Gavin McInnes, the founder of the far-right group the Proud Boys, said he was arranging the surrender of multiple members wanted by law enforcement in connection with a violent brawl that erupted following his appearance at a Republican club in Manhattan last weekend, The New York Times reported Friday.
Mr. McInnes, 48, said that several members of the Proud Boys sought by police in relation to last Friday evening’s widely-reported street fight will turn themselves in to authorities, the newspaper reported.
“They are going to be in the Tombs,” he said, referring to the jail in lower Manhattan.
At least two people associated with the Proud Boys have been arrested as of Friday afternoon, and a police official said an attorney representing at least four suspects had contacted authorities to coordinate their surrender, The Times reported.
People affiliated with the group clashed with protesters shortly after Mr. McInnes concluded a speech at the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan last weekend, and the New York Police Department said afterward that authorities are attempting to identify and speak with several individuals caught on camera during the skirmish.
Geoffrey Young, 38, and John Kinsman, 39, were subsequently arrested Thursday and Friday, respectively, and each charged in relation to last weekend’s brawl.
Mr. Young is accused of kicking and punching at least three people during the brawl and has been been charged with misdemeanor counts of riot and attempted assault, The Times reported.
A criminal prosecutor labeled Mr. Kinsman, meanwhile, “the single most vicious of all the attackers,” the report said. He has been charged with attempted gang assault, attempted assault, riot and criminal possession of a weapon.
Lawyers for both men said protesters, not Proud Boys, were to blame for the brawl, The Times reported.
The co-founder of Vice Media and Vice Magazine, Mr. McInnes launched the Proud Boys in 2016, a fraternal group of self-described “western chauvinists” that he has described in the past as a gang with an initiation process, and he was permanently banned from Twitter in August for violating the platform’s policies prohibiting violent extremist groups.
The Proud Boys are “the subject of a regular criminal investigation,” John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said earlier this week, The Times reported.
Members of the NYPD arrested three protesters in connection with a separate incident that preceded the fight.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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