Town Council in Woodbridge, NJ Silent, Duplicitous as Residents Voice Opposition to Proud Boys in Meeting

It’s getting a little busy here in New Jersey as local fascists attempt to make themselves known in a state that routinely kicks their asses, and it seems tonight Proud Boys decided to present theirs for the proverbial boot at a City Council meeting! Still, it’s the local council that pissed people off moreso.

WOODBRIDGE, NJ – A number of Proud Boys in full colors attended City Council meeting Monday evening and were soundly denounced by most of the residents who were there. The City Council and the Mayor refused to speak out against the group despite urgings by some residents that they do so, and at one point even admonished a resident who angrily asked why they were allowed to conceal their identity and residential status to the public.

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This was the second time in recent months that the neo-fascist group attended this particular City Council meeting, and they immediately were confronted by residents that were attending the meeting as they entered the building. Outside they got into an exchange where one of them declared that his ancestors came to this country from Europe and have their names on a wall on Ellis Island.

Once inside the Proud Boys remained mostly silent with the exception of one who said his name was “Bert” who addressed the council and complained about the group being called White Supremacists. He identified himself as a gay man yet in a statement he was reading to the council he said they will continue to show up to “these school board meetings” – this was not a school board meeting – wearing their “club colors to make a statement that we will not allow our children to be fed sexual deviancy” or the rewriting of history to foster guilt “just for being born a certain color”, a reference to the smear campaign against Critical Race Theory that others later correctly pointed out was not being taught in public schools as it is a study of how racism is applied in institutions. Later a resident called him out for being a gay man while using a slur – degeneracy – that  conservatives use to describe the LGBTQ community.

The issue however immediately turned to how the Council was dealing with the Proud Boys and their stunt when the next speaker asked them if the rules were being applied differently to the group as they were not compelled to state their address, thereby confirming their residency. The exchange became heated between that resident and  Councilman-At-Large Brian F. Small, a former police officer, as Small said he was not required to state his address and that she “was wasting your five minutes” discussing it with him. It cannot be determined, despite Bert’s declaration that they were, if they were indeed Woodbridge residents.

Later, Jimmy Dabrowski, a local school teacher, urged the Council members and Mayor John McCormac to denounce the Proud Boys publicly, but they refused to do so. “If the elected officials won’t do it, the community members will,” he said. “Hate has no home here.” Immediately after Dabrowski spoke Tom Maras, a perennial political candidate who recently ran for the school board on a platform opposing the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program and lost, addressed the council and after joking with Mayor McCormac about lottery tickets, deflected from criticism of the Proud Boys to attacking Black Lives Matter, saying among other things that they are using the slogan as a crutch and want to create more racial divide. He then said the Proud Boys, whom he met and spoke with prior to tonight’s meeting as well as at the last Board of Education meeting in town, should be welcomed to the Council meetings. Immediately after he spoke, the Proud Boys left the chamber.

While largely a Democratic town with a diverse population, Woodbridge is still majority White community that can be very right-leaning. It was the home of the late racist radio talk show host Bob Grant, who was well known for hate-filled diatribes which often included calling Martin Luther King, Jr. a “scumbag” and the promotion of neo-Nazi groups on his radio show, allowing them to broadcast their contact information on the air while he himself promoted a book written by White Supremacist Jared Taylor. The Reo Diner, a local eatery in town that he frequented, displays a photograph of him with Donald Trump years before Trump ventured into politics. Maras and the other Woodbridge Republicans entertained Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for New Jersey Governor, at the diner a few months ago. Ciattarelli lost to incumbent Phil Murphy last month.

Residents said they will continue to oppose Proud Boys should they continue to show up in Board of Education and City Council meetings in town.