They protested outside of the school board building in Beloit.
They showed up at a school board meeting in New nah s County, N.C., before a vote on a mask mandate.
They attended a gathering in which parents were trying to remove a graphic novel from public school libraries.
The Proud Boys, a far-right nationalist group, have appeared at a number of town council gatherings, school board presentations and health department question-and-answer sessions. Their presence at the events is part of a strategy shift by the militia organization to bring their brand of menacing politics to the local level.
The group was well known for its national profile. At one point, the Proud Boys offered to serve as the former president's private militia. The Proud Boys filmed themselves storming the U.S. Capitol to protest what they said was an election that had been stolen from Mr. Trump.
The group has been more subdued since federal authorities cracked down on them for the attack. It appeared that way.
The Proud Boys quietly shifted their attention to local chapters away from the national spotlight. Its followers have tried to expand membership by taking on local causes in small communities. They said that the group could influence the elections next year if they had more supporters.
The plan of attack if you want to change is to get involved at the local level, according to a prominent member of the Proud Boys from North Carolina.
The national leadership of the group was dissolved after January 6. He said that it was involved with its members in local issues.
The Proud Boys online activity reflects that focus. Over the last year, the Proud Boys have barely budged in their number of followers on Telegram. According to data collected by The New York Times, over a dozen new Telegram channels have appeared for local Proud Boys chapters in cities such as Seattle and Philadelphia. The local Telegram groups have grown quickly.
The Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters were active during Mr. Trump's presidency. They have expanded their local groups in states such as Pennsylvania, Texas and Michigan.
According to a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, the groups have been able to regroup and reorganize after Jan. 6. Decentralizing is one of the most successful tactics they have used.
The members of the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters did not respond to questions.
The Proud Boys were founded by a co-founder of Vice. Tarrio was the Florida director of Latinos for Trump. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the group as a hate group because of its misogynistic, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views.
By the 2020 election, the Proud Boys had become the largest and most public of the militias. In a presidential debate last year, Mr. Trump referred to them as "Proud Boys."
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A Proud Boys rally was held last September. He was arrested in January.
The group became more upset with Mr. Trump after the Capitol attack. The president distanced himself from the riot and refused to give immunity to those involved. Mr. Tarrio was arrested two days before the Capitol attack on charges of property destruction and illegally holding weapons.
Mr. Holt said that the Proud Boys began focusing on local issues. The group increased their radical tendencies as local chapters flourished because members were more comfortable taking extreme positions in smaller circles.
Many Proud Boys chapters have taken on causes related to the coronaviruses, with members showing up at protests over mask mandates and mandatory vaccinations.
The Proud Boys were recorded at more protests and demonstrations this year than in 2020. Shannon Hiller, the executive director of the Bridging Divides Initiative, said that the data most likely underestimates the activities of the Proud Boys because they don't include school board meetings.
Ms. Hiller said that the Proud Boys have shown high levels of activity this year, unlike last year when there was a spike only around the election. She said she expected the group to intensify their appearances before the elections.
Students who were barred from schools for refusing to wear a mask or employees who were fired for not having a vaccine are some of the people who are reported on on the Proud Boys Telegram channels. According to the Telegram conversations viewed by The Times, some people make plans to appear at protests to act as a show of force and intimidate the other side.
Card 1 of 5.
Pfizer has a pill. The study confirmed that the Covid pill helps stave off severe disease even from the Omicron variant. Pfizer said it reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent if it was given within three days of the start of symptoms.
The US has around 800,000 deaths. The United States is on the verge of killing more people than any other country from the virus. Most of the people who have died in the US have been 65 or older. One in 100 older Americans have died from the disease.
U.S. mandates. New York State has a vaccine requirement for health care workers which the Supreme Court refused to block. New York has a new mask mandate, and California decided to restore it.
One member of the Proud Boys group in Wisconsin wrote about the protests of mask mandates and asked for help. I can drive for 6 hours in any direction.
Another member wrote that they should act local.
According to news reports, the Proud Boys have spoken and threatened community leaders at some local meetings. They have stood silently and watched. Some Telegram groups boasted that they had given out their cellphone numbers to people who were interested in joining them.
Mr. Holt said the Proud Boys appeared to be growing in small towns and counties.
Their presence has been enough to disrupt events. The school board in Beloit, Wis., canceled classes last month because some of the Proud Boys were at a local protest. The school board in Orange County, Calif., decided in September to install metal detectors and hire extra security after several Proud Boys attended a meeting and threatened its members.
The school board president in New Hanover County, N.C., said she had read about the group's increasing appearances and began tracking the reports closely.
Ms. Adams said that she was aware that the Proud Boys might show up in her school district. She said that the district had handled many contentious meetings over the issue because of the law in North Carolina.
Ms. Adams said that they might be next. We knew we had to prepare for them coming to our town.
Ms. Adams was told by the board's head of security that some Proud Boys were outside the building for the mask mandate vote.
Ms. Adams said that five Proud Boys stood in the back of the room. They folded their arms across their tactical vests and wore matching T-shirts with images of a rooster. Video footage from the two-hour meeting showed them clapping and cheering as anti-mask speakers made their case.
The mask mandate was extended by the school board in New Hanover County.
The meetings are open to anyone, Ms. Adams said, after a lot of people came up to her and said they should have removed them. She said that it didn't affect the decision on the masks.
The health and human services board ended an indoor mask mandate, so the board decided to make masks optional. The Proud Boys did not show up at the meeting.
Alan Feuer was involved in reporting.
