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A judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday ordered members of the Proud Boys to pay over $1 million to a historic Black church after it sued the far-right group for destruction of property in a December 2020 episode in which the group’s members tore down the church’s large Black Lives Matter sign.
The lawsuit, filed by Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church against the Proud Boys’ leadership and limited liability company, said several of the group’s members climbed over a fence surrounding the church to destroy the sign during a violent clash between supporters and opponents of President Donald J. Trump near the White House. The church sought compensatory damages for tens of thousands of dollars to replace the sign and to cover the cost of increased security.
The additional $1 million awarded in punitive damages “represents an amount that the court saw appropriate to both punish the Proud Boys for what they did and also deter them from ever doing it again,” said Arthur Ago of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in a phone interview on Saturday. The committee represented the church.
Members of the Proud Boys engaged in “acts of terror and vandalizing church property in an effort to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice,” the lawsuit said. They also stole and set fire to Black Lives Matter signs from a nearby church, it said.
In his ruling, Judge Kravitz called their conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
www.nytimes.com
The lawsuit, filed by Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church against the Proud Boys’ leadership and limited liability company, said several of the group’s members climbed over a fence surrounding the church to destroy the sign during a violent clash between supporters and opponents of President Donald J. Trump near the White House. The church sought compensatory damages for tens of thousands of dollars to replace the sign and to cover the cost of increased security.
The additional $1 million awarded in punitive damages “represents an amount that the court saw appropriate to both punish the Proud Boys for what they did and also deter them from ever doing it again,” said Arthur Ago of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in a phone interview on Saturday. The committee represented the church.
Members of the Proud Boys engaged in “acts of terror and vandalizing church property in an effort to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice,” the lawsuit said. They also stole and set fire to Black Lives Matter signs from a nearby church, it said.
In his ruling, Judge Kravitz called their conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
Proud Boys Fined Over $1 Million for Destroying Property of a Black Church
A judge in Washington, D.C., called the group’s actions, which included tearing down a Black Lives Matter sign, “overtly racist.”
