Proud Boys Ordered To Pay More Than $1 Million for Racially-Motivated Attack on Historically Black Church
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WASHINGTON– Today, a judge ordered the Proud Boys and several of its leaders to pay more than $1 million for a racially-motivated attack on the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in December 2020. The Superior Court for the District of Columbia held that the defendants engaged in an unlawful conspiracy and violated federal and state civil rights laws, including the Ku Klux Klan Act and the D.C. hate crimes statute. During the attack, members of the Proud Boys trespassed onto the 185-year-old Black church and destroyed a large Black Lives Matter sign.
“The attack against Metropolitan A.M.E. was an attempt to silence the congregation’s voice and its support for Black life, dignity, and safety. It represents just the latest chapter in a long history of white supremacist violence targeting Black houses of worship,” said Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “These attacks are meant to intimidate and create fear, and this lawsuit’s aim was to hold those who engage in such action accountable. We also sought to amplify the voices of the Church’s leadership and congregation–the very voices the perpetrators sought to silence–and to ensure that others give no quarter to this type of racist behavior. Today’s judgment marks the realization of those efforts. The Lawyers’ Committee was proud to answer the call in this case and honored to represent this historic Black institution, which sits just blocks from our own office and the area near the White House known as Black Lives Matter Plaza. We will continue to stand up against white supremacy and send the message that this type of conduct will not be tolerated–not here, not anywhere.”
On the night of Dec. 12, 2020, a group led by the Proud Boys rampaged through the streets of Washington, vandalizing four churches, including Metropolitan. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted of burning another church’s Black Lives Matter banner. The Church’s historical expert testified that while attacks on Black churches have a long history, accountability for such attacks is rare. Another expert on white supremacy testified that the Proud Boys frequently use violence as a tool to advance their ideological agenda. As noted in Judge Neal Kravitz’s opinion: “The record is replete with evidence that all of the defendants acted with an evil, discriminatory motive based on race and with deliberate violence and a willful disregard for the rights of the church and its congregants.”
“The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church has a long, esteemed history of standing against bigotry and hate. Our courage and determination to fight back in response to the 2020 attack on our church is a beacon of hope for our community and today’s ruling showed us what our collective vision and voice can achieve,” said Rev William H. Lamar IV, pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. “While A.M.E. refused to be silenced in the face of white supremacist violence, that does not mean real trauma and damage did not occur – merely that congregants and the church have and will continue to rise above it. Our church is rooted in the theological vision that humankind is one family. Institutions like ours must continue to lead the way toward a new narrative and white supremacist institutions must be an erased element.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.lawyerscommittee.org/proud-boys-ordered-to-pay-more-than-1-million-for-racially-motivated-attack-on-historically-black-church/.
