Colin P Clarke, director of analysis and an knowledgeable on home terrorism on the Soufan Group, tells Sky News.

“But there seems to be a real sense of pride in pushing forward with all their different activities, and they’ve positioned themselves as a player in the culture wars more broadly.”

However Colin Beck, a professor at Pomona College and an knowledgeable in social actions, mentioned that whereas the Proud Boys model might have continued to unfold, the quantity of help might have decreased.

“There’s now a real cost,” he tells Sky News. “If you go to a Proud Boys event you might end up in jail.

“The US federal authorities is superb at suppressing protests when it chooses to take action.”

Trump ‘abandoned’ the Proud Boys

Another factor, Katherine Keneally says, is the Proud Boys have in many ways distanced themselves from Mr Trump and feel “betrayed” by him.

She pointed to fears of Proud Boys protests over the indictment of the former president which did not come to pass.

“He wasn’t serving to fund their authorized efforts. He simply type of deserted them,” she said. “So there was this mistrust that is been taking place with Trump.”

Asked in regards to the future, she doubts there will likely be a repeat of January 6 as Proud Boys at the moment are focussing rather more on native motion and working for native workplace.

“I’m not actually worried about the Proud Boys,” Ms Beck says. “In some ways they’re like the has-beens.”

“It’s who the Proud Boys become next…what is the group that emerges?

“Because all of the people who find themselves adherents or sympathetic, they do not go away. They simply transfer on to one thing else.”

Mr Clarke raised the idea the Proud Boys could act as a “feeder” or “preparatory college” for more extreme groups.

Asked how likely a repeat of the Capitol insurrection is if a Democrat wins in 2024, Mr Clarke said: “We must be taught from January 6 that when these guys say that they are going to do one thing, now we have to take them significantly and put together for it.”