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TOUGH LOVE: Mother CONFRONTS Patriot Front member arrested at Idaho LGBTQ event

TOUGH LOVE: Mother CONFRONTS Patriot Front member arrested at Idaho LGBTQ event

TOUGH LOVE: Mother CONFRONTS Patriot Front member arrested at Idaho LGBTQ event

The shocking news that 31 members of the White nationalist group the Patriot Front were arrested by Idaho state police as they were about to try to violently disrupt an annual LGBTQ+ pride event in Coeur d’Alene hit Karen Amsden particularly hard.

It turns out that her son Jared Michael Boyce, of Springville, Utah was among those whose future employment opportunities suddenly became extremely limited after his name and photo were published by Idaho police along with his alleged co-conspirators in the hate crimes that the authorities had prevented.

Authorities say, according to The Daily Beast, that the members of the Patriot Front were “armed with riot gear, shields, and a smoke grenade, along with documents that appeared to be an ‘operations plan’” as they arrived at the pride event in a rented U-Haul van and were immediately intercepted by the police, zip-tied, and arrested for conspiracy to riot.

After posting bail, apparently with money supplied by an anonymous donor, Jared Michael Boyce turned up on his mother’s doorstep on Sunday and begged her to not believe the news reports she had heard about the incipient hate crime.

“Don’t believe the media, mom. We were just there because they’re grooming kids,” Boyce told his mother.

It was not an excuse that Karen Amsden took seriously. The licensed clinical social worker told The Daily Beast that “her son has struggled to fill ‘a void’ in his life ever since his father left the family years ago and came out as gay.”

She gave an exclusive interview to the publication in the hopes that she could convince him to renounce his ultra-racist views or at least alienate him from the other Patriot Front members.

“I would love to do whatever I can to out him [as a Patriot Front member] so that he can’t be a part of it,” Amsden said. “And that they don’t want him to be a part of their group because his mom has loose lips and a big mouth and he’s never going to get away with anything.”

Boyce, however, was reluctant to abandon the White nationalist group that has served as his surrogate family in the wake of his Oedipal problems. He told his mother that he was not going to leave the Patriot Front.

At that point, Amsden decided that she needed to deliver an ultimatum.

“I told him, ‘Well, then you can’t live here. You can choose between Patriot Front and your family.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I can’t quit Patriot Front.’ I’m like, ‘Well, then you’ve just chosen. So pack your stuff and get out of my house.’”

In case you may have any modicum of sympathy for the 27-year-old man being kicked to the street by his own mother, here are some details about Jared Michael Boyce that The Daily Beast compiled that may remove any latent pity that you may still have for him.

“Boyce, whose Twitter bio states that he’s an ‘Alpha Chad,’ ‘professional Antifa teabagger,’ and ‘Patriot through and fucking through,’ was previously exposed as a Patriot Front member in 2020. His screenname, ‘@PedosnJooshang,’ is a variation on ‘Pedos and Jews Hang.’”

Well-adjusted, this man is not.

Amsden says that she “had no inkling” that her son was going to Idaho to participate in a gay-bashing exercise. since he had told her that he was going camping for the weekend. It was only when news alerts about the arrests in Coeur d’Alene showed up on her phone did she realize what had happened.

“I saw this news story come up that said 31 members of a white supremacist group were were arrested at a rally, and I just knew—I knew he was part of it,” she told The Daily Beast.

“I could tell it was him,” she said. “And I had tried calling his phone and it was just going straight to voicemail and then later I was able to access the jail website and confirm that he was one of the guys that was arrested. It’s a sick feeling.”

“He’s so misguided and bought into all their rhetoric. It just makes me sick,” Amsden said, adding that she hopes his arrest is a “wake-up call” to quit.

“This is not who I raised,” she continued. “This is not the example that was set for him.”

It’s a sad commentary on a human being when he chooses a continued association with a group of fellow aggrieved racists rather than an allegiance to his own family and his own mother.

It’s likely that the other members of the Patriot Front have similar psychological baggage as Boyce that drove them to join a hate group. It’s still no excuse for this kind of hateful behavior. Let’s hope that the mothers of these other men can be similarly strong and provide them with the tough love that they need to get back on the right path and renounce their bigotry.

Original reporting by Justin Rohrlich and Kate Briquelet at The Daily Beast.

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Vinnie Longobardo
Managing Editor
Vinnie Longobardo is the Managing Editor of Occupy Democrats. He's a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.

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