NEW YORK: Two members of a far-right group were convicted Monday of brawling with anti-fascist demonstrators in New York, as tensions between white supremacists and leftists simmer in the United States.
Maxwell Hare, 27, and John Kinsman, 39, members of the Proud Boys group, were found guilty of several counts of attempted assault and rioting by a Manhattan court.
A jury decided the pair assaulted four members of Antifa, an anti-fascist group, who were protesting outside an event that Hare and Kinsman had attended on October 12 last year.
“As violent extremism rises in America, a Manhattan jury has declared in one voice that New Yorkers will not tolerate mob violence in our own backyard,“ District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.
“These defendants transformed a quiet, residential street into the site of a battle-royale, kicking and beating four individuals in a brutal act of political violence,“ he added.
Proud Boys is an all-male group considered neo-Nazis by Antifa members.
Antifa stands for anti-fascist and refers to a loose international coalition of activists and protesters who oppose far-right ideology.
There have been scattered incidents of violence purportedly involving Antifa members.
The groups were part of a largely peaceful far-right rally and leftist counter-demonstration in the city of Portland, Oregon at the weekend.
Right-wing activists including the Proud Boys brandished American flags, while others sported red caps with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan from his 2016 presidential campaign.
The counter-demonstration included Antifa members dressed all in black, many wearing masks.
Hare and Kinsman will be sentenced on October 11.
Seven other had already pleaded guilty in the New York case. — AFP
