Former Proud Boy Leader ‘Based Stickman’ Arrested for Attacking Health Care Workers

BRAWLER

A man who was a mascot for alt-right violence during the early Trump presidency, and praised by Gavin McInnes, has been arrested for attacking health care workers in Idaho.

Kelly Weill
Reporter
 Published Jan. 12, 2022 


Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, a mascot for alt-right violence during the early Trump presidency, became famous brawling with leftist activists in California. He got probation for giving a man a brain hemorrhage with a barstool in Texas.

Now he might have violated the terms of his probation by allegedly attacking health care workers in Idaho.

Chapman was a leader in far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the New England-based “Resist Marxism.” Since then, he has pleaded guilty or no contest to a series of crimes, ranging from violent attacks to trespassing on federal land—sometimes while on probation for previous offenses.


“If he screws up, he goes to jail.”
— Kyle Chapman’s lawyer

And prosecutors in Boise, Idaho say Chapman has done it again, this time allegedly attacking health care workers. Court records accuse Chapman of committing one such attack on Nov. 11. He was arrested on Tuesday, jail records show. Assaulting health care workers is a felony in Idaho, where public health employees have previously reported COVID-related harassment, including a mob of demonstrators at a Boise official’s home.


Details of the incident are still scant. A criminal complaint was not immediately available on Wednesday, and prosecutors were unavailable to comment on the case.

The Idaho Statesman reported that at 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 11, a local hospital called police to report battery on a worker. During his arraignment on Wednesday, Chapman said that he was being treated in the hospital, where he had been intubated for what he described as pneumonia. Chapman allegedly became verbally abusive toward hospital staff and grabbed a female employee, who reported the incident.

But Chapman has a long history of violence—political and otherwise.

Chapman earned the nickname “Based Stickman” after he was filmed hitting a leftist demonstrator in the head with a club at the March 2017 “March 4 Trump” rally in Berkeley, California. The attack made Chapman an instant celebrity on the far-right. He gave speeches at pro-Trump events and dabbled in his own clothing line. He also received an outpouring of funds from the far right, including the paramilitary group the Proud Boys. The organization’s founder, former Vice lout-in-chief Gavin McInnes, claimed that he considered making Chapman the group’s new president, but settled for placing him at the head of a particularly noxious brawling division called the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights.


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But Chapman’s violent legacy began catching up with him in 2019 when he was sentenced for past attacks in two states.

That year, he pleaded no contest to one count of possessing a leaded cane in the March 4 Trump attack and was sentenced to five years’ probation. After Chapman received the sentence in 2019, his then-attorney told reporters that Chapman was on thin ice.

“If he screws up, he goes to jail,” the lawyer said.

The plea deal was Chapman’s second in just three months. In July 2019, he pleaded guilty to a 2018 bar attack in Austin, Texas. The 2018 assault took place at an afterparty for a “Texans for America Freedom” rally, where Chapman had been a speaker. Witnesses to the attack described Chapman as picking a fight with another bar-goer, punching the man, and hitting him in the head with a wooden barstool. The assault left Chapman’s victim with a brain hemorrhage and facial fractures that required surgery.

In late 2020, Idaho activists reported that Chapman had relocated to their state. His alleged attack on Idaho health care workers came less than a year later.

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Officials appear to have taken his past history into account. Chapman’s bail, which the Idaho Statesman reported was set at $10,000 on Tuesday, appeared to have been increased to $100,000 by Wednesday afternoon.

It is unclear whether Chapman currently has a lawyer. Court records show that he applied for a public defender on Wednesday.

The incident could have cascading legal consequences for Chapman, who is still on probation in California and on deferred adjudication in Texas.

Under the terms of the deferred adjudication, the Travis County, Texas district attorney could sentence Chapman to 20 years in prison if he committed crimes while on probation, the Mercury News reported in 2019.

The Travis County DA did not return a Wednesday request for comment.