The government has quietly designated two far-right organizations in the United States, the Proud Boys and The Base, as terrorist organizations.
The legal designation of the two groups – signed by the Prime Minister – was announced on June 20 and made public in the New Zealand Gazette on June 27.
Police Secretary Chris Hipkins said both groups posed a “significant threat”, although he had no information indicating the groups were active in New Zealand.
“These are white supremacist terrorist groups, and we don’t believe, and I don’t think New Zealanders believe, that a New Zealander should empower and support them.”
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The designation means that people who recruit for the groups or provide them with material support can be prosecuted under the Counter-Terrorism Act.
The Proud Boys, a fascist organization affiliated with former US President Donald Trump, were designated a terrorist organization for their part in an attack on the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021. The Capitol riots have been referred to as an uprising or attempted coup.
The Base, a white racist neo-Nazi group, was designated a terrorist organization because of the planned violence to start a “race war” in the United States. Two members of the group were sentenced to nine years in prison in 2021 after planning to attack a demonstration over gun rights.
Although published in the Gazette, the designation of the two groups was not otherwise announced by the government. Further details of the clue were not made public by police until Thursday, after this story was first published.
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One of former President Trump’s allies has spoken out.
A 29-page “statement of a case” for the Proud Boys terrorist designation, published by the police, charted the group’s history, fascist ideology and affiliation with other similar organizations.
The document also contained detailed evidence of the group organizing its members prior to the attack on the Capitol, and the actions of its members during the attack.
The group’s involvement in the attack was in line with “the definition of a terrorist act” under New Zealand law, the document said.
†[The Proud Boys] far-right ideology is based on racist and fascist principles. abs [American Proud Boys] involved in the attack on the [Capitol] building with the aim of hindering and preventing the proper functioning of the democratic government and contrary to what PB [Proud Boys] sees as liberalizing and diversifying American society.”
Yuki Iwamura/AP
Supporters of former President Donald Trump and members of the far-right group Proud Boys yell at counterprotesters during a “Justice for January 6 Vigil” at New York’s St. Patrick Cathedral.
US trial of five members of the Proud Boys on seditious conspiracy charges was postponed last week, Associated Press reported, as a congressional committee continued a high-profile series of public hearings into the event.
The police document described the Proud Boys as having unaffiliated branches in Canada and Australia. Canada designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist group in February 2021.
There was no mention of the Proud Boys of The Base being present in, or associated with, New Zealand.
The “statement of the case” regarding The Base’s designation detailed the organization’s plans to commit terrorist violence.
“The plan to shoot and kill civilians and police officers during the Virginia gun rights rally is consistent with the definition of an act of terrorism,” the document said.
Intelligence Secretary Andrew Little said he would not say what the agencies were doing “operationally” when asked if other white supremacist groups were eligible for terrorist designation.
“One of the terrorist threats we face at all times is the violent threat of white identities.”
Little Told Before stuff, for his “See No Evil” investigative series on the Christchurch mosque attacks, that the government did not determine whether groups like the Proud Boys were terrorist organizations for “bizarre ideology” but for their “threat of mobilization to violence”.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern labeled the Christchurch mosque terrorist, who was serving a life sentence without parole for his crimes, as a terrorist entity in September 2020.