31 Masked Patriot Front Members Arrested in Coeur d'Alene Near Pride in the Park

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Masked and uniformed members of a white nationalist group  were arrested in Coeur d'Alene on Saturday afternoon, the same day as Pride in the Park was scheduled, police said.

Coeur d'Alene police said 31 people from all over the country who were inside a U-Haul were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to riot. Only one was from Idaho, police said, with others from Washington, Arkansas, Colorado, Texas, Wyoming and other states.

The people arrested were from a group called the Patriot Front, police said.

Patriot Front is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "a white nationalist hate group" that broke off from a similar far-right group 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 has a manifesto that calls for the formation of a white ethnostate in the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Their brand of activism often consists of posting flyers and other advertisements in public places that promote an extremist brand of patriotism, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.

A video circulating on Facebook showed Idaho law enforcement officers opening the U-Haul moving truck filled with the apparent protesters. Another video also showed the men on their knees with their hands behind their backs, surrounded by police officers in tactical gear.



A U-Haul truck could be seen being towed from the scene on Northwest Boulevard near the Paul Bunyan restaurant.

Multiple law enforcement officers from the Coeur d'Alene Police Department and Kootenai County Sheriff's Office are on site. Sheriff Bob Norris was also at the scene.

The men wore outfits similar to those typical for Patriot Front:  khaki pants, blue shirts, masks and baseball caps.

Photos show some of the men wearing shirts that read, "RECLAIM AMERICA," while one said, "Conquerors not Thieves," an apparent reference to the belief that white colonialists were within their rights to take Native Americans' lands.

Tensions were already simmering for the city's LGBTQ event because of a nearby event that some perceived as a protest.

A group of 31 men with the group Patriot Front were removed from the back of a U-Haul rental truck and arrested after a traffic stop by multiple law enforcement agencies on Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d' Alene. The stop was made just a few blocks from where the "Pride in the Park" event was being held in Coeur d'Alene City Park, Saturday, June 11, 2022. Police say the men, dressed similarly, had shields and other gear and were intending to riot in downtown Coeur d'Alene.