in Idaho police arrested 31 members of Patriot Front, a
fascist white nationalist group whose goal is creating
a white christian only american ethno state. We made a
command decision to make the stop prior to them getting
downtown to prevent a riot from happening. As it turns
out the stop occurred less than a quarter mile from
City Park. Um, I have no doubt in my mind that had that
van stopped at the park or much near the park that we
still would have ended up in a riot situation over the
weekend. The group intended to an L G B T Q
pride event in the Idaho city of chord. Elaine a
tipster phoned police saying a group of men clad in the
same clothing loaded up in a U haul. Some had shields
in body armor. So let me be very, very clear, let me be
very clear here. These were not law enforcement
officers that we arrested. These were members of the
hate group, Patriot Front, These were not antifa in
disguise, nor were the FBI members in disguise. Among
those arrested its leader, 23 year old thomas, russo of
grapevine texas, they admire fascists of the past. Um,
and you know, their big slogan is reclaim America,
which is this idea of like just bringing back America
some sort of ancestral european heritage ext
researchers say Patriot Front seeks ruthless white
males drawing ideological puris won a race war in
America when influencers, hard right influencers who
work in this, you know, who who work in disinformation
and essentially push these inflammatory narratives d
and night on social media get invested in pushing
something eventually it leads to action by extremist
group targeted the L.G.B.T.Q. Community and other
fascist groups have done the same also this weekend,
the proud boys, another documented violent extr
organization sought to disrupt a pride event in
Arlington texas hectoring the crowd assembling inside a
sports bar. This is part of a years long campaign that
patriot front and other extremist organizations h
been engaged in not just to to terrorize target groups
but also to push the overton window uh into um getti
the Republican Party, getting uh conservatives and
particularly fans of trump to be more accepting of more
extreme behavior. The goal, analysts say isn't just to
intimidate and terrorize but influence right wing
politics and get a seat at the Republican Party are
taking those, the less the worse lessons of fascism and
of nationalist socialism of the 20th century and
they're applying it to digital age. That's why thomas
russo and his little neo Nazi club engages in these
flash mob style uh studs so that they can get a bunch
of social media attention and find the next um the next
recruit someone that they can um you know radicalize
from being just a racist piece of trash into a full
blown neo Nazi who can um you know, repeat every
fascist slogan that's ever existed. The takeaways, none
of this happened in a vacuum homophobia and transph
campaigns online have seeped into mainstream GOP and
conservative political rhetoric The and the analysts
will tell me the goal is to onramp mainstream
conservatives into extremist hate for marginalized
groups. In other words, fascism, also, the 31 Patriot
front members all met bail on those misdemeanor
criminal charges they face, they all have court
appearances in Idaho at a later date. Chance, john this
is really interesting in a way because I'm gay. I've
been to pride events for the past like 20 years and in
many ways there has never been a better time in the
history of mankind to be gay, but at pride parades. You
know, we see Westboro baptist church, not white
nationalist groups. Why do they care about gay people
in the Patriot front uh form of fascism They also
ascribed to be christian ethno nationalists and it is a
way to get the norm ease in their words. People who are
conservative christians on thei side to attack the L.G.B.T.Q.
Community and somehow say that they are fellow
travelers. You know, another thing to note is that
online, especially in twitter, the news is being
dismissed as a quote false flag. The members of patriot
by some far right influencers on twitter are bein
branded as quote federal agents. None of that is
remotely true. That is all disinformation. Pure
gobbledygook designed to muddy the waters what is true
according to the police in Coeur d'alene is that those
arrested were genuine white nationalists with violent
plans, john mone bears reminding everyone pride events
they're supposed to be for everyone celebrating
everyone.