Far-right extremist group the Proud Boys shot to infamy when President Donald Trump told them to “stand back and stand by” during a 2020 presidential debate. Now they may need to stand by for a new name.
Less than a month before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a crowd of hundreds of Trump supporters, including some members of the Proud Boys, gave Washington, D.C., a preview of what Trump’s “big lie” would unleash. During a violent demonstration on Dec. 12, 2020, members of the Proud Boys vandalized a “Black Lives Matter” flag belonging to Metropolitan AME Church, a historically Black church. Members of the group stole the flag and stomped on it while chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets.”
The group will have a harder time explaining exactly whose streets they are, because the church now owns the rights to the Proud Boys’ name.
In 2023, Metropolitan AME won a $2.8 million default judgment against the group for its destruction of the sign. After the Proud Boys failed to pay, the church pivoted its focus to the group’s trademark. Per a ruling this week from Superior Court Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier, if the Proud Boys want to sell anything bearing the group’s name or symbols, they need to get approval from the church.
The Proud Boys’ involvement in the Jan. 6 attack resulted in former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio’s getting sentenced to 22 years for seditious conspiracy. Tarrio was among those to whom Trump issued sweeping pardons upon taking office.
Tarrio, 42, called for the judge to be impeached and urged an investigation into the judge’s decision. “I wipe my a– with the judge’s decision,” he said of the ruling, according to The Washington Post.
Ideally, he won’t try getting that on a shirt.
Zahara Hill is a coordinating producer for MS NOW. She previously worked as a front page editor for HuffPost and the deputy editor for Blavity News.