Myron B. Pitts|The Fayetteville Observer

The Proud Boys are a hate group with a record of violence. Facebook has banned them.

On Saturday, a North Carolina-based chapter of the group is supposed to be coming to march in Fayetteville.

The alleged purpose is to participate in a march against child sex trafficking and pedophilia. The event is co-organized by Emily Dean, an online apparel designer, and Heather S. Holmes, a Republican running against incumbent Democrat Billy Richardson for the District 44 seat in the state House. The seat represents Fayetteville.

More: Members of far-right group the Proud Boys expected to be at Fayetteville march

More: Gary Pearce: During pandemic and crash, its me first vs. us first in America

More: Kenosha shooting: Juvenile arrested after 2 dead, 1 injured; federal agents to be deployed

While the march is supposed to be about protecting children, it seems to be becoming a meeting of the minds, to use the term advisedly, of some far-right groups. Conspiracy group QAnon is supposed to be taking part as well as the Three Percenters, an armed militia group organized in the wake of President Obamas election.

Holmes told a Fayetteville Observer reporter she was initially concerned about the Proud Boys coming but was not anymore. She feels there will be an adequate police presence at the event.

I dont want to turn anybody away from marching (against) trafficking and pedophilia, she said.

Holmes told me Wednesday she doesnt know anything about QAnon and is not affiliated with them. She says: They dont fit into Saturdays march.

It is at least possible a well-meaning event has been hijacked. Media accounts say QAnon and the Proud Boys are joining forces to leverage a cause to which no one disagrees how do we best protect children to create an opening for their controversial ideas.

But Dean doesnt sound like shes being hijacked. She said of the Proud Boys: I consider them friends and added they were family-oriented.

I have some advice for anyone who truly supports the marchs stated causes or who might wish to show up to counter-protest. Ignore the march. Let it show up and fade away like a raindrop in Sandhills heat.

I certainly hope the event will be peaceful. But I dont agree with Holmes or Deans stance of come-one-come-all when it comes to whose support you accept.

You have to be aware, especially as a leader, who you choose to align yourself with and what message you are sending to the public. The women should tell the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and QAnon: Thanks but no thanks. We got this.

The Southern Poverty Law Center designates the Proud Boys a hate group. Organized during the 2016 election, the members do not admit women and call themselves western chauvinists. The Anti-Defamation League describes their ideology as Misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration. Some members espouse white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideologies and/or engage with white supremacist groups.

The Proud Boys are known for street fights, most recently for tussles at a rally organized by the group in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Last year, two Proud Boys were sentenced to prison for brutal assaults on a residential street in New York City in October of 2018.

Jason Kessler, a former member, was a co-organizer of the 2017 Unite the Right Rally, in Charlottesville, Virginia, a white nationalist event that drew together neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates and the Ku Klux Klan. There, a counterprotester, Heather Heyer, was murdered by a man who drove his car into a crowd.

As for QAnon, it is the pro-Donald Trump conspiracy group that previously gained its most notoriety in 2016 when a man from Salisbury drove to Washington, D.C., and brandished and then shot a gun in a pizza parlor. He had been on the hunt for a nonexistent child sex ring in an incident dubbed Pizzagate.

The movement has only grown, and recently a QAnon supporter won a GOP congressional primary in Georgia and is likely headed to Washington in the fall.

Event is tarred

In a news release Wednesday, Holmes criticized the Observer news story about the Saturday march and wrote: I dont condone racism, hatred or violence of any sort. No activist groups were invited to participate as this is a march to bring awareness to the issue which has been kept quiet for decades.

She also called for stricter legislation and harsher punishment for offenders.

For sure if she or anyone wants to make an effort to protect children from predators there are plenty of organizations and individuals in Fayetteville and Cumberland County that do this important work.

They include: The Child Advocacy Center; Prevent Child Abuse NC; and the Community Child Abuse Prevention Plan, which includes more than two dozen partner organizations that seek to prevent abuse, to include trafficking.

As for Saturdays event, Im probably going to hold anyone suspect who shows up. I will wonder: Are you in it for the child advocacy? Or for the racism and QAnon nuttiness?

People judging from the outside will not know. Whatever legitimate cause an organization wishes to raise at this proceeding will be tarred by the association with extremist groups.

I believe you dont fight against one social ill, child sex abuse, by inviting in two others intolerance and the threat of violence.

Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.

Originally posted here:

Myron B. Pitts: My advice for Fayetteville march with Proud Boys, QAnon? Stay away - The Fayetteville Observer