KELO-TV reads the online news site Cowboy State Daily and learns one of the two South Dakota men arrested for conspiracy to riot a truckload of white supremacists in Idaho Saturday is a recent transplant from Wyoming:
James Michael Johnson, 40, who worked as a senior auditor for the Wyoming Department of Audit as of late 2021, was charged with conspiracy to riot along with 30 other members of the group “Patriot Front.”
Johnson now lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota [Jimmy Orr, “Former State of Wyoming Employee Arrested for Riot Charges with White SUpremacists in Idaho,” Cowboy State Daily, 2022.06.13].
Having recently moved to Cheyenne from Aurora, Colorado, Johnson ran for city council in Cheyenne Ward 2 in 2020 to save Cheyenne from leftist riots:
Having recently moved from Colorado, Johnson wants to lead the city away from becoming like places like Portland and Denver with “(Black Lives Matter) riots and Antifa riots every night.”
“A lot of people here in Wyoming, a lot of people here in Cheyenne, don’t want to see Wyoming turn into Colorado, don’t want to see Cheyenne turn into Denver. I stand strongly for that, considering the fact that I came from there, and I don’t want to see Cheyenne turned into the same thing that I just left” [Margaret Austin, “James Johnson Seeks Ward 2 Seat on Cheyenne City Council,” Wyoming Tribune Eagle, 2020.08.01].
In another campaign interview, Johnson sounds like Logan Manhart decrying non-rural America, like Kristi Noem and Hungary’s Viktor Orban preaching a fake ideology against inevitable change, and like any right-wing lunkhead peddling fear of liberal bogeymen:
I believe our municipal leadership should always have in mind what Cheyenne was, is, and what it should remain with each and every proposal they pursue. I would hate to see Cheyenne become another overcrowded, expensive, and frankly, corrupt and “progressive” controlled metropolis like so many cities.
…The main role of the city council is to not only serve as responsible stewards of our taxpayer resources, but also to serve as guardians of our liberties against out of control public officials and against mob rule and mass hysteria.
As a conservative, I do not allow my decisions to be forced by emotional appeals. I carefully consider historical trends and data in reaching my conclusions. I will not be pressured into something like taking down statues, promoting witch hunts of our small businesses, or passing an ordinance that pushes our city further to the left just because a well-organized and vocal minority of our citizens screams the loudest [James Michael Johnson, in Tiffany Logan, “Meet Your Candidates: Cheyenne City Council Ward 2,” KCRG-TV, 2020.07.16].
Johnson said the first thing he’d do on council was lift all coronavirus restrictions. Johnson placed fifth in a five-way primary for two ballot spots.
During that summer campaign, Johnson put up a video podcast on alt-right Patriot Front fave Bitchute to show how politically and physically fit he was. Luckily for me, those videos don’t load, so I’m spared the temptation to watch and retch.
But the folks who encountered Johnson in Cheyenne don’t need to watch his alt-right videos to see his participation in the Patriot Front’s Idaho riot conspiracy as in character:
State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, said he was confrontational in his dealings with him and others.
“It’s not surprising that Mr. Johnson was arrested for his part in the planned attack in Idaho,” Brown said. “He displayed very poor judgment and uncivil dialogue with many others during his time in Cheyenne.”
“His group of friends in Cheyenne should take note that this type of “political discourse” is not only highly frowned upon but down right illegal,” Brown said.
Sara Burlingame, Executive Director of Wyoming Equality and former state legislator, told Cowboy State Daily she was not surprised to see that Johnson was arrested on Saturday.
“Was I shocked to see a local darling of the alt-right show up in a lineup of thugs? Of course not,” Burlingame said.
“One word describes it: predictable. This guy harassed our office, made a public spectacle of maligning LGBTQ advocates and was embraced by the state party. Of course he’s hiding out in a U-Haul in Idaho, of course he’s looking to attack defenseless people out celebrating PRIDE,” she said.
Rod Miller, former gubernatorial advisor to two Wyoming governors and now a political columnist for Cowboy State Daily, wrote a letter to the editor in 2020 to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle expressing his concern over Johnson’s use of “divisiveness, fear, hate, and extreme right-wing zealotry” in his bid for city council.
“Johnson marches around downtown armed with a gun or a baseball bat, claiming to be keeping us safe,” Miller wrote. “Johnson’s campaign social media pages are chocked full of hyperbole and right-wing fear” [Orr, 2022.06.13].
Johnson spread hyperbole and fear about riots in his failed 2020 campaign. But it’s Johnson and his fellow thugs who are plotting riots and threatening the Coeur d’Alene cops who are trying to keep law and order.
The White House, Congress, and the Fed better get the ship turned around soon or I have a feeling we’re going to see way worse than conspring to riot, like actual riots.
Reminds me of the Republican booth at the Central States Fair, manned w/ thugs speaking in angry invectives, milling around confrontationally in the aisles around the Democratic… (spelled “DEMOCRATIC”) booth, like Phil Jensen and especially another little stout younger guy w/expensive, brunette hair cut, beard, and dare I say, w/ a cleft palate, in good cop/bad cop fashion, heavily criticizing economic graph posters on display produced by a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate. And a more intelligent biker/vested-Vietnam era veteran, more cordially confrontational.
It’s the Republican party that is the problem.
This guy is a transplant from Wyoming?
What a shock.
The Dope Queen of Delusions dog whistle is bringing in the useful idiots.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of these turds everywhere.
Noem should probably consider doubling up the fence around the Governors
mansion on stolen Indian land in Pierre
because these Dopes will fight any boogeyman their dog handlers sick them on.
https://www.rawstory.com/jared-michael-boyce/
Patriot Front baby snowflake kicked out of Mom’s home after arrest. AWWWWW!
2 Sioux Falls policemen awaiting trial for hard-core child porn.
2 Sioux Falls men charged & arrested as part of a white supremacist group planning a riot at a Idaho Pride Parade.
Seems like something rotten is going on in Sioux Falls that we should all be paying attention to.
Patriot Front, Patriot Ripple Effect…
Of course Eve, it’s happening in Sioux Falls as it is in the Hills. These Trumpist vagabonds follow the path of least resistance. As long as they are tolerated and can pick up a buck here and there, they’ll move in and fester.
Do y’all notice these “bottom feeders” gravitate to small states with small towns and small cities?
Think that’s because if they were tossed into a “big city” jail they’d be in waaaaaay over their heads among groups with little tolerance for white supremacists.
Foment among the extreme white wing in the Mountain West has been covered extensively because they’re the primary sponsors of Trump Stop the Steal grift.
https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.2/north-extremism-the-washington-d-c-siege-has-western-roots-and-consequences
The photo of their baby faced leader is comical. His pointy little beard and hair and his grimace oh my. They are all so laughable. It makes my day.