The Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana this week received a complaint that one of its deputies is a self-proclaimed Proud Boy.
The complaint states that Deputy Sheriff Brian Green put on his social media accounts that he supports Proud Boys and is affiliated with a local chapter.
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the Proud Boys as a hate group, citing the group as anti-women with anti-Muslim beliefs.
According to SPLC:
“Established in the midst of the 2016 presidential election by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys are self-described “western chauvinists” who adamantly deny any connection to the racist “alt-right,” insisting they are simply a fraternal group spreading an “anti-political correctness” and “anti-white guilt” agenda.”
The department received the complaint on Wednesday and reached out to the feds the next day, Sheriff Gerald Turlich told the The Advocate.
It is not clear what the feds can do as it is not illegal to be a member of the Proud Boys and apparently there is no departmental policy forbidding officers from joining controversial organizations.
Green disabled his Facebook page when the news broke, but has since re-activated it after removing his affiliation with the Proud Boys but we made screenshots before he deactivated the account.
A video of Green was posted to Twitter yesterday of him talking about his beliefs, and was captioned:
“Today #ProudBoys Officer Brian Green will have a gun while on duty and is free to harass the public at large
Many have taken to both Facebook and Twitter calling for Green’s termination and arrest by using the hash tag #FireBrianGreen.
The group has been rapidly growing along with another group called Patriot Pray since 2016.
Both groups recent activity was captured live by News2Share this week in Berkley, California.
This is not the first time a law enforcement officer or military officer has been tied to the Proud Boys.
Clark County Sheriff Officer Erin Willey was recently fired for wearing a Proud Boys sweatshirt.
In May, ProPublica and Frontline identified Vasillios Pistolis as a neo-Nazi who was also serving as a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps and since been court martialed and convicted of disobeying orders and making false statements.
Northrop Grumman aerospace engineer Michael Miselis, who had military clearance to work on classified projects, has been ousted as well as a participant in the Charlottesville rally.