Patriot Front Arrests in Coeur D'Alene

satisfying my own curiosity

31 members of the white-nationalist group Patriot Front were arrested yesterday on their way to a LGBTQ-pride festival in Coeur D’Alene. Reportedly, someone called the cops to say that 20 guys who weren’t fabulously dressed getting in the back of a U-Haul truck. Police stopped the truck, opened it up, found it full of guys who apparently weren’t there for the dancing.

Police found at least one smoke grenade in the truck, White said, and paperwork that appeared to show a master plan to riot both at the Pride event and along the main commercial strip of downtown Coeur d'Alene.

The 31 were arrested on a charge of Conspiracy to Riot and, according to press accounts, “held on $300 bail.” (I’m not sure whether that means “held in lieu of bail” or “released on bail”; held and bail are contradictory.)

My first guess was that this is just a holding charge, a petty misdemeanor to keep potential trouble locked up till the festival was over. So I was curious whether there was the possibility of actu…