Proud Boys Hang Anti-Cuomo Banners At Manhattan Bridges, Tunnels

MANHATTAN, NY — Members of the far-right Proud Boys group hung banners on Manhattan bridges and tunnels this weekend taunting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and showing support for members facing four-year prison sentences for instigating a 2018 street brawl on the Upper East Side.

Banners were posted on sections of the Queens Midtown, Lincoln, Holland and Brooklyn Battery tunnels as well as the Manhattan Bridge between Saturday night and early Sunday morning, state officials said. Messages read "no retreat/no surrender," "Andrew Cuomo = Fredo" and "smile in the face of tyranny," according to photos released by the Governor's office.

Earlier this year Cuomo's brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was filmed berating a man and threatening to throw him down a set of stairs for calling him "Fredo" at a bar on Shelter Island. Chris Cuomo likened "Fredo" to the N-word for Italian Americans, but it's most likely a reference to The Godfather's bumbling brother character Fredo Corleone.

The banner reading "smile in the face of tyranny" featured a photo of Proud Boys member Maxwell Hare, who was sentenced to four years in state prison in October for his role in a 2018 street fight outside the Upper East Side's Metropolitan Republican Club. Proud boys member John Kinsman also received a four year sentence.

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.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo shot back at the group, saying in a statement that "New York is not intimidated or threatened by these neo-fascists."

"I have a message for the Bigot Boys who skulk around like cowards in the dead of night: when you preach hate and division, New York answers with love and unity. Crawl back into your hole, Bigot Boys — there's no place for hate in our state," Cuomo said in a statement.

State officials removed the banners and launched an investigation into the acts of vandalism on Sunday.