Videos Show Proud Boys’ ‘Extra Friendly’ Relationship With Philly Cops
Exclusive footage paints a disturbing picture of the city just days before Trump told the group to “stand back and stand by” and teased election intimidation in Pennsylvania.
On Sept. 26, members of the far-right group the Proud Boys marched through Philadelphia wearing body armor and helmets. They called their leftist opponents “terrorists.” They yelled at onlookers.
Then the Proud Boys and a large police caravan went back to a Walmart parking lot, where Proud Boys shook an officer’s hand.
Footage obtained by The Daily Beast reveals police appearing to give an escort and a friendly send-off to the Proud Boys, a routinely violent group that has been flagged by other law enforcement agencies as extremists. Just three days later, Donald Trump told Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a presidential debate in which he also explicitly encouraged his followers to show up at polling places and complained that “bad things happen in Philadelphia.”
Philadelphia Police dispute that the September meet-up amounted to an escort. Still, the footage shows that several police buses and vans went to the Walmart parking lot where Proud Boys were assembling after the rally, adding another data point to what some on the left describe as a weirdly cozy relationship between Proud Boys and law enforcement.
Activists aren’t the only ones calling foul: Philadelphia’s top law-enforcement official, District Attorney Larry Krasner, went so far as to tell The Daily Beast the scene was “extra-friendly.”
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/philadelphia-police-extra-friendly-with-far-right-proud-boys-videos-show?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning
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