The Proud Boys are a group of self proclaimed western chauvinists that believe “the west is the best.” This men’s club, as they call it, was founded by Gavin McInnes, an ex co-founder of VICE Media who now hosts a show on CRTV where he primarily discusses Islamophobia and promotes white nationalist ideology, the preservation of European culture.
McInnes also frequently uses his platform to incite violence against groups he doesn’t agree with. “We need more violence from the Trump people. Choke a tranny, get your fingers around the windpipe,” McInnes told his viewers. “Justified violence feels amazing and fighting solves everything.”
Due to the incessant incitements of violence, activists have started calling out the Proud Boys for their dangerous ideology. Vic Berger, a video editor for Super Deluxe, has exposed the Proud Boys by making comedic video edits on the group.
These videos ultimately led to a Proud Boy showing up to his home and threatening his family, which was documented by the Huffington Post a month ago. ““It was scary as hell,” Berger explained in the piece. “I thought this was all just bullshit from the internet, they’ve always harassed me online. But now they’re sending thugs.”
Yesterday, the Proud Boys issued new threats to Berger through their lawyer, J.L. Van Dyke. In an exchange on Facebook, Berger let Van Dyke know that he is not a journalist and is just making comedic videos about white supremacists like the Proud Boys. To this Van Dyke said, “You’re obviously not very good at identifying white supremacists. Perhaps consider doing something more productive with your time before landing yourself in legal trouble.”
Van Dyke has however posted tweets insinuating we should hang blacks and threatened to murder anyone that “messes with his career.”
Twitter users reaching out to Bernard Media believe that Van Dyke could be disbarred for his tweets. “If that lynching post is real he could easily be disbarred. You have to tread carefully around someone like this though. He comes off as extremely unhinged, which makes all the sense in the world given that he is the Proud Boys lawyer.”
After these tweets and Van Dyke’s behavior came to light, his profile was suspended from Twitter. Bernard Media will continue to provide updates on this situation as new information is available.
