'Reprehensible': Top FL newspaper blames Miami for allowing Enrique Tarrio 'to exist in plain sight'

05 September 2023

Hours after longtime Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Washington, DC federal district court judge Tuesday for his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Miami Herald's editorial board published an op-ed criticizing the city of Miami, Florida for allowing him to prosper for so long without consequence.

"The attempted overthrow of our government must be met with serious consequences, and that's what happened Tuesday," the board writes. "Tarrio deserved every year he got. Still, Miami let him flourish."

Miami Herald points out that years before the insurrection, "Miami already knew about this guy. Tarrio was a stain on this community long before Jan, 6, when he was parading around with a bullhorn and a bunch of other black-shirted men, his extremism on full display during gatherings at places like Versailles."

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The editors write:

As far back as 2018, we knew the ugliness that he harbored inside: He was in that infamous GOP mob pounding on the door of the Miami campaign headquarters for congressional candidate Donna Shalala when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was visiting, screaming expletives and yelling: 'Open up, it's the Proud Boys in here.'

"Yes, Trump incited the assault on Congress — and encouraged the Proud Boys to 'stand back and stand by' in 2020 — but Tarrio was instrumental in carrying it out," the board emphasizes. "That's what a jury decided in May, when Tarrio and three others in his ill-begotten group were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Tarrio was the leader of Proud Boys who tried to topple democracy in this country."

The board writes:

That Miami allowed someone like this — a two-bit criminal-turned-police-informant and then hatemonger — to exist in plain sight is both reprehensible and an embarrassment. Community leaders keep trying to cast Miami as the city of the future. How does that forward-looking ideal square with tolerating an Enrique Tarrio, who — until he was charged — was happy to stand with those who tried to subvert the peaceful transition of power for the first time in U.S. history? And where was the Miami GOP's condemnation of Tarrio back when he was pounding on doors or shouting through a bullhorn? The arrests in the Jan. 6 insurrection continue, and they must.

The full editorial is available at this link (subscription required).

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