Enrique Tarrio Proves Justice Isn’t Colorblind
The Afro-Cuban leader of the Proud Boys got the longest sentence for a January 6 conspirator to date.
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On Tuesday, Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for his involvement in the January 6 Insurrection.
Tarrio, who is Afro-Cuban, was the Chairman of the Proud Boys.
The Proud Boys are an all-male, far-right, white nationalist and fascist group that “believes men and Western culture are under siege, using “Western chauvinism” as a euphemism for the White genocide conspiracy theory. Members have participated in overtly racist events and events centered around fascist, anti-left, and anti-socialist violence.”
Tarrio was also previously the director of Florida’s Latinos For Trump chapter.
Tarrio, a man exposed as a petty criminal and snitch, was not present on January 6 because he had been banned from D.C. by a judge for burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down and taken from a historic black church in downtown Washington. Prosecutors charged Tarrio with destruction of property and also fac[ed] a weapons charge after officers found him with the firearm magazines during his arrest.
Despite not being present, Tarrio orchestrated the events that took place on January 6th, providing instructions to the 200 Proud Boys who were at the Capital. His sentence was the longest and stiffest handed out and probably will be henceforth.
Tarrio, who is often classified as Afro-Cuban by journalists, has some Black ancestry, but he surely doesn’t consider himself a Black man or hold fond feelings for the Black community. While he’s a Latino and Cuban man, born in Miami, he’s spent substantial effort trying to prove he wasn’t Black, desperate to differentiate himself from Black Americans. Over the years, Tarrio fed into the pervaisive anti-Blackness within the White Latino community and expressed anti-immigrant sentiments, similar to the White Americans he surrounded himself with.
This is probably why he burned that Black Lives Matter flag.
Yet, when it was time for sentencing, he got the full Negro treatment.
