Alabama –-(Ammoland.com)-The founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for defamation and other tortious acts resulting in reputational and economic damages.
The media widely credits McInnes with starting the hipster movement. He co-founded Vice Media with Shane Smith. He is known as the “godfather” of hipsterdom.
McInnes’s former organization, the Proud Boys, is considered a hate group by the SPLC. McInnes started the Proud Boys as a joke, but the Western chauvinist group has morphed into a nationwide fraternal organization known for their rabid support of Trump.
The Proud Boys have been in some high-profile skirmishes with Antifa. The most high-profile conflict took place in New York City after a speech by McInnes at the Republican Club.
In the incident, a group of about a dozen Proud Boys was leaving the speech when a group of Antifa members approached the group and confronted them by running up and trying to steal their “MAGA” hats. A fight broke out leaving the Antifa members bloody and battered.
The police that arrived on the scene arrested the Antifa members because they were the aggressors and the Proud Boys were defending themselves. All the Proud Boys were let go without charges until the SPLC and other left-wing groups pushed for police to file charges against the right-wing group. The police went back and filed rioting charges against nine members of the Proud Boys.
The SPLC wrote an article accusing the group of being neo-fascist. They claimed that McInnes was advocating for violence. The SPLC also accused him of “hate speech”, a charge the McInnes vehemently denies.
Groups like the SPLC have also successfully lobbied social media giants such as Twitter and YouTube into banning McInnes. These moves seriously hampered McInnes’s ability to make money. In an ironic twist in an article written last October, the SPLC accused McInnes and the Proud Boys of trying to silence their opposition.
McInnes also states that because of the SPLC’s false claims that the left has targeted him. He thinks that the SPLC is trying to destroy his and other’s lives.
“My family has been attacked, and so have my friends,” McInnes stated “The pro-Trump men’s club I started, the Proud Boys, have been rounded up and arrested facing serious felonies for daring to defend themselves against the radical left. It’s not just my circle of conservative Christians. Seemingly countless business and careers have been ‘destroyed’ (yes ‘destroyed’ – their word) by this group,”
This suit isn’t the first time that a group has sued the SPLC for making false claims. The SPLC was forced to settle out of court with the Quilliam Foundation. They had to issue an apology for falsely labeling the group as anti-Muslim extremist. They also had to pay the Quilliam Foundation $3.375 million.
Maajid Nawaz started the Quilliam Foundation. Nawaz is a former Muslim extremist who now helps educates governments around the world about Islamic extremism. Nawaz has been an advisor about extremism to people such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The SPLC falsely claimed that the Quilliam Foundation’s mission to combat Islamic-extremism was Islamophobic even though Muslims run the foundation. The left-wing group also contended that the Quilliam Foundation was promoting the idea that every Muslim was a potential terrorist and wanted Muslims watched.
In the apology, the SPLC claimed it didn’t have a full understanding of the Quilliam Foundation. They stated that they should have never included Nawaz’s group in the groups listing of extremist organizations.
McInnes filed his lawsuit in the Alabama Middle District Court. The SPLC did not immediately return AmmoLand’s request for comment on the suit.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.