From our sister site The Waterland Blog:

Screenshot from Wall Street Journal video

The Wall Street Journal this week produced and published a video story that shows how the far-right group the Proud Boys – including Ethan Nordean, son of the owners of Wally’s Chowder House in Des Moines – was instrumental in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

“The Proud Boys, a far-right group, have tried to downplay their role in the Capitol riot,” WSJ said. “A WSJ investigation shows that at many of the day’s key moments, Proud Boys were at the forefront.”

As The Waterland Blog reported in June, at that time Wally’s owner Michael Nordean disavowed his son’s involvement with the known, right-wing “western chauvinist” male-only group with a statement on his restaurant’s website:

Let me say right off the bat that I love my son. That said, I admit that I was slow to recognize how radical and violent that group is. Those beliefs are NOT the values shared by my family, my businesses, and this community. Writing this is not easy, in part because of the personal guilt and frustration I feel for not paying closer attention and in part because I was frankly naive.”

Ethan Nordean – who uses the pseudonym “Rufio Panman” – apparently was not arrested for his involvement in the D.C. riot. The Southern Poverty Law Center says he once “struck a counter-protester in the face so hard he knocked the person unconscious. The Proud Boys immediately turned him into a meme. They promoted video of the violence on social media and even created a commemorative challenge coin featuring an image of Nordean’s punch and sold it on their official online store.”

Reports are that he now lives in Auburn.

Here’s the full WSJ video: