For years, there has been an element of the ridiculous to Patriot Front and their rallies, which can look like a sort of cosplay version of a white nationalist movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a Patriot Front demonstration in Washington in May, more than a hundred Patriot Front members marched along the National Mall wearing matching outfits of beige or brown chinos and blue button-up shirts.
The ensemble was topped off with the sort of affected accessorizing that parents subject children to at weddings: each man was required to wear sand-colored suspenders, with matching hats and sewn-on arm patches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their hands, the Patriot Front members carried shields that were a derivative version of Captain America\u2019s defense system, and they had tight white fabric wrapped around their faces. The goal of their activity \u2013 Patriot Front aims to create a white ethno-state, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center \u2013 is serious, but they found themselves ripe for ridicule.
\u201cYou wear Walmart khakis!\u201d one bystander heckled. \u201cYou are sloppy! You are not even matching! You all have different types of pants on! Cargo pants are out! Reclaim your virginity!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the years following Patriot Front\u2019s 2017 inception, however, they have slowly grown in influence and threat, experts say. In 2023, those who monitor hate groups say Patriot Front is increasingly moving towards public displays and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you asked me about Patriot Front in 2017 or 2018, I\u2019d say they\u2019re looking for attention. They\u2019re putting up some stickers, and doing some banner drops here and there, and it\u2019s all about just getting in the news. But now it\u2019s gone well beyond that,\u201d said Stephen Piggott, a researcher at Western States Center who focuses on white nationalist, paramilitary and anti-democracy groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the group is morphing from a solely propaganda-based outfit to a much more violent one, based on what we\u2019ve seen over the past couple of years. They\u2019re trending to much more violence, more in-person direct actions, versus putting up stickers under the cover of night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patriot Front formed in 2017, having splintered from the white nationalist group Vanguard America in the wake of the deadly Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Led by Thomas Rousseau, Patriot Front initially focused on clandestine propaganda efforts: dropping racist literature in neighborhoods and posting stickers in public places.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Patriot Front was responsible for the vast majority of \u201chateful propaganda\u201d in the US in 2019, 2020 and 2021. In the past couple of years, the group has begun to venture more into the daylight, and held more rallies and demonstrations.
The leadership has stayed the same, under Thomas Rousseau, a Texas-based extremist. But Patriot Front has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s indicative of the movement. The white nationalist movement more broadly is getting more extreme, more hardcore, more violent,\u201d Piggott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That violence has been seen across the US. In May, Joe Biden described white supremacy as \u201cthe most dangerous terrorist threat\u201d to the country. This week, a University of Chicago poll found that 12 million American adults, or 4.4% of the adult population, believe violence is justified to restore Donald Trump to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antisemitic incidents, meanwhile, rose in the US in 2022; there was an increase in anti-Asian American hate crimes over the past two years; and a recent FBI report found that hate crimes as a whole rose by nearly 12% from 2020 to 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a backlash to gains made by marginalized communities: I think marginalized communities are more represented, and have become more a political force as well. The white nationalist movement also sees what\u2019s going on in terms of demographics, and are not happy with the diminishing white majority of the country,\u201d Piggott said.
\u201cAnd then also really since the election of Donald Trump, we\u2019ve seen white nationalist discourse being much more mainstream. That\u2019s provided a bump for these groups in terms of they\u2019re very happy to see when elected officials and others are kind of speaking their language, using their rhetoric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s almost like a green light for them to conduct the activities that they\u2019re engaged in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Patriot Front, those activities have meant scenes like those in June last year in Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho. Police arrested 31 members of the group after they were found packed into the back of a rental truck with riot gear. The men, who an eyewitness told police \u201clooked like a little army\u201d, were charged with conspiracy to riot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A month later Charles Murrell, a Black artist, was attacked during a Patriot Front march in Boston, Massachusetts. The group has since held marches in Indianapolis and a rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This year, a group of about 25 Patriot Front members protested against a drag brunch in Nashville and conducted their Washington march.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPatriot Front worries me a lot more than other groups because of the amount of public activism that they commit to,\u201d said Jeff Tischauser, a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center\u2019s Intelligence Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAny time you get these volatile, unhinged people coming into close contact with the public, situations can escalate. That\u2019s what I worry about, because they\u2019re in public space more than any other group.
\u201cAnd you\u2019re gonna have courageous people like Charles Murrell stand up and say, \u2018We don\u2019t want you here.\u2019 That\u2019s going to be a combustible situation with the people that they have within the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There has been a rise in white nationalism and far-right politics in countries around the world in recent years. In Germany, the far-right, anti-immigrant \u200b\u200bAlternative for Germany has surged in recent polling, while last year Giorgia Meloni, whose radical-right Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots, was elected prime minister of Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the US, though, there is an extra threat. About four in 10 adult Americans live in a household with a firearm, and mass shootings are commonplace. A year on from Patriot Front\u2019s march in Coeur d\u2019Alene, the targeting of LGBTQ communities is a continuing risk, Tischauser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re worried about Pride Month. We\u2019re worried about teachers. There are groups that are out in public, that are showing up at LGBTQ-inclusive events, harassing and intimidating participants, which include children,\u201d Tischauser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m worried about the high concentration of guns that we have in this country, and this contentious movement that\u2019s becoming more hostile and more aggressive, it seems, by the day. And Patriot Front is right in the middle of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n