Extremists Guilty Of Conspiracy To Disrupt Idaho Pride

The Idaho Statesman reports:

A jury deliberated for a little over an hour Thursday before convicting five Patriot Front members for conspiring to disrupt a Pride celebration last June in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

Devin Center, James J. Johnson, Forrest Rankin, Robert Whitted and Derek Smith stood in suits behind their attorneys and showed no emotion after a clerk read the guilty verdict to the charge of conspiracy to riot by disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

However, Judge James Stow sentenced the five men Friday morning to only five days in jail apiece, with credit for time served. That means each man will have to serve three days in jail. They also were fined $1,000 each.

The New York Times reports:

Conspiracy to riot is punishable by up to one year in jail, a maximum $5,000 fine and up to two years of probation. Lawyers for the men did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. Police arrested 31 members of the far-right group after they tried to disrupt the event, called “Pride in the Park,” hosted by the North Idaho Pride Alliance.

The authorities attributed the arrest to a tip from a “concerned citizen,” who had seen people jumping into a U-Haul van headed toward the area. According to planning documents shared with The New York Times, the men in the van had planned to form into “columns” around the park, moving inward until “barriers to approach” were met.

CBS News reports:

Police say that there were approximately 17 shields in the truck, six radios, first aid kits, and two 10-foot poles with what appeared to be American flags on the end. Captain Hagar described the shields during his testimony as likely being able to do “some serious damage.”

During the trial, when Center’s defense argued that the police decided to arrest the men simply because of their clothing, Captain Hagar reportedly replied with “No one else had two-way radios. No one had shin guards … You can’t portray them as citizens who were downtown just walking in the park.”

As most of you surely know, prominent Republicans and right wing figures continue to claim that Patriot Front is an undercover operation by the federal government.

Five members of the Patriot Front were convicted Thursday of misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot at a Pride event in Idaho. Conspiracy to riot is punishable by up to one year in jail, as well as a $5,000 fine and up to two years of probation. https://t.co/NuJ6lbHFci

— IREHR (@IREHR) July 21, 2023

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