Proud Boys fined over $1 million for vandalizing sign at Black church

Members of the Proud Boys organization were ordered by a judge to pay over $1 million for vandalizing a “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) sign at a predominantly Black church in Washington, D.C., in 2020.

DC Superior Court Judge Neal E. Kravitz approved the default judgement in an acute order against members Joseph R. Biggs, Enrique Tarrio, Jeremy Bertino and John Turano, along with the group’s limited liability corporation after they failed to show up to court to defend themselves, according to the Associated Press.

Kravitz ruled that the Proud Boys rally following former President Trump’s failed 2020 reelection bid was an “attack” on the church that “resulted from a highly orchestrated set of events focused on the Proud Boys’s guiding principles: white supremacy and violence.” He also claimed their conduct was “hateful and overtly racist.”

The judge, in a 34-page ruling, ordered the organization to pay the church $1.03 million.

In addition, he barred any member of the Proud Boys from coming near the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church or making threats or defamatory remarks against the church or its pastor for five years.

Metropolitan AME Pastor Rev. William H. Lamar IV lauded Kravitz’s ruling, not mincing words about what he sees as a big responsibility of his church to challenge movements like the Proud Boys.

“We have an ancestral responsibility to fight legally, intellectually, politically, theologically any movement such as the Proud Boys that would not only deface our property but challenge our right to exist as citizens in this space,” Lamar told The Hill in a statement.

On Dec. 12, 2020, members of the far-right, neo-fascist group set fire to the sign on the Metropolitan AME property and removed a BLM banner owned by the Asbury United Methodist Church.

Lamar said when this happened, his church made it clear they would respond.

“We were clear when this happened…we would not pretend that it didn’t happen, we would not be fossilized by fear, but that we would use every tool at our disposal to go after those, within the confines of the law, who desecrated what to us, and to many, is a holy place.”

Lamar said he spoke and got the support from church leadership to take action.

Metropolitan AME then sued the Proud Boys for trespassing and destroying religious property, alleging that they violated D.C. and federal law. They also sought damages to replace the sign and cover additional security that officials said was needed since the incident, The Washington Post reported.

The church filed an amended complaint in 2022, the post reported.

“The judgement, hopefully, will be something that will prohibit others from even considering this kind of political violence,” Lamar said.