Right-wing commentator Nick Fuentes’ arrest over a confrontation with a woman at his home has sparked mockery online on Friday from critics.
Fuentes, who has faced backlash for multiple controversial comments in the past, had his address leaked online last month amid the backlash he faced for telling women “your body, my choice” while celebrating President-elect Donald Trump‘s victory.
In a recent stream, Fuentes said it had been a joke arguing that it was a critique of the pro-choice movement and modern feminism but then poked fun at women for crying over his comments.
The comment was tracked by The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), which found women have reported a rise in online abuse associated with the comment in which it cites posts from female users on TikTok, with one stating: “I had to delete a video because I was being threatened and several men commenting [sic] saying they couldn’t wait until I get raped or ‘your body my choice.'”
Meanwhile, Fuentes’ address has appeared in multiple posts online in what is known as “doxxing”—a term used to refer to the publishing of private information online, usually with malicious intent.
Since then, a clip showing him allegedly pepper-spraying a woman who rang his doorbell has now gone viral on X, formerly Twitter, with a woman named Marla Rose claiming to be the person involved.
The footage shows a woman’s hand ringing the doorbell before she says “Hi” as Fuentes can be seen opening the door and spraying her with what people online have speculated is pepper spray.
Fuentes, 26, has since been charged with battery over the confrontation outside his Chicago-area home in Berwyn, Illinois. Rose, 57, told police that she went to record Fuentes’ home on November 10 after she saw his controversial social media post and that he pepper-sprayed her, pushed her onto the concrete and broke her phone. According to a police report, which was filed on November 11, the woman did not have any visible physical injuries, but her eyes were “watery.”
Meanwhile, Fuentes told police that since he “posted a political joke online,” he has faced death threats and “people showing up to his house unannounced” and had been “in fear for his life,” the report stated.
Fuentes was arrested late last month and released the same day. He is set to appear in court on December 19.
Newsweek has reached out to Berwyn Police Department via email and Fuentes via DM on X for comment.
WILLIAM EDWARDS/AFP/Getty Images
On Friday, news of Fuentes’ arrest over the incident made its way across X as many critics took to the social media platform to mock the arrest.
Social media influencer and Democratic activist Harry Sisson wrote on X, “Here is Nick Fuentes’ mugshot after being arrested for battery. All I have to say is: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”
Writer Kyle Orton wrote: “Who’d have imagined that when Nick Fuentes ended up in jail it would be for battery against a woman. The surprises we get in this modernity.”
Alex Cole, a self-described “progressive” according to his X bio, posted: “I love it when right-wing Nazi’s get arrested. Nick Fuentes looks perfect for jail.”
In response to his arrest, Fuentes took to X to share his mugshot and wrote, “Free me n****”
He has also taken to his livestream show, America First, to sell merch of his mugshot, according to an X post on America First HQ, which posted: “OFFICIAL NICK MUGSHOT MERCH. BUY NOW TO SHOW OFF THE MOST ICONIC MUGSHOT IN HISTORY, LIMITED QUANTITY!”
Fuentes is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a “white nationalist livestreamer who advocates pulling the Republican Party further to the extreme far-right” and an “admirer of fascists.” He has made repeated antisemitic and racist remarks and has been banned from several social media platforms. He was previously a supporter of Trump and was a vocal ally during the “Stop the Steal” movement following Trump’s loss to Biden in 2020.
Fuentes would continue to make divisive comments on his livestream show where he brands himself as a “Christian conservative.”
He has used his platform to share Holocaust denialist and antisemitic views.
Fuentes has also openly used the N-word on his show and has asserted that segregation in the pre-civil rights era in the South “was better for them (Black people),” according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).