Photo via @waterspider__/Twitter
February 22, 2022, 7:50 am*
An anti-vaccine rally in front of city hall in LA supported by members of the violent far-right group the “Proud Boys” unsurprisingly turned violent on Saturday as members of the group attacked counter-protesters, committing yet another in a series of stabbings attributed to this self-identified “Western chauvinists.” The victim was hospitalized but no other information has been released about them.
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At the same rally, a local journalist was attacked by anti-vaxx protesters, a crowd of them screaming at him, shoving him, kicking him, and ripping off his eyeglasses.
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There was at least one moment in which a Proud Boy experienced some consequences for loving violence so much, and it was caught on video.
The Proud Boy in question, identified as Adam Kiefer, paces back and forth in the middle of the street with one of his friends and directly challenges someone off-camera to a fight, squares up, and is dropped with a single punch before he’s able to even throw one.
This moment was a brief bright spot in an escalating trend of violence during right-wing protests, whether they’re about vaccines, made-up incidents of transgender people existing inside businesses, or any other excuse they can find to draw counter-protesters and attack them.
Although the anti-vaxxers claimed that the stabbing victim was one of theirs, according to the LA Times, on-the-ground journalists caught photos of a Proud Boy appearing to stab a counter-protester in black bloc (a way of dressing in order to remain anonymous often used by anti-fascist activists).
Proud Boys have also become notorious for committing stabbings, particularly in the LA area. One accidentally stabbed one of their own protesters, mistaking the victim for a counter-protesters while trying to stab people outside of the Wi Spa where transphobes made up an imaginary problem to protest. In Washington D.C. last December, angry Proud Boys roamed the streets tearing down Black Lives Matter people and attacking and stabbing anyone who tried to stand up to them.
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Violence has also generally been escalating as the nation splits on the topic of vaccines and mask mandates around COVID-19, with conservatives furious as some localities attempt to revive restrictions due to skyrocketing infection rates in areas with low vaccination rates.
Those who believe in the science of vaccines, masks, and social distancing can only watch in horror as anti-vaxxers—increasingly supported by Proud Boys— mob school board meetings and issue explicit threats to medical experts who speak in favor of keeping children masked in class.
*First Published: February 22, 2022, 3:23 am
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