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But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

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And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

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Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Open Thread: The ‘Patriot Front’ Bust in Coeur d’Alene

Open Thread: The ‘Patriot Front’ Bust in Coeur d’Alene

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Good backgrounder:

… Patriot Front is a white supremacist neo-Nazi group whose members perceive Black Americans, Jews and LGBTQ people as enemies, said Jon Lewis, a George Washington University researcher who specializes in homegrown violent extremism.

Their playbook, Lewis said, involves identifying local grievances to exploit, organizing on platforms like the messaging app Telegram and ultimately showing up to events marching in neat columns, in blue- or white-collared-shirt uniforms, in a display of strength.

Though Pride celebrations have long been picketed by counterprotesters citing religious objections, they haven’t historically been a major focus for armed extremist groups. Still, it isn’t surprising, given how anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has increasingly become a potent rallying cry in the far-right online ecosystem, Lewis said…

In Coeur d’Alene on Saturday, police found riot gear, one smoke grenade, shin guards and shields inside the van after pulling it over near a park where the North Idaho Pride Alliance was holding a Pride in the Park event, Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said.

The group came to riot around the small northern Idaho city wearing Patriot Front patches and logos on their hats and some T-shirts reading “Reclaim America” according to police and videos of the arrests posted on social media.

Those arrested came from at least 11 states, including Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Virginia, and Arkansas.

Though there is a history of far-right extremism dating back decades in northern Idaho, White said only one of those arrested Saturday was from the state.

The six-hour Pride event generally went on as scheduled, including booths, food, live music, a drag show and a march of more than 50 people, the Idaho Statesman reported…

Exemplary specimens of supremacist manhood, every one…

Timothy McVeigh callback:

Interesting comments from a (former) Coeur d'Alene dweller:

when fascists show up in urban areas, they show up, typically, to defend the interests of local law enforcement. they travel in, generally from the exurbs and often from further away, commit crimes cops tacitly aprove of, and leave.

but they don’t stop committing crimes when they’re at home. they make fake license plates and slap them on their cars. they open carry. they threaten cops. they make a scene in restaurants. they piss off what the cops regard as respectable white people.

cops react accordingly.

and so, in the places where they live, they’re not treated as being a pro-cop force, because they aren’t: people who commit violent crimes don’t stop committing violent crimes just because there aren’t any minorities or leftists to take out their violence on.

people were doing the cha cha bcause you should have the right to ignore nazis and getting the living shit beat out of you while minding your own business on camera is a radical act.

if you live in north idaho, as i did, you live around armed right-wing thugs 24/7. tourists do not get to judge how we react to that.

i have had a knife pulled on me more than once and an open-carrier put his hand on his gun with me twice.

i have lived away from there for eight years, because i have had to do that because my wife got sick. but this is my home. this is where all my friends live, and this is the shit they still have to deal with.

in the cities, you are invaded. we are occupied.

another fun fact is that if you come from the city and then pick a fight with them in their hometown, they won’t know who the fuck you are, but they will take their revenge. on us.

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    Most fervently hoping (said this previously) this is not a prelude to similar or worse occurrences come 6/20 on the first national Juneteenth holiday.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Police in Idaho are getting death threats after arresting Patriot Front members

    The worst part was at the end when the Republicans asked for a donation.

  4. 4.

    SpaceUnit

    I guess “Back The Blue” is conditional.

    And I still think these doughy frat boys were lucky. If they’d actually gone through with their plan the big story on Fox News would be about 31 peaceful protestors getting beaten within an inch of their lives by angry lesbians.

  6. 6.

    CarolPW

    Proud of Coeur d’Alene for even having this event. Along with the animosity of the cops for the type of yahoos that regularly cause them lots of trouble, the pride event was pretty much white people (not much in the way of pigmented people in that part of the country), and some of those LGBTQ+ people may have been family. I suspect it would have been a bit different response to a BLM protest.
    Five of the fuckers were from Washington State, although thankfully (and a bit surprisingly) none were from my neck of the woods.

  8. 8.

    narya

    Meanwhile, Cook County has a tornado warning . . . the most dangerous path is cutting a swath through the county, basically, but no touchdown yet. Sky is kinda greenish, lots of lightning, but appears to be moving south of me.

  9. 9.

    Kent

    @CarolPW: Couer d’Alene is essentially suburban Spokane.  So it doesn’t surprise me that a bunch are from WA.   It’s not like WA has a shortage of right-wing neo-Nazi dickheads.  They are just more outnumbered here due to the larger population.

  13. 13.

    Kent

    @debbie: I’m not. Couer d’Alene has a TON of normal folks who have moved there over the years to get out of more expensive west coast cities.  It’s your basic upscale resorty sort of place like Bend or Santa Fe.  You can find all the normal west coast liberal stuff there like farmers markets and such.  The town itself is actually purplish with the central area actually voting for Biden over Trump.  It is the outlying areas that are bright red.

  15. 15.

    Mike in NC

    Couer D’Alene was the site of the Navy’s biggest boot camp during WW2, because they were worried about attacks on the coasts.

  16. 16.

    CarolPW

    @Kent: I’m in the Tri-Cities, and am aware of the proximity. I think the closest WA fuckhead to me was from Ellensberg, pretty much half way between you and me.​

    ETA: you have two from King County much closer to you than to me. And Skagit County isn’t exactly on the east side.

  18. 18.

    narya

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Aaaaand . . . rain has stopped, birds tweeting, light north of me and darker clouds to the south. Weather is weird.

    I’m sorta looking forward to the mini heat wave we’ll be getting: it was in the low 50s at the campground every night, and in the 60s at the track, so I’ve been kinda cold since last Thursday.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    ‘@Kent

    I don’t cotton to any municipality which cannot be used as a Balloon Juice nym without grammatical finagling.

    // :)

  22. 22.

    Dan B

    This Patriot Front event is worrying.  The LGBTQ media reports on near daily attacks or thwarted attacks but the organized attacks have been few.  Seattle’s Pride Parade is in a couple weeks and draws several hundred thousand to downtown.  Police presence is light and they’ve been losing cops because of the community’s outrage at the violence they use on liberal and mostly peaceful demonstrations.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    @SpaceUnit:

    I guess “Back The Blue” is conditional.

    It has always been conditional on The Blue backing The White- and Christian, and straight, etc.  The moment there’s a question on that point, it turns out there’s no solidarity at all.

  25. 25.

    Uncle Jeffy

    What do you call 31 white supremacists in a U-Haul van with a smoke grenade?

    Answer: worst “Clue” guess ever.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Kent:

    The town itself is actually purplish with the central area actually voting for Biden over Trump. It is the outlying areas that are bright red.

    The existence of that speck of blue is exactly why the red has become so inflamed.  As long as liberals were a long way away, they weren’t an immediate concern.  It’s only when the liberals are close by that they get really freaked out.

  30. 30.

    The Moar You Know

    Several members of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department have received death threats after the arrest of white nationalists called the Patriot Front this weekend.

    huh, I’m sure they’ll say what the cops here said to our local school board member who resigned after one too many death threats from the right wing filth that lives here.  Which was “no big deal”

    Right?

  31. 31.

    bbleh

    Several members of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department have received death threats after the arrest of white nationalists called the Patriot Front this weekend.

    Just more PROOF that it was all an ANTIFA FALSE-FLAG OPERATION!!!

    Subscribe to my newsletter for more such insights.  I am not a crank.

  32. 32.

    Mike S

    They call themselves members of the superior race and then prove their race isn’t superior to any others.

    WARREN, MI — Police say a Warren man in his 30s lost both his arms Saturday after a bomb he was handling inside his garage detonated unexpectedly.

  34. 34.

    prostratedragon

    [Flabbjabbit empty fields on restarting!]

    Our 15 minutes of excitement here in Mellowville is over. Naturally, as soon as I restarted the desktop, stray lightning bursts started, but not enough for me to bail. Plenty of rain to fuel the humidity in tomorrow’s heat, toward which I am not looking in any part. Just grateful for not losing power, as some did.

  35. 35.

    gene108

    @Roger Moore: 

    The existence of that speck of blue is exactly why the red has become so inflamed.

    Rural Idaho is where Randy Weaver lived, when he was charged with selling illegally modified guns to white supremacists. I think there’s been a strong anti-law enforcement/white supremacist presence in these areas even before out-of-staters moved in.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    ‘@Honus

    People put out a festively decorated scuttle of coal on the doorstep to attract celebrants whose visits they reward with a handful of black jelly beans?

    //

  41. 41.

    Kent

    @CarolPW: @Kent: I’m in the Tri-Cities, and am aware of the proximity. I think the closest WA fuckhead to me was from Ellensberg, pretty much half way between you and me.​

    ETA: you have two from King County much closer to you than to me. And Skagit County isn’t exactly on the east side.

    Or local Clark County mouth breathers probably can’t read a map good enough to make it all the way there. Or probably don’t have enough gas money. But we have our own local hotbeds of racist dipshittery here, especially up in Battle Ground.

  43. 43.

    trollhattan

    Now for something completely different, a kid from my kid’s HS class (2020, represent, invisibly!) broke the 100m backstroke world record as part of an NCAA 400 medley team. He was on her peewee soccer team–good thing he branched out.

    Luca Urlando, everybody.

  45. 45.

    Mike in NC

    Don’t know if any Pride events were or are planned locally, but there were a bunch of flags on public land the next town over. Nobody cares in this rural coastal community.

  48. 48.

    Ken

    Their playbook, Lewis said, involves identifying local grievances to exploit

    DOWN WITH CANADIAN GEESE!

  49. 49.

    Raven

    I get that these “death threats “ are alarming, especially if you have kids but fuck these phony ass motherfuckers. There were plenty of them here with the republicans who resisted Trump but nothing really happened.

  50. 50.

    sab

    Our annual pride festival has gotten so big that it is movibg from a little west side park to the big park downtown near the baseball stadium.

  51. 51.

    SpaceUnit

    @trollhattan:

    100 yards, actually.  I’d really like to see the NCAA push for an eventual switch to all long-course competition.  Short-course racing looks ridiculous at the college level and up.

  54. 54.

    Raven

    @SpaceUnit: up where? The great Jack Bauerle has retired here at Georgia. Seven national championships and coached multiple Olympic swim teams.

  56. 56.

    Honus

    @NotMax: chili dogs and pizza rolls are the traditional festive fare for the celebration of West Virginia’s secession from the sovereign commonwealth which occurred in 1863 two weeks before the battle of Gettysburg.

  58. 58.

    SpaceUnit

    @Raven:

    Once their NCAA eligibility has expired, swimmers can turn pro and seek sponsorship.  Some continue to train with universities in exchange for their mentorship, etc.  Others join private aquatic clubs.  At USA Swimming events you’ll see pros competing with college athletes.  Fun.

  59. 59.

    Cptlhill

    @CarolPW: unfortunately I work in Ellensburg where that particular idiot just graduated from HS a year or two ago. I’m generally a lurker, but just wanted to acknowledge the other long-suffering Washingtonians in this thread! This top 10,000 blog helps keep me sane in Bright Red Eastern WA!

  62. 62.

    Kent

    @SpaceUnit:

    @trollhattan:

    100 yards, actually.  I’d really like to see the NCAA push for an eventual switch to all long-course competition.  Short-course racing looks ridiculous at the college level and up.

    There are probably a lot of smaller schools that don’t have Olympic size competition pools.

  63. 63.

    SpaceUnit

    @Raven:

    Cool.  I’m looking forward to the World Championships in Hungary this summer.

    Had the Olympics last summer and now the Worlds.  A rare treat for swimming fans.

  64. 64.

    SpaceUnit

    @Kent:

    Exactly.  Those facilities are a HUGE expenditure, and swimming doesn’t generate revenue.  So it will definitely be a long-term goal.

  65. 65.

    Dan B

    @Cptlhill:  Ellensburg I’ve only driven past. The hiking near there is wonderful. And there’s a guy who grows incredible tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets in a greenhouse. A Free Methodist who sells at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market where groups of gym bunnies wander around being ogled. He didn’t seem phased by these guys oozing testosterone. It’s a strange world.

  66. 66.

    lowtechcyclist

    @CarolPW: ​
     

    I’m in the Tri-Cities

    I lived in the Tri-Cities awhile back, but the three cities in question were Bristol VA/TN, and Johnson City and Kingsport TN.

    Guess we weren’t exactly neighbors. :)

  68. 68.

    coin operated

    @Kent: 

    Couer d’Alene has a TON of normal folks who have moved there over the years to get out of more expensive west coast cities. It’s your basic upscale resorty sort of place like Bend or Santa Fe.

    Sandpoint could be added to that list as well.

  69. 69.

    Urban Suburbanite

    Couer d’Lene is absolutely not rural Idaho. There’s a lot of money and retirees moving there, at the same time that a lot of reactionary fascists are moving there. It’s more like Washington’s Florida.

    It also looks like there’s a Matt Shea connection (he’s the state rep that the Washington GOP identified as a domestic terrorist and is basically the public face of Christian Identity, also a pastor in a weirdo fundamentalist church out in Spokane). One of the fine fascist youth pulled out of the U-Haul is the son of one of his top underlings. And Turning Point (Charlie Kirk’s operation) is headlining him at a event in Spokane. (They may drop out. They did that before at an event in Seattle)

  71. 71.

    Kent

    So what’s with these guys and the U-haul trucks?

    Is parking really that hard to find in Couer d/Alene?

    Only think I can figure is that they are trying to hide their identities and don’t want to get their own vehicles and license plates photographed or noted. But still. You can rent some 19 passenger vans.

    There is something bizarre and very off about 30 young INCEL white men packed cheek to jowl in a dark U-haul truck.

  72. 72.

    VOR

    @Mike in NC:  OT, but fun fact: During WW2 the US Navy trained pilots in carrier landings on Lake Michigan. The USS Sable and USS Wolverine were fresh water-based, coal-fired, side paddle-wheel aircraft carriers.

  73. 73.

    Urban Suburbanite

    @Kent: 

    It’s a thing this group is prone to doing. They like to jump out of rental trucks in their matching outfits and banners, be seen, maybe fuck some people up if it’s safe for them. And people have wrecked their cars in the past.

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    @Kent: I’ve read that U-Haul trucks are part of the Patriot Front’s routine. They typically drive up to public places, march down the ramp and then march around with signs and chant for a while, then load up and leave. Kind of like a uniformed “flash mob.”

    When I first heard of these arrests I assumed the Patriot Front goons intended to beat up Pride ralliers, and that may have been their plan. One person who has studied them says that this would have been an escalation for them, that so far all they’ve done is march (they also put up a lot of posters to further recruiting). I keep hearing that they were in “riot gear” including shields and shin guards; maybe they had clubs too but I have not seen this reported. I’m not saying they don’t have a vile ideology and would not be very violent when they choose to be, just that this may not have been a plot to assault Pride ralliers like I assumed when I first heard about it.

  75. 75.

    Kent

    @Urban Suburbanite: I still think there is something very sexual  about 35 sweaty young white sexually-repressed INCELS packed into the back of a pitch dark U-Haul truck, bouncing around on a highway.  There must be some SERIOUS grab-assing going on as they are all sliding around back there with no seats or seatbelts.

  76. 76.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @SpaceUnit:

    And I still think these doughy frat boys were lucky. If they’d actually gone through with their plan the big story on Fox News would be about 31 peaceful protestors getting beaten within an inch of their lives by angry lesbians.

    And drag queens. Fuck with drag queens at your peril. Stiletto heels can do some serious damage.

    Plus some of the old queens I know carried harpoon-sized wig pins with them back in the day, and would shank anyone who hassled them. Apparently, the pins didn’t hurt much going in — so the target often didn’t notice it — but could cause a fair amount of internal bleeding. They. Did. Not. Fuck. Around.

  77. 77.

    Anastasio Beaverhausen

    Jackals, thank you for the weather/sports/history posts, but as a gay man, I’d like to bring the discussion back to the issue at hand.  Violent homophobia is a thing. More than two dozen men spent weeks, if not months, and thousands of dollars, planning to harass a group of people for simply celebrating their true selves.  Husband and I live in intense blue Northern Virginia and while we are not gay, gay, GAY, we don’t hide it either.  Coworkers and neighbors are cool with it, as long as the yard is maintained, the dog is on leash, etc. (literally a dog, two kids, and a white picket fence.) But 30 (20?) miles away, in any direction, it’s a different story.  IHOP breakfast on Saturday should be a treat for everyone, right?  But there, while the girl child is eating butter straight up, we get stares. Two men, two kids, one of whom is mixed race…….hmmm.  Subtle shaking of the head, gesturing our way with a fork, leaning in to whisper to the spouse. And I blame the Republicans, almost exclusively.  I appreciate the cheerleading for our cause by those on the left, but I really, really fear for my family’s future because of the hate and xenophobia on the right.  We can’t even spend a weekend at the beach without tiptoeing through MAGA country.  “Who’s Brandon?” my daughter asked when she saw the big “Let’s go Brandon” sign a farmer had in his field. Oh, and did I mention hubby was previously undocumented? But through hard work and force of will he now has a degree from a top ranked business school.  But he loves kids, so he switched to teaching, got a master’s in special education, and works in a bilingual school in DC.  The kind of immigrant/citizen we need a few hundred thousand more of, in my opinion. At the end of the day, we just want to be left alone to lead our boring lives in peace, without looking over our shoulder. Am I ranting, probably. Am I warning and worrying, definitely.  First Roe, then Obergefell.  I’m old enough to remember when being gay was literally illegal.  I don’t want to go back to those times.  The draft opinion from Alito swears it doesn’t apply, but I’ve been lied to before…..

  78. 78.

    LeftCoastYankee

    I lived in Spokane briefly back in the day, and spent some time in Coeur d’Alene.

    Back then the Aryan Nation had moved into the area up the road, and a lot of the locals loudly and publicly hated Nazis.  My guess is the police in the area still have a keen eye out for that type and don’t suffer their bullshit.

    Also, I’d bet (without having looked closely), most of these chuds are from suburban areas.

  79. 79.

    Expatchad

    I grew up in Northern ID in the 50s  AND THAT WAS NO PICNIC  but ID was not nearly as iridescent as. NOW.

    My uncle was Dean of the University for  many years, and, at the request of President Harry Truman wrote the bulk of the original charter of the United Nations at its founding in San Francisco in 1945. Since then Idaho is slightly to the right of Trump, and my remaining family and I are anything but close, but I have fled to Asia.

    CDA is only miles away from the original Bastion of while supremacy, The Church of Jesus Christ Christian  NO surprise here.Happy that CDA remains fairly   civilized

    .

  85. 85.

    Ol_Froth

    May the names and photos of these yahoos be spread far and wide, so when a potential employer does a google search of an applicant, they’ll know who to not hire.

  87. 87.

    Gravenstone

    @Geminid:  Ya know, if they leave the Fascism Wagon empty while they parade around, I can think a shitload of stench compounds one could toss in there and deny them their escape vehicle. Or at least make certain every last one of them pukes up their last three meals on the drive out.

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