Security cameras outside Manhattan’s Metropolitan Republican Club show two individuals throwing bricks through the building’s front windows.
The Metropolitan Republican Club, located in a genteel Upper East Side neighborhood in New York City, was vandalized in the early morning hours of Oct. 12, in advance of an appearance by a controversial right-wing speaker.
Video from two cameras released by the Metropolitan Club show the attack taking place.
Two individuals, one wearing what looks light a light-gray hooded sweatshirt and the other in darker gray, stop outside the building. One does something in the doorway, then both take bricks out of bags they are carrying and throw them through the building’s front windows.
Another camera shows one of the two painting the door. Though the video is dark, this vandal appears to be wearing a bandana or mask covering his or her lower face.
Pledged to Fight the US
The attackers left a note at the door that stated that the Metropolitan Club was being targeted because of a particularly controversial guest speaker the club had invited to speak that night.The note claims that the U.S. government has set up concentration camps, murders black citizens, and is waging a worldwide war on Islam.
“While these atrocities persist unabated,” the note continues, “the Metropolitan Republican Club chose to invite a hipster-fascist clown to dance for them,” referring to that night’s guest speaker.
The writer or writers of the note went on to say that both Democrats and Republicans were guilty of creating a worldwide atmosphere of fear, hatred, and oppression, and that attacks like this were just the beginning.
Provocative Guest
The guest speaker whose scheduled appearance incited the vandalism was the co-founder of Vice media network, former stand-up comic, and longtime online provocateur, Gavin McInnes.
First Amendment Rights
The Metropolitan Club refused to cancel McInnes’s scheduled appearance after the vandalism at its headquarters.The Metropolitan Republican Club serves as headquarters for both the statewide New York Republican Party and the Manhattan Republican Party.
New York State GOP Chairman Ed Cox denounced the attack on what he called “the New York Republican New York City headquarters at the Metropolitan Republican Club” in a statement on Oct. 12.
“He didn’t even know who he was and we don’t agree with his views,“ she said of Chairman Cox and his lack of knowledge of Gavin McInnes. ”It was organized by the Met Club, not the NYGOP, just to be clear.”
Proud went on to say, “But there is a way to peacefully protest if you don’t agree, you don’t have a right to commit crimes and threaten people’s safety. And we are deeply disturbed by it and the rhetoric saying not to be civil and that’s what the note said: ‘We won’t be civil, we won’t apologize and this attack is merely the beginning.’”
“We want to foster civil discussion, but never endorse violence. Gavin’s talk on Friday while at times was politically incorrect and a bit edgy, was certainly not inciting violence.”
