‘Underground’ NZ Proud Boys no ‘less a threat’
The NZ Proud Boys say they’re just ‘‘friends’’, but an undercover investigation has revealed how they’re picking up the mantle from their terrorist counterparts in America. Stuff Circuit’s and Paula report.
In the frenzy around the visit to New Zealand of far-right activists Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux in 2018, a disturbing threat emerged: ‘‘In a fist fight, we Proud Boys of NZ will f..k you c.. ts up. That b...h needs to suck out of a straw for a month while in ICU.’’
That online post targeting a peace activist who was leading the opposition to the Canadian pair’s appearance in Auckland was posted by someone calling themselves ‘‘Mā ori Basher’’.
Their true identity would eventually be revealed, but we’ll come to that. Because what’s important now, and was overlooked then amid the controversy is this bit: ‘‘we Proud Boys of NZ’’.
Stuff Circuit can reveal the existence of a group of Kiwi men aligning themselves to the far-right American Proud Boys – ‘‘Western chauvinists who refuse to apologise for creating the modern world’’ – who in June were designated a terrorist organisation by the New Zealand Police.
A group of more than a dozen known followers – there are possibly more – was at the height of its activities at the time the violent threat was made, and in recent times those involved have sought to scrub social media of evidence. But researchers of the far-right who began monitoring them in 2018 have captured screenshots of their interactions ever since.
Stuff Circuit has been given exclusive access to these dossiers, which reveal anti-Muslim sentiment, racism, misogyny, and promotion of gun culture. Some posed with firearms. At least two men posted photos of their time in the military. A researcher, who does not want to be named out of personal security concerns, has linked the men through photos of gatherings, comments on each other’s Islamophobic and racist posts on social media, and video of them protesting at an anti-immigration rally in
Auckland’s Aotea Square, while wearing the signature black and yellow ‘‘Proud Boys’ polo shirts.
They regularly used the Proud Boy call to arms ‘‘uhuru’’ and photoed themselves making the ‘‘OK’’ white power symbol adopted by the group. They had their own New Zealand Proud Boys insignia, an adaptation of the American logo.
In the statement setting out the case for designating the American Proud Boys a terrorist entity, NZ Police acknowledged the existence of ‘‘unlinked but ideologically affiliated chapters in Australia, Canada, and Israel’’. No mention Proud Boys were here all along.
The Proud Boys don’t say so publicly, of course. But Stuff Circuit communications with key members of the group show an ideology in sync with that of the US founders. All have downplayed their involvement, and Stuff Circuit has been threatened with legal action. It’s all there, though, not just in what they’ve told us, but in what they tried to hide from view.
The American Proud Boys were classified as an ‘‘extremist’’ group by the FBI in 2018, but it was their involvement in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, which led to their ban here. Before then, no group connected to extremist right-wing politics or identity had been designated a terrorist entity in
New Zealand. The Christchurch mass murderer was designated a terrorist as an individual with a white-identity extremist ideology. (He made the same hand signal adopted by American Proud Boys during one of his court appearances.)
A key driver for banning the group was its violence, according to the New Zealand Police statement of case, which cited the American group’s co-founder and leader Gavin McInnes warning his perceived political enemies: ‘‘We will kill you. That’s the Proud Boys in a nutshell. We will kill you. We look nice, we seem soft, we have ‘boys’ in our name but... we will assassinate you.’’
Richard Bardell, from Auckland, was in a 2018 group photograph titled ‘‘Proud Boys’’. The photo was removed within a day of being posted on Facebook, but not before researchers had copied it.
Bardell told Stuff Circuit that what remains of the NZ Proud Boys in 2022 is ‘‘a group of friends’’ but that at its height a ‘‘leader’’ was in contact with McInnes.
Bardell said the leader, who he would not name, came to the attention of authorities and broke off contact with the rest of the group, ‘‘for the sake of his family and that it was too much having a criminal investigation watching what he and his family were up to’’.
Police would not answer direct questions about whether they knew individual New Zealanders were involved in the Proud Boys movement.
The researcher who monitored the group said the fact they had cleaned out their social media or deleted their profiles since the terrorist designation didn’t mean they, or their ideologies, had gone away.
‘‘They have gone underground, just as the Dominion Movement and National Front did after [the Christchurch mosque attacks of] 15 March 2019. But they don’t change their views or become less of a threat. They just morph into new groups.’’
His comments are echoed by American journalist and researcher Andy Campbell, author of the book We Are Proud Boys, released in September 2022. ‘‘Anyone declaring support for the Proud Boys or
using their symbology/gestures is indeed a threat,’’ he told Stuff Circuit.
Campbell said it was not surprising to hear how the New Zealand men described their activities when outed.
‘‘They’ve always called themselves a drinking club and a fraternity, which serves to obfuscate what they are really after, [which is] attacking leftists and leftist causes. It’s no surprise that they’re using that language in New Zealand, it’s identical to McInnes’ teachings, and the man himself uses that language today.’’
In messages with Stuff Circuit, Bardell has been forthcoming about the group’s beliefs.
‘‘PB’s have never been a white supremacist group, right wing, Nazi sympathisers, anti-gay etc… We have plenty of gays and non-white people in the different groups across the countries.
‘‘However we believe you shouldn’t be made to feel guilty because of the crime of your ancestors such as slavery or colonialism. And you should have the right to feel equally proud of the good parts of your culture as someone from a different culture.’’
Several of the New Zealand men contacted by Stuff Circuit displayed aspects of the tactic of ‘‘crypto-fascism’’.
‘‘This tactic overlays methods to disguise extremism and increase the appeal of a group to ‘mainstream’ or ‘normal’ people, and to prevent unwanted attention from authorities,’’ police said in their statement of case for banning the American Proud Boys.
Campbell said the tactic was taught by McInnes to ‘‘deflect and sanitise their image’’ but ‘‘political violence is the
Proud Boys’ primary goal. [McInnes] hard-wired violence into their rules’’.
He said the fact no New Zealand members had been known to commit an act of violence didn’t change the fact of their affiliation.
‘‘If the New Zealand chapter were truly a male fraternity dedicated to just hanging out with the boys, they wouldn’t [have been identifying as] Proud Boys. It’s really that simple.’’
Group members from Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Palmerston North, Christchurch, and Dunedin communicated on social media using the term ‘‘uhuru’’, a Swahili word for freedom that has been co-opted by the Proud Boys. They also had in-person gatherings, including a Christmas Party.
A person close to one member of the group says he attended ‘‘three or four’’ meetings.
Stuff Circuit understands there was a known Proud Boys initiation which involved the group punching a new member around the middle of the body.
It’s the ‘‘second degree’’ stage of initiation after being accepted into a chapter, Campbell writes in his book. The final ‘‘fourth degree’’ stage requires an act of criminal violence, but there is no evidence New Zealand followers reached this.
Included in the American Proud Boys far-right ideology is a wish to close borders to immigrants and shut down the government, all while declaring ‘‘the West is the best’’.
That slogan was posted on the social media pages of New Zealand group member Nicholas Smith, and tagged ‘#proudboys’, #newright and #freedom.
‘‘It’s an internet chat group,’’ Nicholas Smith said when contacted. ‘‘Do please tell me if you’ve got photos of any Proud Boys and their demonstration anywhere in this country.’’
When told Stuff Circuit did indeed have photos and considered it newsworthy if New Zealand men followed the Proud Boys ideology, Smith said, ‘‘There wasn’t an ideology. We merely became a chat group when [American Proud Boys leader] Gavin McInnes first theorised it, and it never grew beyond that. It’s an internet chat group. Hunting, shooting, fishing, drinking beer, discussing politics. That’s it.’’
Smith did not respond to questions about a photo he posted of himself sitting in the waiting room of a medical clinic next to a man wearing a Muslim prayer cap, referring to him in derogatory terms and referencing the Christchurch mosque shootings.
Ben Quilter, who was pictured with Smith and tagged as ‘‘sergeant-at-arms’’, said he ‘‘resigned my position’’, a role he described as ‘‘organising booze ups and getting lads together’’, in 2019.
Quilter, who is now living in Asia, said the group was never about violence, ‘‘but obviously we’d meet physical threat from the great unwashed with equal force but that never happened, a few cross words, and nothing!’’
Another person identified in the Proud Boys dossier, Matt John, said he was ‘‘unable to provide any valuable response’’ to questions about his involvement with Proud Boys, which included commenting on Smith’s offensive photo, saying ‘‘hell yes!’’, and congratulating another group member on his relationship status, with ‘‘uhuru mate’’, in 2020. He was also present in the group that posed for the Proud Boys photo in October 2018.
There is no evidence the men were involved in any illegal activity or have come together in person since the American Proud Boys was designated a terrorist organisation, although Bardell and Smith have been in contact on Facebook as recently as September 2022.
Another of those identified as being involved is Richard Whitley, who is connected to Bardell via the Proud Boys’ group photo and the Aotea Square rally.
Whitley appears to have shut down or deleted his Facebook profile but prior to that openly displayed Proud Boys insignia, including a list of the group ‘‘tenets’’. Monitoring showed regular communication between Whitley and other Proud Boy adherents.
Asked if he was still in contact with the other men in the group, Whitley said he had no comment. ‘‘It’s private isn’t it.’’
Christchurch personal trainer Gregg Spell, who spent five years in the US Navy and 10 years in the US Army before moving to New Zealand, initially denied any knowledge of New Zealand Proud Boys.
‘‘I don’t even have a clue of what you’re talking about. I haven’t associated with anybody.’’
But in photos – since deleted or made private – Spell posed with another in the dossier, Neville North, making Proud Boys signals. The photos were ‘‘liked’’ by Bardell and Whitley. Spell also posted a photo of himself wearing a bandanna of the Gadsden flag, a symbol co-opted to represent right-wing populism or farright ideology. He tagged North in the photo, saying ‘‘for you brother’’.
Spell said the Gadsden flag on his bandanna ‘‘has been a symbol of hope for a very long time’’ and he posed wearing it because ‘‘Nev (Neville North) loves the… motto, he loves America very much’’.
Spell said he did not identify as a
Proud Boy and understood the organisation to be ‘‘guys who get together to drink some beer and poke fun at the woke left and trigger them’’.
He suggested the media did not understand the Proud Boys or their symbolism. ‘‘You are attempting to report on a group that has not one incident whatsoever in New Zealand. A group that if you did your homework you would know stop[ped] existing almost 4 years ago from what I hear.’’
He said he thought it was ‘‘laughable’’ when the American Proud Boys was designated a terrorist organisation.
‘‘The Proud Boys are long gone. Period. After the mosque shooting it ended. Noone wanted to be put in the same breath as the scumbag who did that to the people at the mosque. It was a huge concern to everyone that was a possibility. So it was done and dusted,’’ said Spell.
But two months after the mosque shootings, Spell wrote a long post in which he said the Christchurch terrorist was wrongly labelled as ‘‘alt-right’’ and there is ‘‘no such thing as hate speech’’.
Other posts made under Facebook profiles ‘‘Greg Tales’’ and ‘‘Gregg Sales’’ praised closed border policies in other countries and defended leading far-right figures, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and Milo Yiannapolous, a controversial figure who was banned from entering Australia in 2019 because of his remarks about the Christchurch attack. Neville North, who was photographed posing with Spell, said he was no longer in contact with the group. Asked why, he said, ‘‘I don’t want to be a part of it any more,’’ before hanging up.
‘We will kill you. That’s the Proud Boys in a nutshell. We will kill you. We look nice, we seem soft, we have ‘boys’ in our name but... we will assassinate you.’ GAVIN MCINNES, LEFT, CO-FOUNDER AND LEADER OF THE US GROUP THE PROUD BOYS ‘Membership of a designated terrorist entity does, by default, enhance its ability to carry out a terrorist act. As an example, it is not credible that the police would abide thousands of Isis members in NZ.’ VALERIE MORSE, RIGHT
And what of the person who made the threat in 2018, in the name of the Proud Boys? Police documents show ‘‘Mā ori
Basher’’ is Christchurch man Kane Williams. Soon after making the post he admitted to police it was him, but said he had no intention of causing harm. He was given a verbal warning.
The ‘‘b...h’’ who Williams said needed to ‘‘suck out of a straw for a month while in ICU’’ is long-time peace activist Valerie Morse. At the time, Morse agreed to the police approach of a verbal warning. But four years on, she’s worried about growing evidence of extremism and white supremacy in NZ, and she’s concerned the terrorist designation isn’t enough.
While it’s now an offence to knowingly recruit members to the Proud Boys or to participate for the ‘‘purpose of enhancing its ability to carry out a terrorist act’’, it’s not a crime to be a member.
Morse says that distinction is ‘‘extraordinary’’. ‘‘Membership of a designated terrorist entity does, by default, enhance its ability to carry out a terrorist act. As an example, it is not credible that the police would abide thousands of Isis members in NZ.’’
The Proud Boys would reject the analogy. Their American leader, Gavin McInnes, runs the line that they’re the response to a problem, not the problem itself, telling author Andy Campbell their violence was ‘‘always a reaction to leftwing violence’’.
His adherents in New Zealand say the same thing.
A final email to Stuff Circuit from Gregg Spell, the former US Marine and Army serviceman, includes a Russian media report on the war in Ukraine, criticising US President Joe Biden for meeting with Ukrainian fighters. Spell segues into domestic American politics and blames Antifa (left-wing anti-fascists) for ‘‘burning down cities’’ and attacking Republicans and Trump supporters. ‘‘Which is the reason why the Proud Boys was started. But for some reason the Proud Boys are bad.’’