Stand Back and Stand By - The Proud Boys Return

The gang marched on DC after Trump's Inaugural.

Ed note: This is a guest photo-essay from independent photo-journalist Dominic Gwinn - you can support his work by subscribing to his Patreon or Substack.

Nobody should be surprised the Proud Boys were roaming around Washington D.C. during the second inauguration of Donald Trump. In the 2020 election, Trump made a point to tell them to, "stand back, and stand by," during a debate with now-former-president Joe Biden. On January 6th, 2021, they were the vanguard of the innsurectionist forces that stormed the US capitol in an attempt to stop the counting of electoral votes.

Regardless, there they were, four years later, standing in the middle of E st. And 7th st. NW.

Word spread quickly among a group of freelance photographers that they were milling about, but nobody could keep eyes on one of them long enough to get a decent photo. In a sea of red MAGA hats and off-brand tactical gear, they blended into the crowd.

When I finally put eyes on one, he was speaking into a Baofeng, a cheap Chinese hand radio. He quickly pushed his way through the crowd, and I followed him until he stopped at E and 7th where at least a dozen other Proud Boys were gathering in front of a coffee shop.

At the time, they weren't doing much beyond milling around, whooping and barking. When they finally began marching single-file, they made a point to navigate through the crowds and the maze of high steel fencing to stop in front of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building. They seethed, booed and hissed, flipping middle fingers at the aging, brutalist building.

"Proud Boys," the guy with the Baofeng's barked, "Let's move out!"

Afterwards, they unfurled a large banner and began marching enmasse through the cordoned off streets before coming to a stop at 14th and F where they stood in the street crowded around a cellphone. They were waiting for the official swearing in ceremony.

As J.D. Vance swore to uphold and defend the Constitution, the whooped and barked again before silently turning their heads back down to their phones. Just as he had in 2017, Trump swore to defend the Constitution. And when he was pronounced the new President of the United States, and the group of Proud Boys began to roar. Some lit cigars and threw up the OK hand gesture, a symbol that has come to mean "white power."

As some strained to listen to Trump's speech, a few activists with bullhorns arrived to taunt and mock them. One young person repeatedly flipped a rainbow-colored flag while another shrieked into a megaphone with a sticker that read, "Fuck the Proud Boys."

The scene remained fairly benign as members of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department arrived. A scrum of photographers, videographers, livestreamers, and other journalists had started to form a scrum around the few dozen Proud Boys and the two or three activists taunting them. When MPD pushed their way forward, they yanked photojournalist Sandi Bachom from behind, knocking her off balance as she filmed.

"I need a cigarette," a colleague said to me with a disgusted look. I fished out my pack and we stood there in disbelief at the stupidity of it all.

They would spend the next two hours marching around a three or four block radius, high-fiving like-minded Trump supporters and cheering at their apparent victory over the anti-fascists they so despise.

The following day, several showed up outside the Central Detention Facility in South East, otherwise known as the D.C. jail. Trump had issued a blanket pardon and commutation of sentencing for people involved in the insurrection four years ago, and they wanted to greet their fellow insurrectionists.

Some smoked cigars while others chided a throng of legitimate journalists Trump has long-since labeled, "the enemy of the people." They snarked into the cellphones of livestreamers in MAGA hats who called themselves "the real media," until MPD forced them to get into a media staging area across from the prison. Suddenly they weren't "the real media," they were "citizen journalists" exercising their First Amendment right to stand around on a sidewalk being obnoxious in 22F.