Far-right group Proud Boys loses legal naming rights to Black church it vandalized
The Proud Boys have lost control of their own name after the far-right extremist group subjected a Black church in Washington DC to a “hateful and overtly racist” attack during the violent final days of Donald Trump’s first presidency.
The ruling Monday by Judge Tanya Jones Bosier of Washington DC’s superior court grants the church – the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal church – power over how the Proud Boys moniker is used. Bosier’s decision opens a pathway to seizing proceeds from the sale of any merchandise featuring the white supremacist group’s name, logos and insignia, too.
Lawyers for the church sought the ruling to satisfy a $2.8m judgment stemming from the December 2020 attack during a rally by Trump supporters who falsely claimed that victory was stolen from him when he lost the presidential election that year to Joe Biden.
Several Proud Boys members scaled a wall at the church and embarked on a rampage of vandalism that included burning a Black Lives Matter (BLM) banner. […]
Bosier’s ruling on Monday recognized a lawsuit filed last year by the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison law firm and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, on behalf of the church that asserted the far-right militia had not paid up.
The group “engaged in fraudulent activity to prevent the church from collecting the judgment”, the lawsuit stated, “including terminating the Proud Boys entity and surrendering its trademark registration”.
The group must seek permission from the church before it can use its name or traditional symbols for any revenue-creating venture, according to Bosier’s ruling, which was reported by the New York Times. Proud Boys usually dress in black polo shirts with a yellow laurel leaf as their logo.
In a world where things are increasingly dogshit, it’s nice to know at least some of the chuds are still getting the shit heaped on them that they richly deserve.
