Crime & Safety
Two More Proud Boys Arrested For UES Brawl, Police Say
The total number of Proud Boys arrested for a brawl outside the Metropolitan Republican Club is up to eight.
UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Two more members of the far-right group known as the Proud Boys are facing charges in connection to a street fight that broke out on the Upper East Side in October, bringing the total number of arrests up to eight, police said.
Jake Freijo, 26, of Warwick, New York and David Kuriakose, 35, of Old Westbury, New York were both charged with assault and rioting, police said. The charges stem from an Oct. 12 street fight between Proud Boys and protesters who picketed the group's event at the Metropolitan Republican Club.
The NYPD has previously stated that the department has enough evidence to charge 12 people in relation to Friday night's violence. Of those 12, nine are members of the Proud Boys and three are counter protesters, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said the week following the brawl.
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The brawl broke out on East 82nd Street between Lexington and Park avenues after members of the Proud Boys were being funneled away from protesters after a speech by the group's founder Gavin McInnes, police officials said. A group of six counter protesters wearing masks confronted a group of the Proud Boys and allegedly threw a bottle, sparking the fight, officials said.
McInness — a co-founder of Vice Media now known for spouting anti-Muslim and misogynistic beliefs on his show "Get Off My Lawn" — was invited by the Manhattan Republican Club to give a speech and perform a reenactment of the 1960 political assassination of Japanese socialist leader Inejiro Asanuma.
Find out what's happening in Upper East Sidefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The Proud Boys were named an extremist group by the FBI this month, and McInnes has taken recent steps to distance himself from the group, the Huffington Post reported. Two days after the FBI designation, McInnes posted a video to YouTube in which he said, "I’m officially disassociating myself from the Proud Boys, in all capacities, forever. I quit," according to the report.
Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images News/Getty Images
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