A U-Haul full of "Patriot Front" extremists pulled over on their way to Pride event

[Broomstick]

@Roderick_Femm

Unfortunately, what they are being charged with is only a misdemeanor, and only one of them is from Idaho, so the others will go home (at some point) effectively without a blot on their escutcheon – at least not a new blot.

“Unfortunately”, it now appears that three of them were both convicted felons AND carrying firearms… which is generally not considered a misdemeanor.

@Lumpy

Whatever you may think of the Patriot Front, isn’t “suspicion of intent to riot” the sort of bullshit rousting charge that could be applied to almost any group? I hope the police had at least some probable cause to go on besides “they looked shifty”.

Well, let’s see… there were weapons of various sorts, including some guns, at least one smoke grenade, protective gear like shin guards and shields, and apparently at least one copy of a written plan of what they were going to do…

Yep, more than just “looking shifty”.

@Euphonious_Polemic

“We hate gays so much that we’re going to get a bunch of guys together, and all pile into a small van so we can rub up against each other a whole bunch.”

The denial is strong with these dudes.

The Vice video linked to above gets into a lot of sexual insecurity and hang-ups some of these guys are (not) dealing with.

@Chronos

How does an organization with 220 to 230 members generate 400 gigabytes of chat logs?

Some of them type fast?

@steatopygia

I live near where this happened. The local Facebook news pages lit up with literally thousands of comments saying this was Antifa/Feds/crisis actors. The party of personal responsibility.
See for yourself, search Facebook groups for “North Idaho News”.

No thanks - I don’t want to endure weeks of Facebook subsequently “suggesting” other alt-right bullshit for me to look at.

Although I did see one on-line comment that these guys couldn’t be Patriot Front because they have a no-weapons policy that they would never ever ever ever violate, nuh-uh, no-sir-ee, never, not under any circumstance.

Yeah, I laughed a lot, too.

Funny, though - a lot of my laughing these days is sounding kind of nervous…

@Horatius

As much press as these jackasses get, when push comes to shove, they’re a tiny minority of people.

Problem is, it only takes a small minority to mess things up for the rest of us.

@TriPolar

Reports also indicate those 31 men are actually members of Antifa on a false flag mission. So they must have been infiltrating the Patriot Front to bring them down. Wait until their friends find out about this.

Common pattern we’re seeing - the rest of the alt-right denies anyone caught isn’t one of them but is a plant from the other side, anyone who is embarrassing to the movement or whatever is a false-flag… You’d think eventually some of them would get wise to this pattern and realize they’re being used as cannon fodder but apparently intelligence is not high priority when they select members.

@Red_Wiggler

Conservative boards are loaded with speculation that these guys were FBI plants because of their physical appearance.

You mean… personal hygiene, haircuts that don’t look like their heads were nibbled by goats, ability to shave and/or beards that are trimmed and don’t display bits of yesterday’s lunch? Less paunch than Sofa Team Six?

@RickJay

Why didn’t they rent a bus?

A bus is for sissies?

Actually, a U-haul is probably a LOT cheaper to rent. And you don’t need a professional driver. Probably appeals to a manly-man’s sense of self-reliance and do-it-yourself.

[Son_of_a_Rich]

Apparently the van was their only way in and out of the event. So…they were going to bust heads for a while and tear the place up, and then everybody would climb back into the van, and drive away without being stopped or followed? I like to think someone would have incapacitated the van while it waited for their return.

[RitterSport]

For the ones who were carrying (assuming they were legal to carry, that is, the ones who weren’t felons and were carrying), wouldn’t carrying with the intent to riot be some kind of crime in itself? If so, would it rise to the level of a felony?

[wguy123]

Local former state representative and complete asshole, Matt Shea, also attended the Pride event leading a “prayer walk”. He claims the morons in the U-haul were antifa there to ambush his group. Turns out one of the “antifa” members in the U-haul attends the church he leads. Dang, antifa have infiltrated everywhere!

Matt Shea = Dumbest dipshit around.

Matt Shea claimed U-Haul in CdA was filled with Antifa. But among those...

[DavidNRockies]

I don’t want to discount the arguments that any of you are making for why they chose the rental van over some other conveyance, but … is it possible that we’re collectively overlooking the obvious ?

U-HAUL

-------------------------
Uneducated
Hapless
Antisocial
Unemployed
Losers

[MrAtoz]

Plus, do you know, offhand, where to rent a bus? I don’t. I mean, I’m sure I could find out if I really needed to, but it would take a bit of research.

Whereas U-Haul is everywhere, requires nothing more than a valid driver’s license and a credit card, and is (as mentioned) relatively cheap. The appeal to a gang of losers is obvious.

[running_coach]

@MrAtoz

Plus, do you know, offhand, where to rent a bus? I don’t. I mean, I’m sure I could find out if I really needed to, but it would take a bit of research.

Whereas U-Haul is everywhere, requires nothing more than a valid driver’s license and a credit card, and is (as mentioned) relatively cheap. The appeal to a gang of losers is obvious. -

And none of those socialist seatbelts.

[Johnny_Bravo]

@MrAtoz

Plus, do you know, offhand, where to rent a bus? I don’t. I mean, I’m sure I could find out if I really needed to, but it would take a bit of research.

It’s easy to find a company which will charter you a bus, but that includes a driver. Much harder to find a company that will rent you a bus to drive on your own. Plus it’ll be much more expensive and require the driver to possess an appropriate CDL license.

[medstar]

I don’t know if this was said earlier, but it would have been righteous if they had gotten to the event, mixed it up with the parade participants, and were beaten up severely. How many of them would have cried for Mommy?

[Johnny_Bravo]

@medstar

I don’t know if this was said earlier, but it would have been righteous if they had gotten to the event, mixed it up with the parade participants, and were beaten up severely.

It has been. While it would be satisfying as hell for us, they’d just spin it as being assaulted by antifa plants or whatever. And they were geared up and mentally prepped for fighting - the odds of them getting soundly beaten were probably low.

This very public arrest, with the humiliating photos of being forced to kneel in rows while cuffed, is probably the best possible outcome.

[Folacin]

@Broomstick

A bus is for sissies?

Actually, a U-haul is probably a LOT cheaper to rent. And you don’t need a professional driver. Probably appeals to a manly-man’s sense of self-reliance and do-it-yourself.

And the U-Haul kept the numbers hidden - tactical advantage, don’t you know. Plus they could unload faster, assuming no one landed wrong jumping out of the back.

[Miller]

@ShadowFacts

These guys are yahoos, of course, and I’m glad they were spotted and arrested before they got to the Pride event. But with the history of gay bashing in this country and the current political mood, I’m finding it hard to chuckle about this. I can easily imagine these assholes storming out of that truck and bashing heads in a real riot - it could have been extremely ugly.

Yeah, this was an attempted terrorist attack, and it would have succeeded except one person happened to be paying attention and called the cops. I get using dark humor to cope, and don’t blame anyone for it, but this was extremely serious. A lot of people would have been hurt, maybe killed, and they were less than an hour away from pulling it off when they were caught.

[hajario]

@Miller

Yeah, this was an attempted terrorist attack, and it would have succeeded except one person happened to be paying attention and called the cops. I get using dark humor to cope, and don’t blame anyone for it, but this was extremely serious. A lot of people would have been hurt, maybe killed, and they were less than an hour away from pulling it off when they were caught.

Those choads were a bunch of cowards. I think that they were just going to stand around trying to look tough like the people at the Stop the Steal rallies. They’d be on the other side of a line of cops incompetently yelling.

[Miller]

@hajario

Those choads were a bunch of cowards. I think that they were just going to stand around trying to look tough like the people at the Stop the Steal rallies. They’d be on the other side of a line of cops incompetently yelling.

You don’t need to pack 30 masked people into the back of a U-Haul if you’re just going to protest. This was an attack.

[Ludovic]

@hajario

Those choads were a bunch of cowards. I think that they were just going to stand around trying to look tough like the people at the Stop the Steal rallies. They’d be on the other side of a line of cops incompetently yelling.

@Miller

You don’t need to pack 30 masked people into the back of a U-Haul if you’re just going to protest. This was an attack.

They were at Philadelphia and if I recall correctly it was sort of in between the two – they marched around the people looking tough, not behind a pack of cops, and didn’t do anything because they were getting harassed and were in danger of being attacked themselves. Then they left. Not sure if the same thing would have happened at CDA or not.

[Aspenglow]

@Miller

I get using dark humor to cope, and don’t blame anyone for it, but this was extremely serious.

Exactly this.

I apologize to anyone who may have felt disturbed at my attempted dark humor in an earlier post. Dark humor is a method of coping, and one I used during years of handling courtroom work that often involved cases with aspects of unspeakable cruelty, horror and inhumanity.

I find the old saw, “You have to laugh, else you’d never stop crying,” to have never been more true in my lifetime than it currently is.

[Great_Antibob]

I see the kernels of some of the same excuses some people were making after Jan 6 - that it clearly wasn’t an attempted overthrow of government because they were incompetent, they were just looking to cause a stir, etc.

None of that matters. These clowns may have been incompetent and may not have considered the potential consequences of their actions but they were earnest about what they were trying to do, which was commit domestic terrorism. No matter that the end result was no damage done (and even that’s ignoring the death threats the police have been getting), their intent was serious and premeditated.

[Cervaise]

@Ludovic

They were at Philadelphia and if I recall correctly it was sort of in between the two – they marched around the people looking tough, not behind a pack of cops, and didn’t do anything because they were getting harassed and were in danger of being attacked themselves. Then they left.

To my mind this increases the likelihood they would have attacked their intended targets, because the previous experience was humiliating and they would have wanted payback. Nothing winds up these angry losers like confronting them with the fact of their loserhood.

[TriPolar]

@Aspenglow

I find the old saw, “You have to laugh, else you’d never stop crying,” to have never been more true in my lifetime than it currently is.

It applies to this matter, and in addition it is part of the public shaming process. I don’t think it detracts from the seriousness of this form of terrorism.

[Horatius]

@Johnny_Bravo

It has been. While it would be satisfying as hell for us, they’d just spin it as being assaulted by antifa plants or whatever.

Not to mention, even if they lost the fight, just starting the fight is a win for them. A riot in the middle of what was supposed to be a family-friendly event would pretty much kill the event, as people would legitimately fear for their safety, and decide to just go home.