Following the arrest of more than two dozen members of a white supremacist group near a northern Idaho pride event, including the group's founder, LGBTQ advocates stated on Sunday that polarization and a tense political atmosphere pose a growing threat to their community.

Police stated 31 Patriot Front members were detained with riot gear after an informant reported seeing people filling up a U-Haul like "a little army" in a hotel parking lot in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Thomas Ryan Rousseau of Grapevine, Texas, was among those jailed on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot. The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified him as the 23-year-old who created the group after the fatal "Unite the Right" protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. No attorney was immediately listed for him on Sunday, and his phone calls were unanswered.

Mitchell F. Wagner, 24, of Florissant, Missouri, who was previously charged with defacing a mural depicting notable African-Americans on a college campus in St. Louis last year, was also arrested.

Michael Kielty, Wagner's attorney, stated Sunday that he was not informed of the charges. He said that Patriot Front did not have a history of violence and that the case may involve the First Amendment. He stated that even if you disagree with the speech, they have the right to deliver it.

Patriot Front is a white supremacist neo-Nazi organization whose members view Black Americans, Jews, and LGBTQ persons as adversaries, according to Jon Lewis, an expert on homegrown violent extremism at George Washington University.

Lewis stated that their plan entails discovering local issues to exploit, organizing on platforms like the messaging app Telegram, and ultimately showing up to events in tidy columns, wearing blue- or white-collared shirts as a show of strength.

Even though Pride festivities have long been picketed by counterprotesters citing religious objections, armed extremist groups have not traditionally targeted them. Lewis noted that it is not surprising, considering that anti-LGBTQ language has become an increasingly strong rallying cry in the far-right internet ecosystem.

"This set of grievances fits into their larger narratives and demonstrates their ability to repeatedly mobilize the same people against 'the enemy,'" he added.

John McCrostie, the first openly homosexual man, elected to the Idaho Legislature, stated that the arrests coincide with a rise of inflammatory rhetoric surrounding LGBTQ issues and a wave of state legislation directed at transgender youngsters. This week, dozens of Pride flags were stolen from the streets of Boise.

McCrostie stated in a text message, "Whenever we are confronted with attacks of hatred, we must respond with the message from the community that we embrace all people despite our differences."

Sunday also marked six years after the deadly shooting at the Orlando LGBTQ club Pulse, where 49 people were slain, said Troy Williams of Equality Utah in Salt Lake City.

"The result of our nation's increasing polarization has been tragic and fatal," he remarked.

Saturday in Coeur d'Alene, police discovered riot gear, one smoke grenade, shin guards, and shields in a van pulled over near a park where the North Idaho Pride Alliance was hosting a Pride in the Park event, according to Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White.

According to police and social media recordings of the arrests, the group rioted around the small northern Idaho city while sporting Patriot Front patches and logo on their caps and some T-shirts proclaiming "Reclaim America."

At least eleven states, including Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Virginia, and Arkansas, contributed to the arrests.

Despite decades of far-right militancy in northern Idaho, according to White, only one of those arrested on Saturday was from the state.

The Idaho Statesman stated that the six-hour Pride festival included vendors, refreshments, live music, a drag show, and a march of more than 50 individuals.

Jessica Mahuron of the North Idaho Pride Alliance, which planned the event, told KREM-TV, "We have been through so much." Harassment and efforts to intimidate on a psychological level. If you allow yourself to be scared, you let them win, and as we have demonstrated today, you cannot win.

On Monday, the group is due to be arraigned.