MAGA Hat-Wearing Proud Boys Seen Clashing With Bar Patrons In Viral Videos

A bar in Atwater village, Los Angeles, was branded a “Nazi bar” after a conservative hate group clashed with some of the facility’s patrons Saturday. Videos of the confrontation went viral on social media, after which comments against the hate group poured in.

The hate group in question is called “Proud Boys” launched in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, the co-founder of Vice Media, who describe themselves as “Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world,” the Seattle Times reported.

In the most recent incident, the members of the group wearing “Make America Great Again” hats were seen arguing with bar patrons outside the bar called The Griffin. According to local news outlet LA Taco, around 20 Proud Boys members were present at the venue when they started arguing with supporters of the Los Angeles Democratic Socialists of America and Defend North East Los Angeles.

In one of the videos, a member of Proud Boys was seen saying "the only color I see is green."

Proud Boys later defended their group on Twitter, saying they were not looking for any trouble and simply enjoying some drinks when the supporters of the protesting groups showed up and raked up tension.

However, this did nothing to calm social media users and longtime visitors of the bar who blamed the facility for hosting their gathering and “serving a bunch of Nazis.” Many of them called for a complete boycott of the bar.

Some other people could not help but point out how weird the name of the group was:

There were also reports of people who were driving by the bar, peer out of their car windows and demand The Griffin to be shut down. Finally, the co-owner of the bar posted the following statement on the Griffin’s Facebook page, defending its reputation:

“I’m sorry this didn’t get posted sooner but Ive been laboring over it for hours. I’m Jewish and finding out that my bar was overrun by a hate group has had a legitimate emotional impact on me and has made it hard for me to function. Neither I nor my business partner support any Nazi or white supremacist groups and this is not a Nazi bar. We didn’t have any advance notice that they would be showing up, this wasn’t a meeting that was supported or condoned.

I wasn’t there last n ight, but I was informed that there were proud boys in the bar. At this time there was only a handful. Ideally that would be stopped at the door, but since they were already inside I advised that we use a tactic that I’ve used in the past with gang members or people that are obviously in there to cause problems, kill them with kindness and they’ll get bored and go away. We are generally a pretty mellow and peaceful bar with no real security and I foolishly thought this was the best way to ensure they’d leave without putting my staff in danger.

Neither myself nor my business partner were there or had any idea that more were showing up en masse. I can assure you that if I was there, no more would have been let in. Thats part of the strategic plan,what happens is they text the ones inside, who would come outside to try to reinforce the ones who couldn’t get in. That is the is the plan that I’ve used on multiple occasions to get aggressive minded groups of outside of the bar and to make sure everything happens on the other side of the door so none of the customers or staff are endangered.

Obviously this is not what happened. I am ultimately to blame for not having a policy in place to deal with this sort of thing that could be implemented in my absence”

In a separate statement, The Griffin added they will be closed Sunday and that "No person with any affiliation to any hate group will be allowed on the premises."

LAPD arrived at the scene but no arrests were made. The police later told CBS2 both the parties involved in the confrontation left shortly after the police arrived.