Proud Boys ordered to pay over $1 million for racist attack on AME Church

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Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons

On Saturday, a judge ordered the Proud Boys and several of its leaders to pay more than $1 million for a racially motivated attack on the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in December 2020. The Superior District Court of Columbia has ruled that the defendants engaged in an unlawful conspiracy and violated federal and state civil rights laws, including Ku Klux Klan law and DC’s hate crimes law. During the attack, members of the Proud Boys broke into the 185-year-old black church and destroyed a large Black Lives Matter sign.

The attack on Metropolitan AME was an attempt to silence congregational voices and support for black lives, dignity and safety. This represents only the latest chapter in a long history of white supremacist violence targeting black houses of worship, said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. These attacks are intended to intimidate and instill fear, and the purpose of these lawsuits was to hold accountable those who engage in such actions. We also sought to amplify the voices of the Church’s leadership and congregation, the very voices the authors sought to silence and ensure that others would give no quarter to this type of racist behavior. Today’s judgment marks the achievement of these efforts. The Advocates Committee was proud to answer the call in this case and honored to represent this historic black institution, which is just blocks from our own office and the area near the White House known as Black Lives Matter Plaza. We will continue to stand up against white supremacy and send the message that this type of conduct will not be tolerated here or anywhere.

On the night of December 12, 2020, a group led by the Proud Boys ransacked the streets of Washington, vandalizing four churches, including Metropolitan. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has been found guilty of burning another church’s Black Lives Matter banner. The Church historical expert testified that while attacks on black churches have a long history, accountability for such attacks is rare. Another white supremacist expert testified that the Proud Boys frequently use violence as a tool to advance their ideological agenda. As stated in the opinion of Judge Neal Kravitz: The record is replete with evidence that all of the defendants acted with a perverse and discriminatory motive based on race and with willful violence and willful disregard for the rights of the church and his devotees.

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church has a long and esteemed history of fighting bigotry and hatred. Our courage and determination to fight back in response to the 2020 attack on our church is a beacon of hope for our community and today’s decision has shown us what our collective vision and voice can accomplish, has said the Reverend William H. Lamar IV, pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. Although the AME has refused to be silent in the face of white supremacist violence, that does not mean that real trauma and damage has not occurred, simply that the faithful and the church have and will continue to rise. above. Our church is rooted in the theological view that humanity is one family. Institutions like ours must continue to lead the way to a new narrative and white supremacist institutions must be an erased item.

The ultimate goal of this trial was not a monetary windfall, but to prevent the Proud Boys from being able to act with impunity, without fear of consequences for their actions. And that’s exactly what we’ve accomplished, said Arthur Ago, director of the Lawyers Committee Criminal Justice Project. Metropolitan AME churches’ support for Black Lives Matter made them the target of attack by members of the Proud Boys, who traveled to Washington DC that day with the explicit purpose of intimidating those who support the fight for Black Lives Matter. racial equity. We applaud the courts’ decision as a crucial step in the national fight against white supremacy and racist attacks on black and brown communities.

We are delighted that our client, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, has received a measure of justice for the Proud Boys’ racist attack on them, said Daniel J. Kramer, Partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. By holding the Proud Boys and its leaders accountable, the court ruling should deter those who might consider engaging in racially motivated violence in the future.

The Proud Boys’ attack on the Metropolitan AME Church is part of a long history of racist violence against people of color, said Jacqueline Kutnik-Bauder, deputy legal director of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Right and Urban Affairs. Today the court warned all groups with violent hate programs that their actions have consequences.

More information on the case is available here.

Background: Metropolitan AME Church c. Proud Boys was filed by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, on behalf of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Superior Court of the District of Columbia in an effort to deter the Proud Boys and their leaders from their campaign of racist violence, which they perpetrate with impunity.

The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Co-Counsel filed a lawsuit on January 4, 2021 against the Proud Boys and several of their leaders for vandalizing the church. The lawsuit alleged violation of Ku Klux Klan law, violation of DC hate crimes law, violation of federal law protecting religious property, conspiracy, trespass and destruction of property.

The Proud Boys and their leaders failed to appear and defend themselves in court and the court entered default judgments against the defendants. In April 2023, plaintiffs presented evidence from the church pastor, a congregant, and expert witnesses regarding the attack and the damage it caused.

About the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy. to engage the nation’s leading lawyers as civil rights change agents. Movement. Today, the Lawyers Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that black people and other people of color have the voice, the opportunity and the power to deliver on the promises of our democracy. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org.

About Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is a firm of approximately 1,000 lawyers with diverse backgrounds, personalities, ideas and interests who provide innovative and effective solutions to our the most legally and legally complex clients. business challenges. The firm represents many of the world’s largest and most important public and private corporations, asset managers and financial institutions, as well as clients in need of pro bono assistance.

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