NYPD Arrests Two More Proud Boys As Hate Group Grapples With 'Cuckery'

A Proud Boy kicking a protester outside the Metropolitan Republican Club on Friday night (Shay Horse)

Two more members of the Proud Boys have been arrested in connection with the street brawl outside the Upper East Side Republican headquarters last month.

Police say they picked up Kyle Borello, 31, at his home on East 86th Street near York Avenue at 5:45 a.m. on Thursday morning. He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor riot and attempted assault, a police spokesperson said.

Later in the day, Jake Freijo, 26, of Warwick, New York, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor riot and third-degree assault. He was released without bail on Thursday night.

A total of eight Proud Boys and three antifascist protests have been arrested and charged for participating in the clash, which followed an appearance by founder Gavin McInnes at the Metropolitan Republican Club on October 12th. During the altercation, at least a dozen Proud Boys were seen on video kicking a protester in the fetal position, shouting homophobic slurs, and bragging about smashing the head of a "fucking foreigner." Afterward, McInnes boasted of having "a lot of support in the NYPD."

But a mix of internal infighting and arguably belated legal consequences has thrown the group into chaos in recent weeks. Following reports that the FBI is now classifying the Proud Boys as an "extremist group with ties to white nationalism," Gavin McInnes claimed, not quite sincerely, that he was dissociating from his own organization on the advice of his legal team. In a rambling video, McInnes insisted the group was not a gang, despite his past statements, and that they did not have ties to white supremacists, contrary to all available evidence.

On Tuesday, a group calling themselves the "Elders Chapter" announced on the Proud Boys official website that longtime legal counsel, Jason Van Dyke, would succeed McInnes as chairman. Van Dyke has a history of making racist threats online—including a 2014 tweet featuring a photo of a noose and the n-word—and was recently arrested for filing a false police report over stolen guns. He's previously bragged about getting kicked out of Michigan State University, after authorities found copies of anti-Semitic and racist literature in his dorm room.

In the latest turn of events, Van Dyke has resigned from his post as chairman, after accidentally doxxing the "Elders" through a pretty embarrassing redaction error in their new bylaws. Meanwhile, the Daily Beast reports that August Invictus, a different alt-right figure who attended the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, is now claiming to be the leader of the Proud Boys.

"If you want to be friends with a white nationalist, you can be," Invictus said in a recent video announcing his new regime. "The days of Proud Boy cuckery are over."

We'll see.