Pride Month, celebrated between June 1 and June 30, is dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ culture, voices, and rights. Each year, thousands of people commemorate Pride by throwing parades, holding drag races, putting on concerts, and many more festivities. While it is meant to be a positive experience for LGBTQ members, as well as allies, there are still people who disagree with the lifestyle.
Today (June 12), 31 members of a white supremacist group, called Patriot Front, were arrested in Idaho near a pride event. Law enforcement pulled over a U-Haul in which the cohort was piled into. Among them were shields and at least one smoke grenade.
The Coeur d’Alene officers got a tip that a group of men was loading into a box truck outside of a nearby hotel. Due to this, the police were able to get a head start and prevent their plan from succeeding. They believed that the group, who’d traveled from 10 outside states, were headed to invade the “Pride in the Park” event just a few blocks away.
The leader of Patriot Front, Thomas Ryan Rousseau, was apprehended for criminal conspiracy. He, and multiple others, are being held on a $300 bail. They are set to appear in court on Monday for an arraignment.
The chief of the police station, Lee White, added that his men were well prepared for the incident because they were aware of threats made online regarding the event. Because of this, they expanded their police presence.
Patriot Front formed in 2017 following the “Unite the Right” rally that took place in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. An event intended to unite racist organizations consisted of people chanting derogatory slurs, carrying armed weapons, and protesting the removal of General Robert E. Lee’s statue.
HNHH will make updates on this matter as they come.