Furry beach-off: The truth about a fight with a megaphone at a California meet
by Patch O'Furr
Event background video Sunset Beach Bonfire: Raccoon’s Den Episode 112
Blood was drawn by violence between furries in California’s Huntington Beach, in a story that’s raising hype and misinformation. The hot-button term “nazi” is part of it. So is years of peaceful history for hundreds of members, even when a fight between a few of them is like red meat for media vultures who don’t care about the background. Here’s a story with witness evidence for readers who care.
The setting was the 11th annual Sunset Beach Bonfire meet on August 12, 2023. This event in Southern California is so popular, the attendance rivals entire furry conventions. Members of their nearly 1000-strong chat group go for grilling and fursuiting with so many friends, they need a megaphone for crowd control, like to organize group photos. This is a party for people who are full of love and fun who have been very successful at growing it.
In March, the official update channel announced they had reserved space: “It’s a private location with a volleyball playground.” Remember it was private access. Tents and a fursuit lounge were provided to keep cool in the sun. Nobody expected the chill vibes to heat up with a megaphone being used for a weapon, a scuffle on the ground, and an arrest with charges still to get decided in court.
Me trying to see that one dude who beat the shit out of some guy with a megaphone. #Furry #MoreFurLessMonday https://t.co/f7fX34OBM2
— Opos⏩Furvana (@Real_Opos) August 15, 2023
A short video clip of the fight went viral, with context twisted by the hype. It started with accounts for fight videos, then went to sensational tabloid and right-wing “news” sources with trashy reputations:
- Man Attacked By Furry At Huntington Beach Meetup, Wild Video Shows – TMZ
- Furry Fight: Chaos Erupts At California Beach ‘Furmeet’ As Pirate Furry Drills ‘Chud’ With Megaphone – Outkick
- Bizarre moment man is attacked by FURRY after he’s caught filming fetish group in Huntington Beach – Daily Mail
- Pirate furry tackled by cops for attacking man with megaphone at ‘Furmeet’ – Dexerto
- Furious furries fight back after busting man filming them on beach – NY Post
- Man filming fetish group attacked by furries on beach – Toronto Sun
- Furry Attacks Man at Huntington Beach – Total Frat Move
- VIDEO: Furries Attack Man At Beach – Barstool Sports
Those are archive links to deny traffic for stories of conjecture and regurgitated, third-hand info. They don’t care about accuracy because they have agendas. It’s implied that there was an “attack” on a random man for simply recording the group (but in fact, there were years of provocation by inside members causing a problem). Some of them wedge in malicious bias by mocking pronouns, using “fetish” innuendo, and for no sane reason, comparing furries to “street thugs” who do retail looting. There have even been bewares in furry groups about right-wing news trying to get inside. To help debunk the fake news, Dogpatch Press can provide direct info with cooperation from people involved.
Years of provocation – and why the Nazi term comes up
Apart from tabloid stories to blame the community, members tended to consider this to be community defense like a history of opposing neo-nazi infiltration in subcultures, from punks to furries. Were Nazi furries involved?
Quick points about the beach event:
- The location was private and reserved, not public, and access could be denied.
- Two people were banned from attending: Skaard and his boyfriend Renn (person hit with a megaphone).
- Skaard is known for being in the neo-nazi Furry Raiders and doing the type of harassment the group is known for.
- Dogpatch Press staff have been harassed by Skaard for reporting about neo-nazis, earning him a permanent block.
- Skaard’s behavior went on for over six years and caused prior bans from furry groups and events, and they applied to enablers too.
- Skaard and his partner knew they were banned from the beach meet, and picked the fight by going anyways.
Proof of years of provocation:
- 58 screenshots of group chats showing Skaard (AKA Valyrym) and Renn’s bans from groups and events.
- Skaard’s participation in neo-nazi activity, which he denies with common excuses spread by those groups.
- Thread of evidence and discussion.
A witness statement and the aftermath
A source from the Sunset Beach Bonfire event explained the fight (identity withheld for security.)
“There were two people involved, Skaard (Nazi) and Renn (boyfriend to Nazi). Renn was the one who got bonked.
They were told previously that the two of them weren’t allowed to attend this meet; they ignored warnings on purpose. They were also escorted off premises at a similar meetup a week prior by law enforcement during the FurBQ. They have been banned from numerous southern Californian furry events because of death threats and harassment campaigns to the members, most of which were done verbally with no recordings, along with affiliation with the Furry Raiders, a known Neo Nazi Furry group.
We had a reserved area on the beach, and the staff of the event organizers were allowed limited control of who was or wasn’t allowed there. During the beginning of the confrontation, these people were told that they were allowed to go anywhere else on the beach other than our area which we had a reserved permit for. We also didn’t want them interacting with our suit lounge, which was part of the permit.
This was incident #3, and the other 2 incidents had been handled without further trouble. Law enforcement told us earlier in the day when the first incident occurred that they either wouldn’t help us, or couldn’t be able to help us.
Renn, who was recording the entire event the moment he walked onto the beach, after being talked to for over 5 minutes that they were not welcome, that they needed to leave, and that the person who owns the permit didn’t want them there, he basically said “Too bad, I’m not leaving.”
It’s regrettable that it came to violence, but there shouldn’t be regret about who it happened to. There was an attempt to just be loud at them using the megaphone to annoy them into leaving first. After Renn was hit, the alleged hitter was then tackled to the ground and pinned by a non-furry bystander. He didn’t resist being detained.”
The alleged hitter was arrested and booked at the county jail, then released after arraignment. The charge was Felony Assault with a Deadly Weapon, but it was reduced to a misdemeanor. The court ordered no contact by the accused with Skaard or Renn. A next court date is in September for the process of going to trial.
Editor’s opinion
This isn’t a story of furries confronting nazis using nazi symbols and trying to do hate crime at the event. It was inside conflict with people who refused to take “no” after bans. They happened to be a past nazi-sympathizer and enabler who wanted control to undermine healthy gatekeeping. It was up to the community to handle their intrusion after police wouldn’t. That’s about behavior more than politics, but can still count as community defense. If people want to cheer for punching nazis, it’s smart to consider the cost and try to avoid giving them what they want.
UPDATE:
As the owner of these stolen photographs, I have contacted Daily Mail about their licensing violation, negotiated a settlement, and am proud to announce that I will be using that money to buy my next fursuit. https://t.co/SaA0bEp1Wg
— Scotty (@ScottyWuff) August 17, 2023
UPDATE 2:
An attempted debunking was made to show an alternative truth to the experiences of a community who put up with 6 years of bad actors pushing in. It’s a longwinded journey that starts with a pre-made conclusion – forget how one called himself a “nazifur”, these aren’t “nazis”, so calling them nazis must be the real problem. This sets up the end goal of whataboutism at fed-up people.
Along the way it elevates the bad actors by swerving through excuses, speculation, and dubious assertions. It couldn’t have kept a straight story anyways, because most of the community refused to talk for it. (“The SoCal furries have included me in their media blackout order, so I’ve only been able to pick up that side of things by secondhand reports”, the author wrote to me.) It doesn’t disclose that reason for partial results… and they were right to be suspicious, when the whole thing was made to confuse cause and effect in the 6 year pattern with the common denominators.
6 reasons to skip it
1) Unreliable source. The author was previously most known by furries for doing a hoax that inflamed hate against furries from right-wing smear accounts. It was excused with justifications that you can entertain if you want to indulge everything else wrong here. The site host is also known for apologism about transphobia and overindulging obvious bad actors.
2) Bad faith. When bad actors push for 6 years, is it a surprise if someone pushes back? Or is the surprise that it took that long? Handwringing about reactions sets all that aside. Then it goes back to say the original offense was just “asking for rides.” That’s an obvious bad-faith reduction of disrespect, meltdowns, and threats that went along with it. The whole thing copes and swerves around such inconveniences, making a checkerboard of omissions to defend the two common denominators. They are absolved for problem after problem that got them dismissed from group after group over 6 years. Their feud with Golden State Fur Con is not even mentioned, where they were dropped from staff for bad behavior, then attacked the con with bad faith claims that it was “stolen” from them! (The firing had nothing to do with calling them “nazis.”) This distorted defense goes up to dismissing a BBQ incident that got police/rangers involved, because if police wouldn’t help, it must not matter. If someone threatens you, how many chances do you give them, anyways? Zero is all you owe, period. You don’t owe justifying your “No”. But the piece presumptuously declares, “there is no justification for treating someone as irredeemable based on their beliefs alone” — uh, bullshit. That’s not for us to decide for fed-up people, especially while minimizing threats.
3) Poor excuses. It all stands on one very unbelievable excuse. It’s fine to point out a confusing look of “not-nazis” acting leftish, but not while excusing a “not-nazi” for displaying swastikas… because… he was only 20. That’s not a child. Then we’re supposed to trust that the “not-nazi” who ranted against SJW’s for making him remove a swastika was just being an ironic edgelord but somehow also an innocent “socialist” member of furry nazis to “spy” on them. A claim with zero evidence of spying. Real spies don’t use main accounts, and guess what? There were real spies, they were organized, they knew each other, and this person wasn’t one. I know because I was there. We’re supposed to memory-hole how a not-nazi got pissed off about removing swastikas, because of posting leftish memes somewhere else. I would love to hear the math behind this: does a Bernie Sanders meme neutralize 2 swastikas and an n-bomb? Keep in mind that virtue-signalling isn’t actually incongruent as claimed, and being a 9/11 conspiracy truther helps to show how little you can trust these people for anything at all.
What a liar looks like
4) Platforming liars. To bolster the spy excuse it quotes Foxler, a person known for running the organized-crime-like Furry Raiders, claiming to be into bestiality, and child sex offending. Gosh if you ask a creep like that for the truth what do you think will happen? In another section it presents lying about me from someone going by “HeWhoRoarks” (about a story I didn’t write.) The results of this were…
5) Bad assertions. The piece claims complete truth based on half-assed, impossible to confirm information. Searching a Furry Raiders Telegram group for messages from the “spy” didn’t find any, so they say, (let’s be charitable about how many accounts they go through there.) But Furry Raiders were also on Discord during his membership. A spy would be on Discord and so would a gamer, when the worst activity was there. It was so bad that Discord repeatedly banned and deleted their groups along with a wider sweep. This wasn’t even considered for the narrative, and the excuse about learning this later was special pleading about not getting Discord records after not asking for them. While hypocritically failing to show evidence of “spying”. Which takes this back to #3.
6) Bad priorities. The big reason to skip it is how the whole thing treats nazi threats as overblown and just about personal spats. When cons have been canceled because of them, and they have terrorist organizers and mass shooters, don’t waste your time looking for the list of leftists who do any of that. But the priority is to excuse a 6 year pattern from bad actors who picked a fight, in order to do whataboutism at a threatened community. Based on the effort already expended you won’t see anything better from that source than lip service about the big picture. They just don’t care about all this evidence, because when you break down all the feigned bad-faith “reasonable” “centrism” as I’ve just done, what you’re left with is the ugly dishonesty at their hearts. It wasn’t journalism – it was counterprogramming made to manipulate people and get them complacent about bad actors, including the ones doing the apologism. If you ever see them come posing as reliable media again – beware!
Admitting being among “Aushwitz RP” and mass bans, but not being liable, trust me bro… Claiming naivety at age 20? K 👌
I don't know what I expected from the Blocked And Reported podcast by Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog, but, ya know, really digging the bait and switch here.
"I'm just seeing no evidence of anyone involved being a Nazi! How absurd!"
"oh well I mean other than the Nazi stuff" https://t.co/8rzofbQiE3 pic.twitter.com/mMrOSElLAh
— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) September 8, 2023
He created his fursona as a Nazi
He repeatedly hung out online as that fursona
When others noticed that fursona was a Nazi, he called them "SJWs"
When others chose not to associate with him, he showed up, in person, to "settle things"
Come the fuck onhttps://t.co/P7BdNlPR8N
— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) September 8, 2023
(Also, showing up to an event where the organizers have said you’re not welcome is creepy stalker behavior in and of itself and frankly one of the few times I’d get the cops involved, though I understand why people might not, ACAB and all.)
— Isabel Cooper (@ICooperAuthor) September 8, 2023
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Those final words are good ones to consider. I can get wanting to chase out bad actors, but depending on how “far down the rabbit hole” someone is, it could just radicalize them.
This happened A LOT with the Furry Raiders. People who were neutral or even somewhat right wing got exiled by their local scenes, and then got scooped up by Foxler and co.
Not to mention how these freakouts can have other implications. We all can probably name one incident where someone does some stupid thing or makes a threat at a con and now, oh boy, increased security costs.
Personally I always default to dismissing the chuddy “you radicalized me” explanation as a manipulation tactic coming from people who were already wanting to go there and just looking for an excuse. Also adjacent to abuser logic, like “look what you made me do.” I don’t buy that nazi furry radicalizing, of all things, happens to neutral people.
There’s just too much freely available info and education to ever excuse sympathizing with nazis. People who do, often want another holocaust and savor the idea of wearing the boots for it – or at least they don’t care who gets hurt if they get ahead.
There are exceptions of mad people who can’t think straight and get groomed/smoothtalked/lovebombed and can snap out of it. But by default I’m going to take them as people who know better and are just indulging in being shitty for the thrill/revenge/whatever. Ones who know they are being wrong need to choose to do better and it’s nobody else’s responsibility to coax them. When they’re sincere, they don’t just drop out, they work on actively dismantling hate groups.
There’s also mentally/socially challenged people who, sadly, probably need supervision to be on the net at all, and that’s beyond saving by just appealing to logic and reason. If they are grown adults then maybe it ends in jail and it isn’t good to just let them have their way. That describes people who run groups like the Raiders for any persistent amount of time. Little sadists and creeps.
The documentary on Daryl Davis, black guy who befriended KKK members and got them to leave, has an important scene. He has a great individual story. However the SPLC does not favor his approach. They compare it to the “retail” vs the “wholesale” strategy. Nobody goes into the KKK without knowing what they’re getting into. There’s too much friction against it, so they intentionally keep it secret, and they need to want to leave. It could take 20 years to choose and in that time of trying to convince them, 20 more go in. The better thing to do is deplatform and do that healthy gatekeeping that makes it cost more to go in than not.
Sadly, nazis and their adjacents know that the law protects their flavor of abusive and antisocial behavior. It gives little practical recourse outside of social accountability. When the law is blind and protects offenders, it’s up to literal social justice regarding privileges, trust, employment, respect and so forth. Cops and courts don’t run society, the justice system just enforces when something goes wrong — families and employers and community groups are what makes it tick day to day.
I’ve never found a better way to deradicalize than by tipping parents or partners who will then put them at risk of being dumped, or twist their ear and make them explain what the hell they were thinking.
It’s why Nazis are so bent on poisoning the useful term social justice. They hate society itself, especially any foundation of equality, and fundamentally want inequality, supremacy and unaccountability for it.
Since the justice system doesn’t regulate joining nazi groups, sometimes the community needs to physically get in the way. The main reason I’d say to be careful is the way it can advantage people who will burn themselves to scorch you. People who want to get hit so they can sue or get headlines or whatever.
The most dangerous nazi is the manipulative sociopathic kind who knows how to be a bully and play victim at the same time, and actually charm people to believe them. No nazi is smart, but they can be clever about playing victim, gaslighting and flipping causes around DARVO style. “The crying nazi” is a type.
So yeah, if a nazi has provoked a fight, there had better be records ready to cover exactly how they started it to head off the victim posing. That’s the biggest concern about punching nazis. Not their two-faced feelings that they center over the harm they cause.
Exiling is much better and should be known as a package deal with choosing to sympathize with nazis. Pick a lane- tolerance by everyone, or a nasty little group of trolls over there. If they whine about being shunned or “hated” as a consequence, it’s because they gave themselves a little taste of the inequality that Nazis want to create for others. If they refuse to stop crossing the line, then something else happens.
Thx for coming to my Ted Talk.
A classic post – https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1935124890100282&id=100008083698763
The truly heartbreaking and infuriating thing for me is how the Raiders intentionally target people who are vulnerable, isolated, disaffected, and/or even more awkward than the average furry, and then feed them a bunch of BS about free expression, universal inclusion, and bringing the fandom back to its roots.
Then–and this is the insidious part–they’ll manipulate and pressure people into taking grand performative stands on behalf of the group, and groom them into crossing social and ethical lines that ultimately serve to alienate and infuriate everyone around them. Once the individual has been effectively cut off by everyone around them who isn’t a Raider, and once they’ve gotten into a pattern of repeatedly asserting and defending their “Raider” identity, it’ll take something pretty earth-shattering to pull them out of the spiral.
(On top of that, I do think the organization attracts and caters to people who are just plain bad apples, creeps, and ne’er-do-wells, and takes a lot of people who are just on the edge and encourages them to be worse.)
Thanks Troj, you know this group from seeing what they actually are. This comment is good so I linked it in the update.
I don’t think it was merely an accident or oversight that The Daily Fail and other centrist and right-leaning rags tried to ignore or downplay the Nazi connection and attempted to insinuate that the furry “fetishists” were the instigators of the conflict, and that’s frankly horrifying when one considers the implications of that frankly-deliberate editorial choice.