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For Immediate Release
March, 08 2022, 03:54pm EDT
Contact:
Lacy Crawford, lcrawford@lawyerscommittee.org, press@lawyerscommittee.org
WASHINGTON
On Tuesday, longtime leader of the Proud Boys, Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, was indicted on conspiracy for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack last year, according to recent reports. The following is a statement from Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
"The Lawyers' Committee applauds the Justice Department for bringing charges against Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio. In addition to being charged as a key organizer of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Tarrio and the Proud Boys are also responsible for a hateful attack on the historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. The Lawyers' Committee has filed multiple civil rights lawsuits against Tarrio and the Proud Boys, seeking justice through the courts to hold them accountable to the communities they harmed through these racist attacks. The new conspiracy charges filed by the Justice Department complement our civil lawsuits. Together, these actions should send the message that perpetrators and co-conspirators of racist violence cannot evade responsibility for their actions."
Background
In early 2021 the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and co-counsel filed a lawsuit against the Proud Boys and their leader Enrique Tarrio for vandalizing the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, a historically Black church. The Metro A.M.E achieved a significant victory in an initial phase of its lawsuit after a default ruling declaring that defendant Proud Boys International, LLC forfeited the case.
Learn more here: https://www.lawyerscommittee.org/proud-boys-held-accountable-for-their-racist-attack-on-historic-black-church-in-d-c/
Later in 2021, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed suit on behalf of eight U.S. Capitol Police officers who defended the ballot certification process at the U.S. Capitol during the violent insurrection on January 6 of that year.
Learn more here: https://www.lawyerscommittee.org/smith-v-trump/
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
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The country's largest Muslim civil rights group on Thursday called for added protections for U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar after Florida state Sen. Randy Fine issued an apparent threat against the two Muslim lawmakers.
Fine, who has the endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump in his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, called himself the "Hebrew Hammer" in a post on X on Tuesday and suggested Reps. Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Omar (D-Minn.) should leave office for their own safety.
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has spoken out previously about anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim statements by Fine (R-19), called the lawmaker an "unhinged anti-Muslim bigot."
His apparent threat of violence "must be investigated by state and federal law enforcement authorities and condemned by both Democratic and Republican Party leadership," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy executive director of CAIR. "President-elect Donald Trump, in particular, should denounce Mr. Fine's remarks and the Florida Republican Party should expel him."
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Despite rainy conditions, the United American Indians of New England held its 55th annual National Day of Mourning at Cole's Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Kisha James, who is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and also Oglala Lakota, shared how her grandfather founded the event in 1970 and pledged to continue to "tear down the Thanksgiving mythology."
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James took aim at fossil fuel pipelines, oil rigs, skyscrapers, corporations, the U.S. military, mass incarceration, and the criminalization of immigrants, and declared that "no one is illegal on stolen on land."
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In New York City, police
arrested 21 pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route.
According toABC 7:
For the second year in a row, the group ran in front of the Ronald McDonald float to briefly stop the parade.
This year, they jumped the barricades at West 55th Street just after 9:30 am.
Many sat on the ground, locking arms and chanting "Free, free Palestine!"
Others held a banner behind them, reading "Don't celebrate genocide! Arms embargo now."
Video footage shared on social media shows members of the New York Police Department grabbing protesters and their banner, and throwing at least one person face-first into the road.
Multiple Indigenous groups circulated messages about Thanksgiving on social media Thursday.
NDN Collective said that "as Indigenous peoples, we reject colonial holidays rooted in the genocidal erasure of our existence. We demand #LANDBACK to reclaim sovereignty, repair ties with Mother Earth, and protect Indigenous ways of life—honoring them for generations to come."
The Indigenous Environmental Network similarly
highlighted that "'Thanksgiving' is a white-washed holiday designed to conceal its true origins of violence, genocide, land theft, and forced assimilation."
"We must re-evaluate what we've been taught about the history of this land and recognize that genocide, extraction, and exploitation of our lands and communities continue today," the group argued.
Brenda Beyal, an enrolled member of the Diné Nation and program coordinator of the Brigham Young University ARTS Partnership's Native American Curriculum Initiative, wrote about the history of Thanksgiving on Wednesday for The Salt Lake Tribune.
"Our history books mark 'the first Thanksgiving' in 1621 when at least 90 Wampanoag men, led by Massasoit, walked in on a Puritan harvest feast," Beyal detailed. "Approximately 150 years later, all 13 colonies celebrated a day of solemn Thanksgiving to celebrate the win of the Battle of Saratoga in December of 1777. [U.S. President] George Washington called for a day of thanksgiving and prayer in 1789 to give gratitude for the end of the Revolutionary War."
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Israel imposed a last-minute curfew on Wednesday night, prohibiting Lebanese citizens from crossing into the south overnight.
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