02-23-2021, 02:57 PM
Well. well, well. The Proud Boys may be breaking up.
The far-right Proud Boys group appears to be in chaos after evidence surfaced that its main leader, Enrique Tarrio, previously served as an FBI informant.
Tarrio's history with the FBI was reported by Reuters on January 28, several weeks after the riot at the US Capitol where members of the "male chauvinist" street gang played a prominent role.
Tarrio had been arrested shortly ahead of the insurrection on destruction-of-property charges.
Reuters obtained a transcript of a 2014 court proceeding in which Tarrio's lawyer acknowledged his role as an informant in multiple cases unrelated to the Proud Boys, a group that was founded in 2016.
Since the January 6 riot, the group has been thrown into disarray, with Tarrio's history as an informant — which he denied to Reuters — spreading paranoia.
The group is split into various regional groups, or chapters. The Daily Beast reported on Sunday that the revelation about Tarrio prompted chapters in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Indiana to distance themselves from the central leadership.
On Telegram, the encrypted app favored by the group after it was barred by other platforms, its main channel was recently renamed. This, say experts, indicates that many adherents no longer want to be associated with the Proud Boys name.
"The Telegram channel dropping the name, different chapters breaking off from the national leadership, it all speaks to a rift that's occurring in the Proud Boys," said Jared Holt, a fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab to USA Today.
The far-right Proud Boys group appears to be in chaos after evidence surfaced that its main leader, Enrique Tarrio, previously served as an FBI informant.
Tarrio's history with the FBI was reported by Reuters on January 28, several weeks after the riot at the US Capitol where members of the "male chauvinist" street gang played a prominent role.
Tarrio had been arrested shortly ahead of the insurrection on destruction-of-property charges.
Reuters obtained a transcript of a 2014 court proceeding in which Tarrio's lawyer acknowledged his role as an informant in multiple cases unrelated to the Proud Boys, a group that was founded in 2016.
Since the January 6 riot, the group has been thrown into disarray, with Tarrio's history as an informant — which he denied to Reuters — spreading paranoia.
The group is split into various regional groups, or chapters. The Daily Beast reported on Sunday that the revelation about Tarrio prompted chapters in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Indiana to distance themselves from the central leadership.
On Telegram, the encrypted app favored by the group after it was barred by other platforms, its main channel was recently renamed. This, say experts, indicates that many adherents no longer want to be associated with the Proud Boys name.
"The Telegram channel dropping the name, different chapters breaking off from the national leadership, it all speaks to a rift that's occurring in the Proud Boys," said Jared Holt, a fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab to USA Today.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.