SPLC listed Proud Boys as an extremist hate group and accused McInnes of promoting violence

Paul Joseph Watson | Infowars.com – FEBRUARY 4, 2019

Gavin McInnes is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center after the group designated his former organization The Proud Boys as an extremist hate group and accused McInnes of advocating violence.

The SPLC officially designates McInnes former organization, The Proud Boys, as an extremist hate group and their website contains numerous articles about McInnes himself.

An article entitled Why are the Proud Boys so violent? Ask Gavin McInnes asserts, “Violence is at the core of their ideology and their primary tool for silencing their political foes” and blames McInnes for “blatantly promoting violence and making threats.”

The national demonization campaign against McInnes has come at personal cost to the former VICE co-founder. A Daily Beast article revels in the fact that he faces regular confrontations with and harassment from his neighbors.

During a September appearance on Infowars, McInnes complained that George Soros was “paying people to mess with my life, and spread these lies about me, spread fake news.”

McInnes was also completely deplatformed by Twitter back in August.

McInnes is not the first high profile political figure to sue the SPLC in recent times.

Last year, the group was forced to pay out $3.4 million and issue an apology to British political activist Maajid Nawaz after they falsely listed him as an “anti-Muslim extremist” (Nawaz is a Muslim reformist who campaigns against extremism).

A full press release containing more details of McInnes’ lawsuit against the SPLC will be made public later today and he will also appear on the Alex Jones Show.

UPDATE: PRESS RELEASE

Gavin McInnes Launches Lawsuit Against SPLC on Organization’s Hometurf Alleging Defamation and Damages

McInnes has been harassed, deprived of work, and suffered other damages as a result of being wrongly placed on The South Poverty Law Center’s partisan hate list.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ali Alexander SueTheSPLC@protonmail.com

Montgomery, AL – Talk show host Gavin McInnes has filed suit against the hyperpartisan Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) this week. The 61-page complaint was electronically filed early Monday morning in the Middle District of Alabama outlining defamation and other tortious acts resulting in reputational and economic damages.

The Canadian-immigrant talk show host is demanding an apology from the left-wing SPLC for purposefully misrepresenting his beliefs in a defamatory manner and the defamatory mischaracterization of a fraternal club he founded, Proud Boys.

McInnes is being represented by noted First Amendment attorney Ron D. Coleman of Mandelbaum Salsburg P.C. and Baron Coleman of the Baron Coleman Law Firm.

Gavin McInnes will appear in the city of Montgomery Monday morning to consult with his legal and advocacy team, making himself available to local members of the media and kick off the launch of a crowdfunding website, www.DefendGavin.com.

Attorney Ron Coleman emphasized the significance of the case in relation to the growing partisan divide and practice of censorship by stating, “[t]his lawsuit has implications beyond Gavin McInnes because we’re challenging the use of deplatforming and defunding to privately censor speech. If we can’t stop this phenomenon now, the First Amendment will be rendered meaningless as dissent is silenced through private actors such as SPLC and its allies.”

Montgomery-based attorney Baron Coleman noting, “I wasn’t familiar with Gavin or his work prior to beginning work on this case. But there is absolutely zero excuse in America for systematically targeting someone for complete personal and financial destruction because they support a different politician or different set of political beliefs. I wouldn’t represent a racist or an anti-semite. And Gavin is neither. And the most horrific part of this entire ordeal is that the SPLC knows Gavin isn’t a racist or anti-semite or anything else they’ve labeled him. Rather, he supports a different slate of politicians with his satire and wit, and the SPLC would rather destroy him than have him out there convincing other people to see politics his way.”

McInnes released the following statement:

I, Gavin McInnes, formerly of every job I’ve ever had, am announcing, as of today, a lawsuit against the SPLC. They have harassed me, my family, and my friends to a level of tortious interference that goes well into sabotage.

I am doing this, not just to protect my reputation and my family but to protect everyone else’s. The SPLC has gone from a noble institution genuinely dedicated to eradicating hate to a hate group in and of itself that pretends this country is frothing with bigots desperate to foment WW3. They purposely lie about their enemies in an attempt to “destroy” them (their words) and it’s become a very effective way to make money. Scaremongering brought them the $50m their founder originally set out to make. Since then, it’s garnered hundreds of millions including untold millions in the Cayman Islands. I don’t fault entrepreneurs but they are using this incredible wealth to wield power over the innocent and destroy careers and businesses in their insatiable need to generate more bigots because, in the world of SPLC fundraising, mo hate is mo money.

Ben Carson is an extremist to them. So is, Laura Ingraham, the Tea Party, Jeanine Pirro, a group of volunteer lawyers called Alliance Defending Freedom, the Center for Immigration Studies, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Maajid Nawaz. Maajid was a jihadist who toned it down and became a moderate Muslim. For that, he was deemed an anti-Muslim extremist. He sued the SPLC and won. I intend to win too.

I have had enough – no, WE have had enough of America being portrayed as a racist, Islamophobic, sexist, homophobic etc etc hellhole where “White nationalists” have, “become emboldened in the age of Trump.” It’s not true. The vast majority of us are good people and getting us fired and deplatformed because we dare to support the president isn’t just a corrupt and immoral way to make money. It’s not just immoral. It’s un-American.

I have been completely kicked off all platforms including Paypal which I was using to help people get decent legal representation. I’m unable to defend myself against the lies being spread around the Internet. My family has been attacked and so have my friends. The pro-Trump men’s club I started, the Proud Boys, have been rounded up and arrested facing serious felonies for daring to defend themselves against the radical left. It’s not just my circle of conservative Christians. Seemingly countless business and careers have been “destroyed” (yes “destroyed” – their word) by this group. Leo Johnson was working security at the Family Research Council when he was shot by a man who saw them on the SPLC’s hate group list. The Steve Scalise shootings were inspired by the SPLC’s list. A professor at Middlebury College was hospitalized after daring to defend Charles Murray who was deemed verboten by the SPLC. When you see their hate map of America, you’d think you were living in Nazi Germany.

It’s not just Twitter or a couple of apps. They are embedding themselves into Big Tech overall and getting involved with banks. Jennifer Morse runs The Ruth Institute, which is a group that prioritizes father / mother couples over gays in adoption procedures. It’s a pretty mainstream stance but thanks to the SPLC, her bank has closed all her accounts. Why are we giving these random busybodies so much power?

I’ve had enough of this group pretending to fight hate while manifesting it out of thin air. Their relentless thirst for fake villains shows no signs of abating, and until we stop and say “No,” they will continue to portray this country as a dark and disgusting Klan rally populated with bigots determined to torture those who disagree. That’s a lie. It’s a profitable lie that has made them multi-millionaires with unlimited power but the buck stops here. Let’s fight back.

Please join me in the fight of my life. I want to help you take this country back. We are living in one of the most prosperous and egalitarian nations in the world. Let’s enjoy it.

Updates on the case will be made available on www.DefendGavin.com