Police in Idaho arrested 31 people who had face coverings, white supremacist insignia, shields, and an “operations plan” to riot near an LGBTQ Pride event on Saturday afternoon.
According to MSN News, Police said they were affiliated with Patriot Front, a white supremacist group whose founder was among those arrested. Authorities received a tip about a “little army” loading into a U-Haul truck at a hotel Saturday afternoon, said Lee White, the police chief in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a city of about 50,000 near the border with Washington.
Local and state law enforcement pulled over the truck about 10 minutes later, White said at a news conference. Many of those arrested were wearing logos representing Patriot Front, which rebranded after one of its members plowed his car into a crowd of people protesting a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens.
The group’s founder, Thomas Ryan Rousseau, was among those arrested, according to jail records. Like the others, Rousseau was arrested on a charge of criminal conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor. Some of the other men arrested also have been linked to the group. By Sunday afternoon, all of the men had posted bond and were free as they await arraignment later this week, according to a spokesperson with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.
In photos and videos posted on social media, a group of men dressed in hats, sunglasses, white balaclavas and Patriot Front’s signature khaki pants were seen kneeling on the ground with their hands zip-tied behind their backs as police officers kept watch. An onlooker taunted the group, yelling, “Losers!”
White said the people were headed to City Park, which was hosting Pride in the Park, an event advertised as a “family-friendly, community event celebrating diversity and building a stronger and more unified community for ALL.” Organizers did not immediately respond to telephone and email requests for comment from The Washington Post on Saturday evening, but they wrote in a post to the group’s Facebook page that it was a “successful” event.
