Protesters sue Miami-Dade cops, claim harassment during visit to home of Proud Boys leader

Devoun Cetoute

A group of protesters who claim they were shooed away by police from outside the home of the president of the local chapter of the Proud Boys, has filed a lawsuit against eight Miami-Dade police officers, claiming they were denied the right to peaceably assemble and protest.

The group, made up of protesters from Florida, Virginia and Illinois, filed the lawsuit late last month in federal court in Miami after they said police at first told them they needed a permit to protest outside the Miami-Dade home of Proud Boys President Enrique Tarrio, then harassed them after they moved to a nearby Wendy’s parking lot. They are seeking monetary damages.

Responding to the lawsuit, Steadman Stahl, president of the local chapter of the Police Benevolent Association, said he wasn’t aware of the lawsuit and that union attorneys would review it and respond later.

Tarrio, the outspoken leader of the Miami-Dade chapter of the Proud Boys — an alt-right group with ties to white nationalism that gained prominence during the presidential debates when then-President Trump told them to “stand back and stand by” — was arrested in January by Washington, D.C., police just before the Capitol riots for transporting ammunition and burning a Black Lives Matter flag.

After his arrest, he was outed during a court hearing as a police informant in South Florida who helped in the prosecution of more than a dozen people on drugs, gambling and human smuggling cases.

The lawsuit alleges the group had assembled outside Tarrio’s home on Jan. 28 and that police were called by Tarrio’s sister, who went outside and told them to leave. When police arrived, according to the lawsuit, they told the protesters they needed a permit to protest. The group claims police circled and continued to harass them after they relocated to a nearby Wendy’s.

The protesters say they gathered at Tarrio’s home to voice their concern with the Proud Boys, a group recently deemed a terrorist organization in Canada and which has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Some members were arrested for their part in the Capitol riots on Jan. 6.

Latest Stories

  • White House Press Sec Dodges When Asked Why Hunter Biden Still Has a Stake in Chinese Investment Firm

    White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday punted on a question about why President Biden’s son Hunter Biden still holds an investment in a Chinese company. Asked during a press conference at the White House whether she had an update on Hunter Biden’s divestment from his ten percent stake in the Chinese private equity firm BHR Partners, Psaki referred a reporter to the younger Biden’s lawyers. “He has been working to unwind his investment,” Psaki said, adding, “as a private citizen, I would point you to him or his lawyers on the outside on any update.” In December, Biden assured voters that he and his family would not be involved in any business dealings that appear to conflict with the office of the president. “My son, my family will not be involved in any business, any enterprise that is in conflict with or appears to be in conflict with the appropriate distance from the presidency and government,” Biden said during a CNN appearance. Hunter Biden was reportedly in the process of divesting from his equity stake in BHR in late December, but as of last week, he appears to have retained his investment through his company, Skaneateles LLC. BHR, whose largest shareholder is the Chinese government-controlled Bank of China, has invested about $2.1 billion. Hunter Biden came under scrutiny last year for his lucrative position on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma. In leaked emails from 2014, Biden appears to try to leverage his influence with his father, then-vice president Joe Biden, who was heavily involved in U.S. policy on Ukraine, referring to the elder Biden as “my guy.” He also attracted criticism for entering into a consulting contract with China’s largest private energy company that initially earned Hunter Biden $10 million a year “for introductions alone,” according to leaked emails. Hunter Biden’s memoir, “Beautiful Things,” is scheduled to come out on April 6. The book will focus on the younger Biden’s well-documented drug abuse issues, according to Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

  • Trump funnelled money from donors into private business after election loss, report finds

    Campaign finance filings follow concerns among watchdogs over former president’s self-dealing while in office

  • Greene claims 'I'm fine with' getting kicked off her House committees: 'It'd be a waste of my time'

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Friday declared she's been "freed" after being removed from her House committee assignments, claiming continuing to serve on them would have been a waste of time. The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to remove the controversial Georgia lawmaker from her committee assignments over a string of racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim comments and support for baseless conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric. In a press conference Friday, Greene said it was freeing to admit she "believed things that were wrong" in a speech the day before, during which she did not apologize but rather expressed regret for being "allowed to believe things that weren't true." "Going forward, I've been freed," Greene said Friday. "I do, I feel freed." Greene went on to claim that "I'd be wasting my time" by continuing to serve on House committees "because my conservative values wouldn't be heard," even though she also asserted removing her from them "stripped my voters of having representation to work for them." "I'm fine with being kicked off my committees because it'd be a waste of my time," she insisted. Greene went on to celebrate that she now has "a lot of free time on my hands," but she ended the press conference after refusing to address a question about her liking a Facebook post in 2019 calling for violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemMitt Romney's child benefit is a challenge to both partiesSenate votes down $15 minimum wage during vote-a-rama. Bernie Sanders seems unfazed.

  • Man Who Pushed 91-Year-Old in Oakland Chinatown Assaults 2 Others Right After

    An unidentified assailant was caught on surveillance camera pushing a 91-year-old man to the ground in a recent unprovoked attack in Oakland Chinatown. The incident happened outside the Asian Resource Center at the corner of Harrison and 8th streets on Jan. 31, according to ABC7. The suspect reportedly approached two other victims shortly after the first attack, resulting in one of them losing consciousness, according to the Oakland Police Department’s statement.

  • QAnon Shaman pictured without horns and face paint in mugshot, as he’s moved to jail with organic food

    Jacob Anthony Chansley was transported to Virginia facility on Thursday evening

  • U.S. State Department approves first potential weapons sales under Biden, says Pentagon

    The U.S. State Department has approved the first potential sales of weapons under the Biden administration, including communications equipment for NATO and missiles for Chile, in deals with a combined value up to $150 million, the Pentagon said on Friday. The sales are the first foreign military sales to be announced since U.S. President Joe Biden took office, but since sales take months to process, the genesis of the deals likely dates back to the Trump administration. Since taking office, the Biden administration temporarily paused some pending arms sales to U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in order to review them, despite having been approved by the Trump administration.

  • Mike Pence starting podcast to 'share the good news of conservatism'

    Barely two weeks after leaving office, the former US vice president Mike Pence has switched his attention to “attracting new hearts and minds to the conservative cause” as the host of a podcast directed at American youth. Mr Pence will become the first Ronald Reagan presidential scholar at the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), a group set up in the 1960s to promote conservative values among a generation of high school and college students and those just embarking on their working lives. Hosting a podcast will be familiar territory for Mr Pence, who was a prominent conservative radio voice in the Midwest for several years before his election to Congress in 2000. Billing himself as “Rush Limbaugh on decaf,” a milder version of the firebrand right-wing radio personality beloved by Donald Trump's supporters, Mr Pence hosted discussions on conservative and religious themes. “The Vice-President will certainly be focused on the conservative accomplishments of the last four years and projecting those accomplishments and lessons learned forward,” a Pence spokesperson said of the podcast, according to Politico.

  • Prosecutors don't know where Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse is, want him arrested again

    Prosecutors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sought a new arrest warrant Wednesday for Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with killing two people during an Aug. 25 protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man now paralyzed from the waist down. The prosecutors said Rittenhouse has violated the terms of his $2 million bond by moving without informing the court or providing his new address. After a court filing sent to Rittenhouse was returned as undeliverable Jan. 28, Kenosha detectives visited Rittenhouse's listed address and discovered another man has been living there since mid-December, prosecutors explained. It is "extremely unusual for a defendant facing a charge of first-degree intentional homicide in Kenosha County to post cash bond and be released from custody pending trial," prosecutors said in their motion. "Rarely does our community see accused murderers roaming about freely." Along with Rittenhouse's arrest, they asked the court to increase his bond by $200,000, noting that since his $2 million bond had been paid from a "dubious internet fundraising campaign," Rittenhouse "has no financial stake in the bond" and no incentive to cooperate since "he is already facing the most serious possible criminal charges and life in prison." Rittenhouse's lawyer, Mark Richards, responded Wednesday night, saying his client is in an undisclosed "safe house" due to death threats and "has stayed in constant contact" with his lawyers, if not the courts. He said he had offered to provide prosecutors with the new address if they would keep it secret, and they declined. Rittenhouse, now 18, is accused of fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounding a third man. He says he fired in self-defense. Prosecutors sought to amend the terms of his bail last month after video footage captured him drinking with a group of Proud Boys at a Wisconsin bar and flashing white-power hand signs. It is legal for 18-year-olds to drink in bars in Wisconsin if a parent is present, and Rittenhouse's mom was apparently at the bar with him. More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemGOP Sen. Ben Sasse slams Nebraska GOP over censure: 'Politics isn't about the weird worship of 1 dude'Senate votes down $15 minimum wage during vote-a-rama. Bernie Sanders seems unfazed.

  • Missing Soldier's Unit Suffered from Low Morale Before His Disappearance, Investigation Finds

    The findings concluded the high tempo of the unit's deployment cycle "placed remarkable stress on the soldiers in the unit."

  • 27 Best Desk Lamps to Brighten Up 2021

    Let there be lightOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Rural community in shock after Georgia health officials raid clinic vaccinating teachers

    Their plans to vaccinate Elbert County have been "laid to waste," a doctor from the raided medical center says.

  • Judge rules Republican Tenney won last open US House race

    A New York judge ruled Friday that Republican Claudia Tenney defeated U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi by 109 votes in the nation's last undecided congressional race. The ruling by Judge Scott DelConte could clear the way for Tenney to be sworn in as the representative for central New York's 22nd Congressional District, barring emergency intervention by a state appeals court. DelConte's ruling came after he spent three months reviewing ballot challenges and trying to fix a myriad of problems with vote tabulation.

  • Ohio police officer charged with murder over Andre Hill death

    A white Columbus, Ohio, police officer was charged with murder Wednesday in the latest fallout following the December shooting death of 47-year-old Andre Hill, a Black man, the state's attorney general said.

  • Taiwan blames Chinese 'bullying' for Guyana revoking rep office

    Taiwan on Friday blamed Chinese "bullying" for Guyana's decision to revoke a deal for the island to open a representative office in the South American country, saying it had tried without success to get Guyana to change its mind. Taiwan had already begun initial operations at the office, in effect a de facto embassy, last month. It had been welcomed by Washington and condemned by Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties.

  • Man's Face Slashed After NYC Subway Argument, Police Search for Suspect

    A 61-year-old man was on his way to work on the L subway train when he got into a dispute with another man and was slashed across the face on Wednesday morning. What happened: Noel Quintana claimed the man was kicking his backpack during the commute, according to ABC7. When Quintana asked him to stop, the man attacked him and ran away when the train stopped at First Avenue and 14th Street.

  • New Israeli Covid drug which cured 30 cases of disease hailed by scientists as 'huge breakthrough'

    A new coronavirus drug which successfully cured 30 cases of the disease in Israeli hospital patients has been hailed by scientists as a ‘huge breakthrough’. The EXO-CD24 substance was developed at the Ichilov Medical Centre in Tel Aviv and successfully completed its first phase of clinical trials on Friday. The treatment was given to 30 patients with coronavirus, whose conditions ranged from moderate to severe. Twenty-nine of the patients were then discharged from the hospital in the following three to five days, while one patient took slightly longer to recover. A protein known as CD24 is delivered to the lungs by exosomes in the drug, which helps to rebalance the immune system and prevent it from overreacting to the virus. Professor Nadir Arber originally designed EXO-CD24, which is breathed in as a gas and taken once every five days, in order to treat patients who had ovarian cancer. “Even if the vaccines do their job, and even if there aren't any new mutations, one way or another, the coronavirus will be staying with us,” Prof Arber told the news site Arutz Sheva. “That’s why we developed this special medication. It’s been about half a year from the time the idea was hatched to the first human trials [being] conducted.” Roni Gamzu, the director of the Ichilov Medical Centre, said that the research during phase one of the trial was “advanced and sophisticated and may save coronavirus patients”. Speaking to the Times of Israel, he said: “The results of the phase one trials are excellent, and all give us confidence in the method Arber has been researching in his lab for many years.” No placebo was used in the first stage of the trial, and the next phase of the clinical trials will continue to examine the effects and efficacy of the treatment. The drug Allocetra, which has been developed at the Hadassah Medical Centre, has also reported promising results in the second stage of its clinical trial. Israel announced yesterday that it will ease lockdown restrictions but keep its borders closed after a drop in its number of coronavirus cases.

  • 9-year-old boy begs Biden administration to stop his father's deportation to Guatemala

    "They're choosing to keep a parent and child separated that they had already separated before and traumatized," said the attorney for Fernando Ochoa's dad.

  • GOP Sen. Ben Sasse slams Nebraska GOP over censure: 'Politics isn't about the weird worship of 1 dude'

    Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) doesn't really care if the Nebraska Republican Party censures him for his lack of fealty to former President Donald Trump, he said in a video Thursday evening. The state GOP's central committee will vote on a "Resolution of Censure" against Sasse at its Feb. 13 meeting, News Channel Nebraska reported earlier Thursday. His listed offenses include "stated support of the impeachment" of Trump and "defamatory public statements" against Republican senators who challenged President Biden's electoral votes. Sasse ostensibly directed his response to the state central committee, but his video also served as a sort of manifesto for traditional Republicanism against the ascendant pro-Trump wing of the party. Few Nebraska voters "are as angry about life as some of the people on this committee," he said, adding, "Political addicts don't represent most Nebraska conservatives." "Something has definitely changed over the last four years, but it's not me," Sasse said. "Personality cults aren't conservative. Conspiracy theories aren't conservative. Lying that an election has been stolen, it's not conservative. Acting like politics is a religion? It isn't conservative." The Jan. 6 siege happened because Trump "lied to you" and because he "riled a mob that attacked the Capitol — many chanting 'hang Pence,'" Sasse said. He continued: Nebraskans aren't rage addicts — and that's good news. You are welcome to censure me again, but let's be clear about why this is happening: It's because I still believe, as you used to, that politics isn't about the weird worship of one dude. The party could purge Trump skeptics. But I'd like to convince you that not only is that civic cancer for the nation, it's just terrible for our party. [Sen. Ben Sasse] Sasse would be only the latest Republican censured back home for being insufficiently pro-Trump. More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemGreene claims 'I'm fine with' getting kicked off her House committees: 'It'd be a waste of my time'Mitt Romney's child benefit is a challenge to both parties

  • China's latest weapon against Taiwan: the sand dredger

    ON BOARD THE TAIWAN COAST GUARD SHIP PP-10062, East China Sea (Reuters) - Taiwanese coast guard commander Lin Chie-ming is on the frontline of a new type of warfare that China is waging against Taiwan. On a chilly morning in late January, Lin, clad in an orange uniform, stood on the rolling deck of his boat as it patrolled in choppy waters off the Taiwan-run Matsu Islands. The Chinese goal, Taiwanese officials say: pressure Taiwan by tying down the island democracy's naval defenses and undermining the livelihoods of Matsu residents.

  • Judge sets bail hearing for Kyle Rittenhouse next week

    Judge Bruce Schroeder on Friday scheduled the hearing for Thursday afternoon for Kyle Rittenhouse, who's accused of shooting Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz, killing Rosenbaum and Huber and wounding Grosskreutz during protests in Kenosha in August. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, contends the protesters attacked him and he fired in self-defense. Prosecutors allege Rittenhouse moved out of the Antioch, Illinois, apartment he shared with his mother after he posted a $2 million cash bond in November and hasn't given the court his new address.