Thomas Rousseau

Patriot Front is an American white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group.

Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017.

Patriot Front's aesthetic combines traditional Americana with fascist symbolism.

Internal communications within the group indicated it had approximately 200 members as of late 2021.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of reported incidents in 2021 involving distribution of racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents, in every continental state.

Patriot Front is led by Thomas Ryan Rousseau, who was a teenager when he founded the group.

In 2017, Rousseau took control of Vanguard America's web and Discord server several weeks before the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he participated as the leader of Vanguard America's contingent.

Following the bad press arising from the rally, Rousseau left Vanguard.

He used the group's domain name to form Patriot Front as a new group and recruit rally participants, though most of Patriot Front's members were former Vanguard members.

Rousseau has been arrested repeatedly in the group's activities.

As with Vanguard America, Patriot Front supports a version of white-centered ideology compatible with the views of fascists across America, such as closed borders and authoritarian government.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), "Patriot Front is a white supremacist group whose members maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it to them, and no one else."

The group uses patriotic imagery to broaden its appeal while adding symbols like the fasces, the symbol of fascism.

It uses attention-grabbing techniques like igniting smoke bombs during demonstrations and protests.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), "Patriot Front focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism that can be easily distributed as propaganda for its chapters across the country."

The group published a manifesto which contained passages including: "Those of foreign birth may occupy civil status within the lands occupied by the state, and they may even be dutiful citizens, yet they may not be American. Membership within the American nation is inherited through blood, not ink. Even those born in America may yet be foreign...Nationhood cannot be bestowed upon those who are not of the founding stock of our people, and those who do not share the common spirit that permeates our greater civilization, and the European diaspora...In order to survive as a culture, a heritage, and a way of being, our nation must learn that its collective interests are fighting against its collective threats of replacement and enslavement...The damage done to this nation and its people will not be fixed if every issue requires the approval and blessing from the dysfunctional American democratic system.

Democracy has failed in this once great nation."

The group's members consist of eight regional networks, and its recruitment is primarily done online.

The group avoids talking about guns or violence online as a policy.

A 2019 investigation by ProPublica estimated the group had about 300 members; in leaked chats at the end of 2021, Rousseau complained about a "220's to 230's membership rut".

According to the SPLC, as of 2021, Patriot Front had 42 chapters with an average of 11 members per chapter and was arguably the leading white supremacist group in the country, and the most active in using flyers for recruitment.

According to ProPublica, Rousseau and others in the group "delight in seeing their actions reflected in the SPLC's nationwide map recording acts of hate and in the media".

Patriot Front's demonstrations, literature, and sometimes acts of service are "tightly choreographed and scripted to maximize propaganda value", according to the SPLC.

The ADL estimated that Patriot Front generated 82% of reported incidents of distributing racist, antisemitic and other hateful propaganda in the U.S. during 2021, and 80% in 2020.

According to leaked chats made public in January 2022, Patriot Front members are required to deface racial justice murals in their areas.

On July 28, members of Patriot Front marched on an Occupy ICE protest in San Antonio, Texas, and filmed themselves vandalizing protestors' tents and signs.

On February 13, hundreds of racist and anti-immigrant signs and flyers were taped up in the East Boston section of Boston, Massachusetts, an area with many immigrants.

Patriot Front claimed responsibility.

Boston mayor Marty Walsh denounced the incident.

On February 15, Boston police arrested three Patriot Front members; two faced charges of carrying weapons, and one was charged with assault on a police officer after allegedly slapping an officer's hand.

On February 8, about 100 Patriot Front members marched in Washington, D.C., along the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the US Capitol grounds, and then headed north to a Walmart near Washington Union Station.

The marchers wore khakis, matching dark blue jackets, hats, full white face masks, and dark sunglasses, and carried various modified versions of the American flag with the Patriot Front logo.

In August, during protests and counter-protests in Weatherford, Texas, over a Confederate statue, police arrested three men including Rousseau who had plastered stickers on signs, parks and property.

They were charged with criminal mischief, jailed on a $500 bond and released.

On January 29, a group of men wearing khaki pants, matching blue jackets with patches, and white face masks marched on the National Mall toward the US Capitol carrying flags with Patriot Front symbolism.

On February 28, seven members of the Patriot Front, including Rousseau, were involved in a car crash.

One of the men, 20-year-old Kevin J. Bersuch, died at the scene.

Rousseau was seriously injured and needed emergency surgery, including receiving an implant to stabilize his spine.

Despite this, the Patriot Front never acknowledged that the crash happened.

The driver had been speeding.