31 Patriot Front members arrested near Idaho pride event | PBS NewsHour
By: PBS NewsHour
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Nation Jun 12, 2022 1:59 PM EDT
Authorities arrested 31 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front near an Idaho pride event Saturday after they were found packed into the back of a U-Haul truck with riot gear.
The men were standing inside the truck wearing khakis, navy blue shirts and beige hats with white balaclavas covering their faces when Coeur d'Alene police stopped the U-Haul and began arresting them on the side of the road.
"They came to riot downtown," Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White said at a news conference.
All 31 were charged with conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor, White said. The men were going through the booking process Saturday afternoon and are scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, he said.
Police officers guard a group of men, who police say are among 31 arrested for conspiracy to riot and are affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front, after they were found in the rear of a U Haul van in the vicinity of a North Idaho Pride Alliance LGBTQ+ event in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, U.S. June 11, 2022 in this still image obtained from a social media video. North Country Off Grid/Youtube/via Reuters.
Based on evidence collected and documents, authorities found that the group was planning to riot in several areas of downtown, not just the park, White said.
Police found riot gear, one smoke grenade, shin guards and shields inside the van, White said. They wore arm patches and logos on their hats that identified them as members of Patriot Front, he said.
Police learned about the U-Haul from a tipster, who reported that "it looked like a little army was loading up into the vehicle" in the parking lot of a hotel, White said. Officials spotted the truck soon after and pulled it over, he said.
Videos of the arrest posted on social media show the men kneeling on the grass with their hands zip-tied behind their backs.
"Reclaim America" was written on the back of one shirt.
Police led the men, one by one, to the front of patrol cars, took off their masks and then brought them to a police van.
READ MORE:White supremacists are riling up thousands on social media
Those arrested came from at least 11 states, including Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Virginia, and Arkansas, White said.
Only one was from Idaho, he said.
The truck was stopped near where the North Idaho Pride Alliance was holding the Coeur d'Alene Pride in the Park event. Police had stepped up their presence in the area during the event.
"It appears these people did not come here to engage in peaceful events," Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris told a Coeur d'Alene Press reporter.
Patriot Front is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "a white nationalist hate group" that formed after the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
"Patriot Front focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism that can be easily distributed as propaganda for its chapters across the country," the Southern Poverty Law Center said of the group.
The group's manifesto calls for the formation of a white ethnostate in the United States, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.
Bellisle reported from Seattle.
By —
Martha Bellisle, Associated Press Martha Bellisle, Associated Press
Tags
Who is online
210 visitors
Trolling, taunting, spamming, and off topic comments may be removed at the discretion of group mods. NT members that vote up their own comments, repeat comments, or continue to disrupt the conversation risk having all of their comments deleted. Please remember to quote the person(s) to whom you are replying to preserve continuity of this seed. Any use of the phrase "Trump Derangement Syndrome" or the TDS acronym in a comment will be deleted.
Naw, there are no white supremacists in the US..Opps.
And to think they will have to take their white face coverings they hide behind to have their police photos taken for all the world to see who they really are.
Oh woe is me....what would their bosses think, and their Brothers in other like cults, as being incognito is the first rule of any cult, especially, traitors who brag about being such great patriots that makes them above the law. Or...so they think.....until they are proven wrong....which just happened to this proud bunch.
I wonder if they will claim they were only there to cheer on the parade. Yeah....riighhttt.
So this group scoured the country to come up with 31 members to come to Idaho to possibly riot, did it occur to anyone, especially those that feel the US is polluted with white supremacists, with white supremacy groups so prevalent why weren't they able to get the group they needed from Idaho instead of just the one?
Perhaps you can answer your own question. I do know that the state I live in has a very large number of white supremacy groups, how about your state?
What makes up a "group"?
Buzz once put up a map of the US that showed the KKK groups in the US by state in red, and whoa the US was nearly half red. But looking into what was defined as a group was as little as 2 members and it didn't even mention the possibility that the same members could be part of many different groups, so you could have many groups consisting of the same members.
I would guess anywhere from 2 to a 1,000.
I suppose that they are many possibilities, one being that the members are not going to out themselves, which seems to be a much better possibility than what you're proposing.
BTW, I live in Florida and there are 41 white supremacy groups here, how about in your area?
It's estimated that the LOS was around 10,000 members throughout the south. They have a couple of chapters in my area.
How many does it take before it's wrong?
That's simple, one.
In Michigan, not sure, no doubt there is, I have never been approached and have no interest in them.
I have been approached by someone heavy into Qanon (is that even the right spelling) trying to recruit me, after him wasting an hour of my time he left disgusted with me and I haven't seen him since.
Thank-you for being a good person
You have 27 hate groups in Michigan.
Would you believe there are only 9 according to the Southern Poverty Law Center? That was last count in 2021
Don't believe it.
It should be 25 not 27 as I quoted. The memory isn't what it used to be.
Trout Giggles meant in Arkansas there are/were only nine.
Well now I know there are 25 now, but were 27 so your memory isn't that bad.
Looks to be most are in the southern part of the state, one to the NW lower peninsula, none around me (a few didn't give a location so maybe there is) and it doesn't give a number of members or how many are members of multiple groups.
Yes, that is correct I misunderstood her comment. On the other side of the nine they do have the city of Harrison. I can give you a very good accounting/view of Harrison since I lived about 40 miles from it and drove through it on a fairly regular basis. Being of a darker skin color I never stopped for gas or food. They still have their racist billboards up as of last year when I was there.
Then my question is, why the question about what makes a group?
You didn't misunderstand I didn't write it very clearly.
I do believe that billboard is still there
He refuses to admit there is such a thing and won't answer your questions satisfactorily.
according to your link , wyoming has 2 , been a few years since i looked at SPLC , and back then we supposedly had a KKK chapter in casper , doesnt show anymore , must have scared the kluck out of them .
2 we have is mass resistance , anti LBGT , and patriot front , havent been approached by either PF is supposedly state wide , I know how to handle them , just tell them i have moorish ancestery.....
There are about 25 or so hate groups in Arizona last time I checked. Most are anti-immigrant with some neo-Nazi, anti-Muslim, with about four or so white supremacist groups. About two years ago, I had some armed bozos from the American Border Patrol, a nut case anti immigrant group based out of Sierra Vista, AZ about 60 miles from where I live come onto my property in Douglas, AZ to ask if I had seen any suspicious characters lurking around? I in no uncertain terms told them that if I did I would notify the proper authorities rather than them. I stated to get a lecture on what real Americans should do. I put my hand on the butt of the 9 mm I had holstered and gave them 30 seconds to get off my property and they started threatening me. I had already called the Cochise County Sherrif's Department and the Border Patrol when those guys first showed up and they arrived right about the time they started threatening me. They proceeded to leave post haste. I realy detest those kind of people.
Two of the wingnutz are from my town....ugh.
Could it be your water?
Yep, there's a strip mall not too far away where the rainbows are picketing the
Stedfast Baptist Church for their repeated calls to execute all gays according to
Leviticus.
The three 'preachers' also repeated their views in a City Council meeting recently
where the city solicitor reaffirmed that hate speech was protected speech.
Damn, I hope that you are restricting yourself to bottled water.
Hahn's Cabernet or Pinot
Whichever is on sale at Kroger's market.
Good deal, those work.
Sarcastically, it might have been better to let them riot before arresting them.
Now, their defenders on the right will say nothing happened.
Intent can carry weight in a court of law. LOCK THEM UP!!!!
I thought that, too, but I'm glad they arrested them before they could reek havoc. Who knows how many people would have been injured, maybe killed, and how much property damage they would have inflicted?
They may have gotten more than they bargained for.
I was @ a Halloween celebration on Castro St. in San Francisco in the 80's. A van pulled up in front of one of the bars and a group of straight guys piled out with bats and started to attack people on the street, screaming 'FAGGOTS!'. A bunch of gay guys, most in Halloween costumes, spilled out of the bar and kicked their asses, threw them back in their van and told them to get the fuck out of there if they wanted to live. There was much cheering.
Every Pride parade I have ever been to has 'Monitors', usually identified by T shirts. I have volunteered to be a Monitor more than once and have been part of many 'altercations' caused by assholes who try to fuck with people marching or on floats. No matter how hot it was, I always wore 'workout' gloves, it saved my knuckles. Too old for that shit now...
<note to self>
be polite to Dulay at all times....you're too old for an ass kicking
Me too...
It's always good when someone sees something and then says something. The system working right. Nice to see.
Just good ole' boys, right?
Hard to believe these hard core, scrabble guys support a pasty faced mediocre NY real estate flim flam man.
These guys don't like pride? Probably because they don't have any. Must be jealous I guess.
Quite a number of states are represented in that group of losers. None from Florida, we usually have more than our share of idiots in these types of groups.
None from Ohio? Damn, we must be sluffing.
Florida is a nutbag magnet. Is there something about Florida that is akin to "Hotel California" by the Eagles? You know, once you enter you can never leave?
lol
I guess the economy isn't so bad that it kept these assholes from traveling to Idaho to fuck with people.
That's at least a 2 day drive from Arkansas to Idaho
Illinois is 3 days unless you want to drive over 12 hours each for 2 days.
too bad there wasn't a high speed chase with a pit maneuver involved...
Or lock the trailer and tow it to the local garbage dump.
It was a U-Haul truck and someone would have been real pissed had they done that.........LOL
Better yet, leave the truck there until it starts to smell and then call U Haul to come get it.
drive it south to the middle of the utah desert and let it cook for a week...
Far alt right morons will never learn. They will not get treated with the same kid gloves that BLM and Antifa rioters get.
They deserve to be charged to the fullest extent of the law.
Now the next time BLM and Antifa show up to a protest equipped the same way I fully expect law enforcement to do the same by stopping them and charging them before they have time to act.
It seems that the Patriot Front has a lot of supporters.
Idaho officers getting death threats after arresting 31 Patriot Front white nationalists near Pride event
Neither ANTIFA or BLM are mentioned in the article. If you want to do a comparison you could post an article on them vs Patriot Front.
meh, it won't be long until somebody starts the but, but, but whatabout group here on NT.
Already started at post 6
BLM folk were protesting events over police brutality and unfair law enforcement practices.
The MAGA bots support lies and create mayhem against folk with legitimate complaint.
Timothy McVeigh comes to mind. That mind is dangerous.
Lol. Are you talking about the time they rioted, killed dozens, injured thousands of police officers, burned cities and caused billions in damage becuase the system worked and a cop was convicrted of murder?
Or the the time they destroyed a city because a cop successfully kept himself from being murdered by a violent criminal?
Or the time a BLM supporter just murdered police out of racial hatred?
Everything you said is false.
And the murdered police officer was killed by a right-wing nutbag.
Putin appreciates your support.
"Everything you said is false.
And the murdered police officer was killed by a right-wing nutbag.
Putin appreciates your support."
What else is new?
[deleted]
Everyone the article is about White Supremacists in Idaho, let's stick with that.
All you got? Deflection, projection, and denial?
FUCK OFF!
These are the groups who really don't like freedom, willing to threaten or harm anyone they don't like.