Jared Michael Boyce from Springville, Utah was among the 31 people arrested Saturday over a plot to disrupt a Pride celebration in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Boyce, along with 30 other members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front was found, thanks to a tipster who called in suspicious activity, in the back of a U-Haul truck dressed in riot gear complete with shields, masks, and smoke grenades. They also had "operations plan" documents.
Now Boyce is looking for a new place to stay, because as his mother, Karen Amsden, told The Daily Beast, he's been kicked out of the house.
Amsden, a licensed clinical social worker, says Boyce has been looking to fill "a void" ever since his father came out as gay and left the family years ago. She hopes that in coming forward and telling his story, she can get him out of the group that she feels radicalized him -- if not by his own choice, but by sabotaging his relationship with them.
"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," she explained to The Daily Beast. "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."
Amsden recalled the moment she realized her son had taken part in the attempted riot. He had previously told her that he was going camping for the weekend and she had no reason to believe otherwise until she saw the news alert about the arrests in Utah. "I saw this news story come up that said 31 members of a white supremacist group were arrested at a rally, and I just knew--I knew he was part of it," she said. Amsden looked through the photos of those arrested and immediately recognized her son.
After being bailed out by anonymous donors, Boyce returned home. In an attempt to explain his actions, he told his mother he was "just there because they're grooming kids." Amsden gave her son an ultimatum -- hoping that the arrest would finally break the hate group's spell over her son.
"I told him, 'Well, then you can't live here. You can choose between the 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,'" she shared.
"He actually just showed up here at my house," Amsden recalled. "And it was a moment I've kind of dreaded because I was hoping he was going to change his attitude. But he's not." Regardless, she still has hope that in coming forward she can help her son leave the group. "[I] just really want to believe that people can change and that he will figure it out," she said.
