The Proud Boys have been getting smacked around for a few years now, and if last night’s first presidential debate didn’t affix a permanent bullseye to their asses, their rallies over the weekend damn sure did!

During the first presidential debate last night, Donald Trump was asked to condemn white supremacist and militia groups, and the neo-fascist group Proud Boys were mentioned by name. Trump not only would not make such a condemnation, attempting to pivot to left wing groups he considered threats, but regarding the Proud Boys, he simply said what came off as a marching order: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”

As expected, the Proud Boys immediately turned that into a rallying cry, with Florida member Joe Biggs, a onetime reporter for the conspiracy theorist media outlet InfoWars who is known for his public calls for physical confrontations and violence against political adversaries, saying on his Parler account, “Trump basically said to go fuck them up! this makes me so happy”. Biggs also posted a video of Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes reacting to the call, jokingly responding to it by saying he runs the organization and should not stand back and stand by. McInnes publicly resigned from the group in November 2018 in a failed effort to help the case of members who were eventually convicted of assault and rioting, but has regularly been seen with the group while wearing it’s telltale yellow and black polo shirts.

Founded in the summer of 2016 in Brooklyn, McInnes has termed his group as a gang and is an organization that has promoted the suppression of rights to women, Muslims and the LGBTQ community. Although multiracial, it has often allied themselves with White Nationalist circles and some members were seen participating in the tragic “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 which was organized by former Proud Boy Jason Kessler. They openly call and engage in political violence, and in order to become a full member, one has to “get involved in a major fight for the cause.” McInnes, who has contributed articles to White nationalist sites such as VDare.com and American Renaissance has often openly called for violence as he championed his group,  saying on his podcast, “We will kill you, that’s the Proud Boys in a nutshell, We will kill you. We look nice, we seem soft, we have “boys” in our name, but like Bill the Butcher and the Bowery Boys, we will assassinate you.”

Indeed, the violence from the Proud Boys and their hatemongering has been documented from almost the very start. Currently, several Proud Boys are incarcerated on assault and rioting charges and prominent Proud Boy Alan Swinney joined them on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the debate, charged with several assault and weapons charges, six of them classified as felonies. On Aug. 27, Swinney participated in a rally with the Proud Boys in Portland where he pointed a revolver at antifascist activists.

The Proud Boys have been in the news in recent days due to their rally on Saturday in Portland as well as a smaller and flash-mob type rally they held in Philadelphia the same day. Prior to both rallies, the organization was hit on two fronts. One hit came from the news outlet Unicorn Riot who released information that indicated that according to leaked online chats they have been planning to violent rallies in the Northeast with other groups, most notably Patriot Prayer, American Guard and Resist Marxism, for much of the year. Two days earlier, writers Robert Evans and Jason Wilson reported on similar plans for Portland and the Pacific Northwest from another group calling itself the Patriot Coalition, who often works alongside the Proud Boys, American Wolf and other groups. Add to the history of such groups instigating such violence across the county, many were on edge and did not know what to expect when the Proud Boys held their rally. It resulted in the group being put under the harshest of spotlights that they may never get out of, so harsh in fact that Fred Perry who produces the yellow and black polo shirts they are known to wear announced that until it ceases to be associated with the group they will no longer sell that particular shirt color scheme in North America. Even city officials in Portland, who have long been tolerant of their violence and assaults in the city to the point that they have been accused of collusion with them denied them a permit to rally in Delta Park, citing Covid-19 concerns.

Despite the denial, the Proud Boys still rallied in the park, but not in the numbers they anticipated. Instead of the 20,000 organizers suggested on the permit application or even the 1,000 to 3,000 law enforcement expected, a paltry 200 ended up coming out to attend. In addition, antifascist protesters who often clash with the group, chose instead to hold an anti-hate rally of their own in Peninsula Park – three miles away from the remote and hard-to-get-to park the Proud Boys chose for what became a festive event that even included the “No Drama Llama”, who regularly is taken to peaceful rallies, this being the animal’s 100th. “We will come together to protect what we are building, day by day, together,” rally organizers said in a tweet. “We will not allow Portland to be used as a stage for fascist violence.”

We will come together to protect what we are building, day by day, together.

We will not allow Portland to be used as a stage for fascist violence.

The feds gassed us and you showed up. It’s time to show up again.

We are the Roses of Portland.#noPBsInPDX#WeKeepUsSafe

— PopMob (Popular Mobilization) (@PopMobPDX) September 11, 2020

The attendance for the Portland rally was predicted to be in the thousands by the Proud Boys.

Here’s the actual crowd size pic.twitter.com/9f4QV0OqL0

— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) September 26, 2020

For comparison, here’s the crowd size for the 500-800 anti-Proud Boys rally at Peninsula Park in #Portland. There are ruffly 300 proud boys here for their rally. #BlackLivesMatter #PortlandProtest pic.twitter.com/TAfLIIBrR3

— Terrence Daniels (Captain 🍀 Planet) (@Terrence_STR) September 26, 2020

Although the Proud Boys came with body armor and shields distributed by a local right wing outfit called American Wolf, the rally managed to remain calm, particularly as many of those they expected to fight refused to satisfy that expectation and counter them. The event still managed to devolve into some violence, with journalists being targeted by the group and some getting assaulted, an ironic development as this was a charge levied at antifascist activists in Philadelphia on Sept. 19 when while the Proud Boys failed to show for an announced rally in that city’s Clark Park some skirmishes between antifascists and some antagonists right wing media referred to as journalists. One person is seen in video that went viral of him attacking a Black blogger, and although police said they were investigating the matter, he was identified by tattoos and on-the-scene interviews as Samson Steele, a Project Supervisor at Pacific North West Environmental. Meanwhile, Joe Biggs was instructing other Proud Boys to eject a leftist journalist, and they responded by shoving him and attempting to steal his helmet camera. Portland Police did not step in either of the incidents, and despite saying they were investigating the Steele incident, it ended up being Twitter users finding him.

1/ A Proud Boy in Portland assaulted a Black live-streamer by kicking him in the face yesterday.

The Proud Boy had a distinctive shamrock tattoo on his left hand, matching that of Samson Steele, a Project Supervisor at PNW Environmental.

CONTACT: https://t.co/8woHx8mwKK https://t.co/aAMH0mlPQz pic.twitter.com/jxn2aGLtjY

— AntiFash Gorgon (@AntiFashGordon) September 27, 2020

Joe Biggs directs the Proud Boys to remove @Johnnthelefty from their unpermitted rally. They leap into action, assault him, and attempt to steal his GoPro and gas mask while shoving him out of Delta Park illegally. PPB officers less than 100 yards away didn’t intervene. pic.twitter.com/vxr7dkgKOq

— Daniel V. Media (@danielvmedia) September 27, 2020

Joe Biggs is 36 years old.

Yes, that is a “Right Wing Death Squad” (RWDS) tattoo on his arm. pic.twitter.com/tQim0YmnNq

— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) October 1, 2020

Philadelphia’s Proud Boy rally on Saturday seemed to be more of a saving face effort after the embarrassment of not showing up at their announced rally the weekend before at Clark Park in West Philadelphia, a diverse community considered among the most progressive in the city that brought out over 500 residents to oppose them. They chose not to announce their plans or even to attempt to hold an event in the neighborhood, opting instead to march with approximately fifty of their number in a surprise rally downtown. The march was particularly significant because photographs of the event appeared to show American Guard founder Brien James participating. A longtime neo-Nazi, James was a member of the Klan and Outlaw Hammerskins, and later formed the Vinlander Social Club, a violent street gang whose members have been convicted for various crimes from assault to murder. James, who was with fellow neo-Nazi Matthew Heimbach in Philadelphia in 2013 for the Keystone United-sponsored annual “Leif Erickson Day Celebration” that was met by opposition by community members, also formed the American Guard which works regularly with the Proud Boys. James, who in the past has said he was the president of the Indiana Chapter of the Proud Boys, also participated in the “Unite the Right” rally. Philadelphia Proud Boys leader Zach Rehl had been referenced in the Unicorn Riot report as appearing in chats coordinating with Alan Swinney a series of violent rallies across the east coast. Two years ago, Swinney participated in rallies in Providence, RI and Philadelphia.

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Allan Swinney of the Proud Boys. He still has all that white stuff on his gear from Providence! #PhillyWeThePeopleRally

A post shared by Daryle Lamont Jenkins (@dlamontjenkins) on Nov 17, 2018 at 11:06am PST

I think they have a decent estimate. It’s not enough, and they’re usually overwhelmed by counter protestors.

I wonder how many neo-Nazi Vinlanders Brien James has added to the mix trying to rebrand them in the shadows.

Saturday in Philly 👇👇 pic.twitter.com/kH7PX52rLe

— Firestorm on Fascism 🏴🏴 #AntifascistaSiempre (@AntifascistF12) September 30, 2020

Although the Proud Boys expressed elation at Donald Trump’s call to arms, it might end up being a fleeting elation as its immediate focus was put not just on them but their associates. An article was published Wednesday by the New Republic noting the White Nationalist links that conservative propagandist James O’Keefe has, spotlighted in particular his connections to the Proud Boys using information from One People’s Project and other sources how the Proud Boys worked with members of O’Keefe’s Project Veritas. In addition, many came out to condemn them the way Trump should have. After Amazon was informed about the Proud Boys were attempting to sell “Stand Down and Stand By” T-Shirts on their website, they immediately removed the merchandise from the platform. Meanwhile, Penny Rimbaud,  drummer for the anarchist punk band Crass, particularly condemned ex-friend Gavin McInnes in a Facebook post on the band’s page. “I first met Gavin McInnes in 2004 when he was still working with Vice Magazine (of which he was a founder member) and we became friends,” he wrote. “Over the years his political views became increasingly unacceptable to me and I severed any and all connections to him in this respect. At no time whatsoever have I ‘endorsed’ McInnes political position. Indeed, I hold it in contempt.”

A Telegram post announced that Proud Boy founder Enrique Tarrio was to appear on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program Wednesday evening, but Tarrio never appeared and the post was deleted. And a Proud Boy rally was supposed to be held in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday, but there are reports that the event was canceled. The current status of that rally has not been confirmed.