A day after members of the alt-right group the Proud Boys were seen openly mingling with officers outside a party following Vice President Mike Pence’s Thursday visit to Philadelphia, the head of the city’s police union said he had not invited them — though he stopped short of condemning their presence at the event. About 10 men who identified themselves as members of the group attended the “Back the Blue” after-party Thursday evening at the 7C Lounge, a members-only bar housed at the headquarters of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police in Northeast Philadelphia, where the vice president had addressed a crowd earlier in the evening. Police officers in and out of uniform milled about the parking lot with the group’s members — one of whom was carrying a Proud Boys flag and others who wore baseball caps embroidered with the organization’s name. Officers stopped at one point to ask if a group of men, some wearing Proud Boys paraphernalia, were OK as they surrounded and aggressively questioned two Inquirer reporters. (…) He did not respond to follow-up questions about whether the union took any steps to remove the men and whether he personally found their presence to be troubling. But Brian Levin, a former New York City police officer and director of the Center for Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino, described a Proud Boy presence at any police-sponsored event as alarming.
via inquirer: Philly’s police union says it didn’t invite Proud Boys to a Pence after-party. It didn’t ask them to leave, either.