Proud Boys Get 4-Year Prison Sentences For UES Brawl, DA Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Two members of the far-right group the Proud Boys are facing four-year prison sentences for their roles in instigating 2018 street brawl on the Upper East Side, a spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney's office said.

Maxwell Hare, 27, and John Kinsman, 40, received their prison sentences Tuesday, which also carry an additional five years of post-release supervision, a DA spokesman said. The sentences were handed down by State Supreme Court Judge Mark Dwyer. Hare and Kinsman were convicted on charges of attempted gang assault, attempted assault in the second and third degrees and rioting in August.

Dwyer said Tuesday that the length of the sentences is meant to deter politically-motivated violence from breaking out on New York City streets in the future, ABC News reported. The judge said that the 2018 brawl outside the Metropolitan Republican Club reminded him of street violence in 1930s Europe that led to the rise in fascism, according to the report.

Both Hare and Kinsman apologized for their actions Tuesday after receiving their sentences, citing the heat of the moment for their violent outbursts, ABC News reported.

The criminal trial for Hare and Kinsman began in late July. During the trail, Prosecutors described Hare as the instigator of the street fight and Kinsman as "the single most vicious of all the attackers," the New York Times first reported. The trial was notable because prosecutors could not rely on the cooperation of Hare and Kinsman's victims, and instead were forced to base their arguments around video footage of the fight.

Ten members of the Proud Boys, which has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, were charged in connection with an Oct. 12 brawl following a speech given at the Metropolitan Republican Club by the group's founder Gavin McInness.

The NYPD initially blamed anti-fascist protesters for sparking the fight by throwing a bottle at a group of Proud Boy members, but surveillance video released in December showed Proud Boys charging at anti-fascist protesters before the bottle was thrown.

The NYPD was criticized by local politicians for making no arrests on the night of the fight, despite responding to the brawl in progress on East 82nd Street between Lexington and Park avenues.

Dramatic video shows members of the Proud Boys cornering counter-protesters outside the club and kicking them on the sidewalk as they lay on the ground. The group is also heard cursing and shouting gay slurs during the assault. As the group disperses, they can be heard saying "Proud Boys, let's go."