'Proud Boys' have been recruiting in Arizona for months. [View all]
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While the president told the members to "stand by," many Proud Boy members live right here in the Valley. ABC15 has seen members participating in demonstrations in Gilbert and Phoenix - even handing out flyers. Other members have been recruiting on the app, Nextdoor.
"They are one of the most dangerous organizations out there because they have the ability to reframe their extremism as an assertion of their masculinity. Which pulls many people from the mainstream to the fringes," said Samantha Kutner, who has been studying the Proud Boys since 2017, after Charlottesville.
One Valley man says the group was trying to recruit members recently on the Tramanto Nextdoor page. "[The poster] did say hes already got seven people who did sign up in our area for the Proud Boys," said the man, who asked to remain anonymous.
The father then called out the poster in the comments, and alerted neighbors to the group's radical and racist views. "They were threatening to come and interfere with my life. Obviously, I have a family and kids," said the man.
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https://www.abc15.com/news/state/proud-boys-have-been-recruiting-in-arizona-for-months