Democratic Socialists Force Pro-Trump Group From Los Angeles Bar

A Los Angeles bar was the scene of a heated confrontation between a group of supporters of President Donald Trump and members of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists. The pro-Trump group, known as the Proud Boys, was meeting up at The Griffin when a crowd of people affiliated with the Democratic Socialists and an anti-gentrification group started screaming at the Trump supporters. Video shared on Twitter captured the tense moments as the protesters were yelling profanities and calling the pro-Trump group "fascists" and "Nazis."

"Last night our members and allies in @defendnela ran a proud boy meet up out of the Griffin in Atwater Village. The bar knew about it and the manager defended them, but we shut it down anyway. Don’t let nazis convene in your city!"

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS PROFANITY

The protesters claimed that the bar condoned the meet-up of Trump supporters by allowing them to congregate inside. At one point, an employee of the bar asked the protesters to leave, but they refused, claiming the bar was "just throwing us outside with a bunch of Nazis."

The argument became so tense that police were called to calm the situation down, but nobody was arrested. 

The owners of The Griffin issued a statement on Instagram denying that they supported or condoned the Proud Boys gathering, and would not have allowed them inside had they known they were coming. 

"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 night, 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.”


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