They joined the Wisconsin Proud Boys looking for brotherhood. They found racism, bullying and antisemitism. – USA TODAY

Daniel Berry, a former member of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys, says he stays up each night to keep an eye on his home after receiving death threats for his plans to speak to USA TODAY.(Photo: Jasper Colt, USA TODAY)

KENOSHA, Wis. Daniel Berry said hewas searching for camaraderie.

The 40-year-old Army veteran yearned to forge the sort of bonds he had in the military: a brotherhood of like-minded menwatching one anothers backs, holding one another up,united in a common goal.

Last year, Berry said, he remembered a guy at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall askinghim if hehad heard of the Proud Boys. The group was vocal in its support for then-President Donald Trump, whom Berry had voted for. Members called themselves "Western chauvinists" and said they welcomed true men. That sounded about right for Berry, who considers himself a dyed-in-the-wool patriot.

Hedid some internet searches and sent off an email. Almost immediately, he received a link to an encrypted chatroom.

So began Berry's journey into the dark world of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys.

Berry, along with amember of the Wisconsin Proud Boys and another former recruit,told USA TODAY the groupis a den of racism andantisemitism.Moving upwithin the group, they said, is dependent onsadistically bullying potential members and promotingwhite supremacist talking points.

Daniel Berry joined the Wisconsin Proud Boys in search of camaraderie, but instead found racism, antisemitism and sadistic bullying. USA TODAY

Berryand the two other men,who asked not to be named because they fear violent repercussions from members ofthe Proud Boys, provided a unique view into an organization thathas become a magnetfor racists and violent extremists. They spoke and emailed with USA TODAY independently, providingscreenshots of chatrooms, photos,memes and audio recordingsthat backed up their claims.

Their accounts revealthe face of a groupthat masks itselfas a harmless, multiracial drinking club, one that reachesnew membersby preaching free speech and patriotism. At least in Wisconsin, the men said, the Proud Boys stands less for brotherhood and more for the racial hatred espoused byoutmoded organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations.

Initially it was truly a brotherhood, Berry said. But what I experienced was more like a cult.

Since its inception in 2016, the Proud Boys has been a hard group among the far right to pin down. Experts agreeit's an extremist group masquerading as a benign boys club.

The Proud Boys espouses a vague political ideologyof unfettered free speech and nationalism, expressed throughoffensive language, controversial memes and shocking imagery. Its public messaging is rife withinside jokes and trollingthat experts said is designed to hidethegroup's true intentions and draw in recruits.

Enrique Tarrio flashes the "OK" sign, sometimes used as a symbol of white supremacy, as hundreds gather during a Proud Boys rally at Delta Park in Portland, Ore., on Sept. 26, 2020, to show support for President Donald Trump and condemn violence during Black Lives Matter and antifa protests.(Photo: MARANIE R. STAAB, AFP via Getty Images)

In 2018, the FBI categorized the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalism. The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates thegroup has43chapters in 29 states.

Proud Boys leaders such as national chairman HenryTarrio, who goes by Enrique and self-identifies as Afro-Cuban, insist it'snot a white supremacist group. They point to nonwhite members as evidence.

"We're a little rough around the edges, but we're definitely not what they make us out to be,"Tarrio told Business Insider last year.

At least 25 people associated with the Proud Boys are among the more than 400 arrested in connection with the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a USA TODAY analysis.

Proud Boys have been charged with felonies stemming from their street fights, often with anti-fascist, or antifa, protesters.

"I wouldn't call them terrorists.They're street fighters," said Daryl Johnson,a security consultant and former senior analyst for domestic terrorism at the Department of Homeland Security.

He and other experts said law enforcement, and the public, shouldbe wary of the Proud Boys, which saw a huge influx in members in 2019 and 2020.The groupis increasingly likely to be an incubator for extremists who could graduate from street brawls to more serious violence, Johnson said.

"They're one of these environments where people get immersed and indoctrinated," he said. "They're not one of these groups that's going to stand back holding signs;they're looking for a fight, and they could serve as a radicalization facilitator."

Police detain a member of the Proud Boys after a skirmish with other protesters near the White House and Black Lives Matter Plaza on Dec. 12, 2020.(Photo: Jack Gruber, USA TODAY)

Berry and the two other men described theirfirst contact with the Wisconsin Proud Boysidentically.Each said hereceived a link to join a private group on the encrypted messaging serviceTelegram.

Berry and the other recruit both white, middle-aged conservatives said they hoped the chatroom would be a place to discuss issues such a border security and gun rights.

Berry said he was looking for somewherehe could be himself: a safe space to discuss conservative and libertarian politicsoutside the confines of his home, where his views oftenclashed with those of his left-leaning wife.

Daniel Berry, a former member of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys, says he was looking for a place to discuss conservative and libertarian politics.(Photo: Jasper Colt, USA TODAY)

None of the prospective members trustedthe newsmedia, which they said falsely painted the Proud Boysasextremists and white supremacists.

Berry said media portrayals of the groupreminded him of his experience in college, where professors and fellow students scornedhim for being in the military. Berry's time in the Armydidn't matchtheirstereotypes,he said, and he didn't think they'd ring true for the Proud Boys, either.

Participants in the chatroom didn't use their real names, but upon joining, applicants wererequired to send Proud Boys leadersa copy of their state-issued ID cards. This was ostensibly so leadership could check their criminal records,but the men who spoke with USA TODAYnoted itgave the group power over them.

That chatroom, all three men said, is fairly mild. Senior membersdropped in, they said, to encouragerecruits to attend a vetting meet, usually at a rural Wisconsin bar.

Thirty to 50 Proud Boys and pledgesshowed up at those events, urgedin advance not to wear the groups signature black and gold colors, Berry and the other men said.Each applicant was called to a table, where he was grilled by leaders andsenior members of the Proud Boys on why he wanted to join.

Berry and the other menwho spoke with USA TODAY made it past this stage.They were given a link to a second Telegram chatroom.

That's where, they said, things got nasty.

The second chatroom was swamped with every type of shockingcontent imaginable, the mensaid, and participants posted photos and videos of people getting killed and seriously injured. Users swapped the most explicit pornography they could find, often featuring people defecating. The images flowed in a septic tide ofracist, antisemitic andhomophobic banter.

Members of the Proud Boys march near the White House and Black Lives Matter Plaza on Dec 12, 2020.(Photo: Jack Gruber, USA TODAY)

One of the men who spoke with USA TODAYdescribedthe content: "Videos of Muslims being set on fire or blown up? Check. Memes intended to laugh at Holocaust-era Jews? Check. Pictures of women being raped? Check.Memes poking fun at raped women? Check. I could go on, but you get the point.

The images and memes, examples of which were shared with USA TODAY,didn't drive away Berry or the other two men. They said they'veheard plenty of racist andhomophobic comments in their mostly white communities.

Berry said the chapter president had told him the chatroom would be rough, like a hazing ritual.Only those with the toughest skin, who weren'toffended by anything, would survive, he said.

Berry said he believed itall played into the ethos of the Proud Boys as a group of tough guys fighting for free speech and independence.

Protesters and counterprotesters, including dozens calling themselves Proud Boys, gather in front of the White House on July 4, 2019, before President Donald Trump's speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.(Photo: Hannah Gaber, USA TODAY)

Proud Boys recruits in Wisconsin not only had to run the gantlet of the chatroom, hesaid, but they had toparticipate if they wanted to advance. Anyone who expressed discomfort with the conversation was viciously ridiculed.

They would constantly say, Fit in or f---off, Berry said, referring to a motto popular with the Proud Boys. And so it was in your best interest, if you want to stay with the group, to just roll with what they were saying, and basically get on board with that inflammatory stuff.

As he and other Proud Boys recruits attended more meetings, they said, theyfound that many of the men wholly embraced the racism and antisemitism behind the code words and inside jokes.

In January,after pleading not guilty to felony chargesincluding reckless homicide, Kyle Rittenhouse went forbeers with his mom at a bar called Pudgy's near Kenosha.

ThereRittenhouse, who is accused of shooting and killing two men and injuring a third during Black Lives Matter protestslast summer, met with Wisconsin Proud Boys, according to theMilwaukee Journal Sentinal.

Kyle Rittenhouse, left, and other armed men claimed to be protecting property owners from arson and theft during protests Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wis.(Photo: Adam Rogan, The Journal Times via AP)

TheProud Boys serenaded Rittenhouse with a rendition of the song"Proud of Your Boy," which was written for the animated Disney movie "Aladdin" and is the origin of the Proud Boys' name.

That the Proud Boys embraced Rittenhouse speaks volumes about the group, Berry and the others said.

Despite the Proud Boys claims of being open to all ethnicities, the Wisconsin chapter is overwhelmingly white, Berry and the other men said. Berryremembered just one man who wasn't white at Proud Boys gatherings. Hesaid the ethos of the group was clear: Get on board with racism or leave.

It was clear to Berry and the two others thatthe only way to rise through the ranks to become an official Proud Boy was to signal allegiance to antisemitism and white supremacy.

The ones that were definitely racist at meets, when we talked with them, it was patently obvious that they were racist they moved up, Berry said.

Pudgy's, the bar where Kyle Rittenhouse was seen on Jan. 5, 2021, taking pictures with Proud Boys and flashing the "OK" symbol that has been used as a symbol of white supremacy, had just a handful of regulars at the bar on a recent Thursday morning.(Photo: Jasper Colt, USA TODAY)

The recruitingprocess the mendescribed is similar to ones used by white supremacist organizations for the past couple of decades, saidAmarnath Amarasingam,an assistant professor in the School of Religion at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, who researches terrorism and radicalization.

Like most extremist groups in the USA, the Proud Boys primarily attracts youngwhite men who believe they're joining a powerful political force that will fix the problems in the world.

Amarasingam said the Proud Boys, like other racist groups,cloaks its ideology to draw in recruits, then reveals its racist side once members are reeled in.

"They've been confusing researchers and academics for years," Amarasingam said. "I wouldn't fault a random person who thought, based on their public rhetoric, based on the diversity of the group, that they're not actually white supremacists."

Attorney General Merrick Garland is focused on domestic terrorism.(Photo: Pool photo by Win McNamee)

Last week, U.S.Attorney General Merrick Garlandannounced a "National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism" thatfocuses on homegrown extremist groups.

Though it doesn't mention the Proud Boys, the strategy says the recruitment of impressionableyoung men into hate groups via the internet is a major and growing threat to thepublic.

As Berry and others learned, the expectationto engage in racist,hateful banter served another purpose within the Proud Boys Telegram chatroom.

The recruitswere told they would be kicked out ifthey took screenshots of thechatrooms. Berry and the others said theylearned thatthe group's leaders storedscreenshots and videos that they could use against the men.

Berry said he stuck it out inthe chatroomfor weeks. He acknowledged that heengaged in racist and homophobic conversations, figuring they would eventually subside toreveal thebrotherhood he had been searching for.

It didnt.

Thirty days in, Berry, like other Proud Boys applicants, was required to record a videoreciting one of the groups credos: I, Daniel Berry,am a proud Western chauvinist who refuses to apologize for creating the modern world.

Enrique Tarrio, left, chairman of the Proud Boys, wears a shirt expressing support for Derek Chauvin in a counterprotest against a remembrance of George Floyd in Miami on May 25, the one-year anniversary of Floyd's death at the hands of police officer Chauvin.(Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA, AFP via Getty Images)

The video, which USA TODAY viewed,was the last stepin becoming a "First Degree" Proud Boy, Berry said. He waited for an invitation to be beaten into the group a ritual in which a circle of Proud Boys repeatedly punches a First Degree while herecites the names of five breakfast cereals.

Anyone who makesit through is a "Second Degree." (The highest level, Fourth Degree, is reserved for memberswho getinto a fight with a member of antifa.)

Its a big joke, but the last couple, apparently from what I understand, and definitely the one that I attended, have been more abusive, Berry said. It's not been, Hey, let's punch this guy because he's a brother. It's been, Hey, let's beat the crap out of this guy.

Berry never made it that far.

The atmosphere inside the vetting chatroom grew morealarming, Berry said, includingsadistic bullying that ended up with aprospective Proud Boyin a hospital.

All threemen interviewed for this story recalled with disgust the treatment of one recruit.

The man, known by the nickname Tony Gavin, became the Wisconsin Proud Boys whipping boy, Berry and the other men said. For weeks, they said, senior membersbullied the man incessantly,questioning his sexuality and mocking the fact that his wife has a disability. The abuse was delivered by text, memes and videos posted to Telegram.

Daniel Berry, a former member of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys, shows a tattoo on his leg memorializing his fallen military brothers.(Photo: Jasper Colt, USA TODAY)

The bullying got so bad that Tony was admitted to a hospital with a heart problem, Berry said.

They let him into that chat to make sure that everybody would gang up on him and see if the group coalesced around being a bully to this guy, Berry said. Once the entertainment part was gone, they kicked him out of the group, and they continued to terrorize him until he went to the hospital.

Around the same time, another Proud Boy posted a meme to the chatroom mocking rape victims. It wasn't the first, but it was particularly extreme. Berry decided hed had enough.

Far from the camaraderie he had come for, Berry said, he had found racism, sadism and bullying.

Like, where is your humanity? Where is your soul? he said. This is definitely a fake brotherhood.

Tarrio, the group'schairman,and others said the Proud Boys has always been opento nonwhites and people of every religion (except for Islam), and gay men are welcome.

Over text messages and on his Telegram channel, Tarrio claimed the meninterviewed by USA TODAY are not really Proud Boys and do not represent his group.

He declined to be interviewed for this story. So did the president of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys, who goes by "D-Bow the Viking." (None of the men interviewed knows hisreal name.)

A man is held back as Enrique Tarrio, back to camera, leader of the Proud Boys, uses a megaphone during a counterprotest in Miami at the commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the killing of George Floyd on May 25. Tarrio led a group expressing support of police officers. Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin led to global protests.(Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images)

Proud Boys founder Gavin McInness, who said he cut ties with the group, claimed that anybody espousing racism or homophobia isn't a true Proud Boy.

McInnesdeclined to answer questions in a brief phone call. In an email, he claimed that the accusations of the men who spoke with USA TODAY were falseand that reportingthem wouldmake the group more likely to be a haven for racists.

When you spotlight some dumb rumor about the club going full white nationalist, a much more sinister option arrives. Blacks and gays and Jews etc. go, I guess this club isnt for me, and leave, he wrote.Subsequently, bonafide white nationalists then become attracted to it. In other words, you are creating hate where it wasnt previously.

The men who spoke with USA TODAY don't know whether what they observed in the Wisconsinchapter reflects the movement as a whole, butthey warned that what happened could be a harbinger of widespread problems.

We are letting in and promoting way too many men who embody the very worst of this country, a Proud Boy wrote in an email. As the ranks of the racist members increase, the likelihood of promoting those who agree with that disgusting behavior is also increased."

Their whole joke is blurring the line between satire, humor, edge, and reality. I don't think a lot of them know where the line is, but they get pulled closer to it as a function of being in the group.

Samantha Kutner, a researcher who has studied the Proud Boys for years and founded Intuitive Threat Assessment, an agency specializing in intelligence on violent extremism, said the Wisconsin chapter doesn't appear to bean aberration.

Kutner, who has interviewed more than 20 current and former Proud Boys, saidthe organization hasleft behind any notions of egalitarianism or diversity.

Its true that for some Proud Boys, involvement might be just meeting up once a month with the boys and drinking and complaining about the wife and then going home, Kutner said. But when you look at the group as a whole, and itsaims, they are a violent, crypto-fascist, extremist organization.

The group's hierarchical structure andrecruitment process pushmembers further into the world of extremism, she said.

"As a function of the 'degree' system, you can become significantly more radicalized by the sheer exposure to the anti-trans, misogynistic, homophobic and antisemitic content," Kutner said.

"Their whole joke is blurring the line between satire, humor, edgeand reality," she said. "I don't think a lot of them know where the line is, but they get pulled closer to it as a function of being in the group."

The FBI says Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys, used a riot shield belonging to the U.S. Capitol Police to break open a window at the Capitol on Jan. 6.(Photo: U.S. Department of Justice)

Since the Capitol insurrection Jan. 6, there have been signs the Proud Boysis fragmenting. Aftera leadership battle last year,a faction split off to create an explicitly white supremacist group that calls itself the "Proud Goys."

Current and former members seldom speak to the media, making it hard to understand exactly where the group is headed. As the Wisconsin men attested, there may be good reason for that.

Since contacting USA TODAY, Berry has been publicly disavowed by the people who had invited him to become a brother.

In late May, a blurred copy of his driver'slicense was posted on the Wisconsin Proud Boys public Telegram channel. It was accompanied bya message posted by "D-Bow"deriding him and threatening to share videos Berry posted.

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They joined the Wisconsin Proud Boys looking for brotherhood. They found racism, bullying and antisemitism. - USA TODAY