Proud Boys once again march through Rockville Centre

For the second time in six months, the alt-right political group known as the Proud Boys marched through Rockville Centre.

Dozens of people joined its procession across Sunrise Highway on May 21, and down North Village Road as people watched from the sidewalks and inside local businesses. Some were observed giving the OK hand gesture, which has become associated with “white power,” and labeled a hate symbol in 2019 by the Anti-Defamation League.

In a statement, Mayor Francis X. Murray said the village followed guidance from several state agencies and the village and county police departments in response to the march.

“Our priorities were to recognize the extent to which such activity is protected by the First Amendment, but first and foremost to ensure that residents visitors and businesses are not placed in harm’s way and preserve public safety,” it read in part.

He added that the village police monitored the situation and that the village and its residents “will not allow divisive rhetoric of any kind to divide us,” and that officials “will protect public safety and will not be provoked into actions which give unsavory groups the notoriety and public attention which they crave.”

The group was promoting its messages of “minimal government,” “anti-racial guilt,” “venerating the housewife,” and “reinstating the spirit of Western chauvinism” clad in their usual black and yellow.

The return of the Proud Boys to Rockville Centre drew the ire of local electeds almost immediately, including state Sen. Todd Kaminsky who tweeted a video of the march, adding, “This can’t be the new normal, and this isn’t who we are.”

Nassau County Legislator Siela Bynoe, a Westbury Democrat with plans to run for Kathleen Rice’s seat in Congress, called the Proud Boys a “noxious presence” with their “white nationalist, neo-fascist rhetoric.”

“Now more than ever, it is crucial for people of good conscience to stand together to reject their racist, misogynistic, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ bigotry,” Bynoe added, “and send a clear message that hate has no place in Rockville Centre, Nassau County or anywhere else in our nation.”

The Proud Boys were present at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, where chants of “white power” and “Jews will not replace us” were heard throughout the weekend. More than 20 members or associates of the group have been indicted by the Justice Department for taking part in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, intended to disrupt the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden as President of the United States.

A similar march last November was countered by a rally of dozens of residents on the steps of Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth on Demott Avenue to denounce the group.