In new testimony to a courtroom last Thursday, two Marine reservists described being attack by an Antifa mob while visiting Philadelphia in November. The pair were in the city for a event with their unit and were touring the city.
Philadelphia Magazine reports Alejandro Godinez and Luis Torres then described being approached Thomas Massey and Tom Keenan, who were there to counter-protest a “Proud Boys” rally:
Godinez testified that Keenan asked them “Are you proud?,” to which Godinez remembers responding “We are Marines.” Torres said that he remembers Keenan asking “Are you Proud Boys?,” an allusion to one of the alt-right groups behind the rally, and one that Torres said he didn’t understand. “I didn’t know what Proud Boys meant,” he said.
Whatever Keenan said, both Marines testified that Keenan, Massey, and approximately ten other people — men and women, some masked and some unmasked — then began attacking them with mace, punches, and kicks, and calling them “nazis” and “white supremacists.”
As they were being attacked, the Marines were “bewildered” at being called white supremacists given their Hispanic background. After they had shouted back at the group that they were Mexicans, they did not stop and switched to Hispanic slurs, such as “spic” and “wetback.”
Godinez testified that he was maced at least six times, struck in the head, and kicked in the ribs during the incident: “The best way I can describe it is the sound of people chanting in a soccer stadium,” adding that Keenan was “laughing, smiling, and having a good time, while I could have died that day.”
The Marine still has eye problems from the incident, with Philadelphia Magazine noting he was blinking excessively during the proceedings.
The judge ruled Massey and Keenan would be held for trial on aggravated assault and conspiracy charges, with their next trial date being set for December 27.