US white supremacists found guilty of gay pride riot plot

Five members of a white supremacist hate group convicted of plotting to riot at a gay pride event will spend three days in jail, a court has ruled.

The men and dozens other members of the Patriot Front group were arrested last June after a resident spotted them with masks and shields getting into a lorry.

Police were called and found riot gear and a smoke grenade in the vehicle.

The lorry was stopped near where the North Idaho Pride Alliance was holding an event in the city of Coeur d'Alene.

Forrest Rankin, Devin Center, Derek Smith, James Michael Johnson and Robert Whitted were convicted on Thursday of misdemeanour charges of conspiracy to riot.

On Friday, a judge ordered all five men to spend three days in jail, on top of the two they have already served.

They were also given one year of unsupervised probation, in which they are allowed to leave the state, and were banned from coming within two miles (3.2km) of city parks.

The judge ordered their judgement to be withheld, meaning that they can ask the court to retroactively dismiss the case after they complete their punishment.

The men had intended to riot and to approach people attending the pride event in a "tumultuous manner", said Ryan Hunter, deputy city attorney, in his closing arguments on Thursday.

Police arrested 31 members of Patriot Front near the annual Pride in the Park event in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on 11 June last year.

The police said they were alerted by a local resident, who called them to say that it "looked like a little army" was loading up into the lorry.

Photos and videos emerged on social media at the time, showing the accused in masks kneeling on the grass with their hands tied behind their backs.

The prosecution argued that the group's conduct rather than its message was the focus of the case.

Patriot Front was formed in 2017 after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The group's manifesto calls for the formation of a white ethnostate in the US, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

"Patriot Front focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism that can be easily distributed as propaganda for its chapters across the country," the SPLC said of the group.

The anti-racism organisation ADL says Patriot Front belongs to the alt-right segment of white supremacists, but claims to be "patriotic". It has called for "American Fascism", describing it as a "return to the traditions and virtues of our forefathers", ADL says.

The group's manifesto claims that non-whites are not "Americans" and its symbols include the fasces - a Roman bundle of sticks representing authority and used last century by Mussolini's Italian Fascists, ADL says.