The mother of a Utah man arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with the white nationalist group Patriot Front last weekend has spoken out about her anguish and anger over her son’s activities.
Karen Amsden told KUTV in Salt Lake City that she does not support her son Jared Boyce’s political beliefs and was glad that someone reported him and his fellow group members to the police. Ms Amsden said that she has given him an ultimatum: choose between their family and the hate group.
Ms Amsden told the television station that she was hoping that getting arrested would make her son reconsider his affiliation with the white nationalist group.
“They feel justified in what they did and he intends on being part of Patriot Front,” she said.
Law enforcement officials in Coeur d’Alene arrested 31 people with ties to Patriot Front who were expected to disrupt and riot at last weekend’s annual Pride event in a city park. Members of the group, who came from 10 different states, were charged with intent to riot, a misdemenour.
Ms Amsden said she had a feeling that her son was involved.
“A little thing popped up on my phone about these guys being arrested, and I just knew in my heart he was part of it,” she told the television station.
Ms Amsden said that after Mr Boyce paid his bond and was released from jail, he showed up at her house in Springfield, just south of Provo. She said that if he did not disavow Patriot Front, she would have to kick him out of the house.
Ms Amsden said that she had witnessed her son being dragged into extremist ideology and conspiracy theories over a period of years. She said that when Mr Boyce began denying the Holocaust, she thought it was a joke — but she quickly realised that he was serious.
Now, she said, she feels alone with the trauma of having her son involved with a white supremacist group.
“Who do you tell? Who do you go talk to you know, like,’ Oh, my son’s you know a white supremacist, neo-Nazi,” Ms Amsden told KUTV. “You don’t want to talk about it to other people because... it’s so crazy.”
Ms Amsden said that she hoped her son might be expelled from Patriot Front if he does not choose to leave voluntarily and that she has no plans to attend his August arraignment.
Ms Amsden added in remarks to CNN: “That’s not who I am and it makes me sick to listen to it and sicker to know that this is coming from my son,” she said.
