31 Patriot Front Members Arrested Near Idaho LGBTQ Pride Event

Pride Month is meant to be a time to rejoice in LGBTQ joy and resilience. Unfortunately, with the many visibly queer events, it’s also a time when community members must remain vigilant to avoid potential violence from anti-LGBTQ aggressors. Folks at a downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Pride event avoided this very scenario over the weekend, as 31 masked members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front were arrested and jailed for conspiring to riot at a nearby Pride in the Park event.

According to an Idaho Statesman report, the 31 white supremacists arrived in Coeur d’Alene inside a U-Haul truck, which police pulled over for a traffic stop. Police were tipped off by a citizen who said they saw a large group of people with shields, wearing masks, and looking “like a little army” get into the U-Haul that afternoon in a hotel parking lot.

Police seized a smoke grenade and what Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White described as “riot gear” from the truck. Of the 31 members of the hate group, two were from Idaho; the rest came from Washington, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming. Tom Rosseau, the national leader of the group, was among those arrested.

While the nearby Pride in the Park event drew crowds of LGBTQ folks to the downtown area, White also says the group planned to riot in a number of other areas of the city.

“I don’t think this would have been as successful had we not had one extremely astute citizen who saw something that looked very concerning to them and reported it to us,” White says.

Patriot Front has a manifesto calling for a “white ethnostate” in the U.S. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes them as a “white nationalist hate group,” and the Anti-Defamation League says its “members maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it to them, and no one else.”

The event caused a commotion locally, with many people nearby stopping to film as the dozens of masked members were arrested. It also immediately sparked conversations online and in the media.

Following the weekend’s events, VOA News spoke with Sophie Bjork-James, an assistant professor in anthropology at Vanderbilt University who researches the white nationalist movement, racism, and hate crimes in the U.S. Bjork-James says there is a “very clear relationship” between normalizing hateful content and extremist groups like Patriot Front mobilizing around that with hateful action.

“We can see a direct relationship between the spectrum of anti-LGBT rhetoric from statehouses into these extremist groups,” she says, adding that domestic extremist groups see conservatives as political allies. Embracing anti-LGBTQ sentiments is one of the easiest ways to “build a broader coalition among the radical right,” Bjork-James says.

All 31 members are free on bail as of Monday, according to law enforcement. They are set to make initial court appearances in the coming weeks for misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot.

Screenshot courtesy of @AlissaAzar on Twitter