According to authorities, 31 members of a white supremacist group were detained in Idaho on Saturday after they were caught organizing a violence at a local Pride event.
The 31 Patriot Front members were loaded into a U-Haul truck and taken to a public park in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where they were incarcerated.
According to Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White, “it is evident to us based on the gear that the folks had with them, the items they had in their hands and in the U-Haul with them, along with documents that was taken from them, that they came to riot downtown.”
According to White, a concerned resident saw the big group climbing into the leased U-Haul truck wearing riot gear and called the cops, telling them the gathering ‘looked like a tiny army.’
According to White, members of the group donned khaki slacks and blue shirts, as well as caps with plastic insides. They had riot shields, shin guards, and other riot gear on them.
Papers’similar to an operations plan that a police or military outfit would put together for an event’ were also discovered, as well as at least one smoke grenade.
The guys are charged with conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor, after traveling from at least ten other states. On Monday, they are likely to be arraigned.
Among those arrested is Thomas Ryan Rousseau of Grapevine, Texas, who has been named as the group’s founder by the Southern Poverty Law Center. After the fatal ‘Unite the Right’ protest in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, Rousseau, 23, allegedly created the white supremacist organisation.
According to Jon Lewis, a George Washington University researcher who specializes in homegrown violent extremism, the Patriot Front is a white supremacist neo-Nazi organization whose members see Black Americans, Jews, and LGBTQ persons as adversaries.
After officials in Coeur d’Alene received information that ‘a number of organizations were planning to disrupt’ the events, there was already a substantial police presence at Saturday’s Pride event. It’s unclear whether the Patriot Front’s plans were known to the cops.
All 31 males have been released from custody after posting bond. At least ten states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and Virginia, sent members of the group to Idaho to allegedly riot at the Pride celebration. Idaho had only one representative.
The FBI is assisting the Coeur d’Alene police department in their investigation of the event.