The F.B.I.’s New Approach to Combating Domestic Terrorism: Straight Talk

This is an excellent article. I applaud the FBI for its forethought and proactivism. It is a sad commentary that one must be careful in a house of worship. But it is a sign of the time in which we live. The evil one is behind wicked ideologies of white supremacy and Naziism. But the enemy shall not prevail.

One bit of practical change came across here: MAKE IT EASIER TO DO WIRE-TAPS! We want to protect our First Amendment rights to free speech, but legislators need to give the FBI all the tools possible to root out these domestic (and foreign) terrorists. As the FBI agent said, these are not 'soldiers' or super-patriots - they are simply hate-filled criminals. Get 'em and lock them up!

One can't help but wonder if anyone has asked Agent Smith, during the inevitable Q & A session after his presentation, whether having a boss who's a white supremacist has complicated his agenda of pursuing white supremacists.

These days while living the nightmare of a presidency that enables hatred can’t come to an end soon enough.

The rise of domestic terrorism is tied directly to the arrival of Trump on the political scene. He is a cancer in our country and needs to be removed from office. His rallies are disgusting and known for hate speech that no one of sound mind would allow.

Good luck to the FBI. Thank you for trying to combat the white terrorism which has been festering for decades now. I fear it is too little, too late.

The Democratic presidential and Senatorial candidates for the upcoming elections need to incorporate domestic terrorism into their platform. The so-called party of law and order have failed to adequately address and protect the country from such a grave and existential threat and have, in my opinion, condoned and even encouraged this brand of violence from their base.

Mr. Smith says "People are simply conducting acts of terror because it’s their side.” This isn't a 'both sides' situation. One side is clearly more engaged with violence. That is the side of the President.

How about a law that prohibits government spending on Twitter feeds?

How can a federal prosecutor, a Justice department appointee under the Trump administration, not declare that the "elephant" in the room is in fact Donald Trump, who riles up his base with "supremacist" rhetoric. It is the current Republican president who is responsible for much of the rise in domestic terrorism with his shameful public utterances.

When whites in the rust belt start doing better economically, they might stop scapegoating and taking their frustrations out on people of color. A big infrastructure program could help that.

I think this is just great. A federal law enforcement agency getting the idea that we can handle the truth. The truth will set you free.

A joint intelligence bulletin (“White Supremacist Extremism Poses Persistent Threat of Lethal Violence”) recently issued by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security put the U.S. white supremacist threat in perspective. It showed that white supremacists “committed 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016,” an average of about three murders per year. Not all the victims murdered by white supremacists were members of racial or ethnic minorities. Four of the 49 victims were white supremacists killed by other white supremacists during arguments over drug deals while eight were law enforcement officers murders while attempting to arrest white supremacists for armed robbery and other offenses. That is not to say that white nationalist are not a threat, but Americans are more likely to be killed by lightening bolt than by white supremacists. This is true even of the recent El Paso shooting fatalities are factored in. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3924852-White-Supremacist-Extremism-JIB.html

Reactionary, right wing factions are always violent. They have no real, factual arguments, so they use violence, lies, and distraction. The left seldom is. Projection, from our extremists, here, cannot change the facts. But, expect them to push the government to victimize the wrong side. The left needs to stop being so nice, so polite.

How many of these same pastors still support Donald J. Trump and his Republican Party?

Trump has given permission to these people to act on their vile impulses. He’s pure evil.

Interesting that their "new approach" has nothing to do with addressing the white nationalist that sits in the White House, nor the wave of avowed Nazis like Richard Spencer, or Nazi sympathizers like Ben Shapiro, who use public platforms to continually radicalize young right wing men and encourage them to become terrorists. Right wing terrorism will continue to increase as long as these kinds of people are allowed to spread their hate unimpeded. The FBI might talk a big game about wanting to combat terrorism, but they're just glorified police. And we all know that when there's a white supremacist rally, the police don't break it up--they stand with their backs to it, protecting the white supremacists. The FBI is doing the same with right wing hate speech at large. They say they stand for law and order, but they let Nazis walk free.

I am wondering if any of these domestic terrorism attacks will be coming from Jeff Sessions' imaginary Black Identity Extremists (of which he couldn't name one)?

Violence perpetrated by white men against non-white people has been used throughout American history to establish and maintain conservative Anglo white christian supremacy. As Trump and his supporters consolidate power over the GOP, I fear white christian nationalism is slowly becoming an acceptable part mainstream American conservatism and barring a major change in conservative culture, it is only a matter of time before violence against "Others" is openly supported by the GOP. Godspeed to those who oppose these dark regressive machinations before history repeats itself again.

I no longer trust or believe the FBI in any matter, which truly is SAD.

I do find some comfort from this report. The biggest purveyors of hate, violence, supremacy - however - are not just easily identifiable, but are profiting insanely on mainstream media (FOX), AM radio, and churches. I applaud law enforcement agencies for apprehending crazies; I applaud the efforts they are currently making. Is law enforcement calling on the likes of Alex Jones, Limbaugh, Nugent, Inghram, and Tucker Carlson? They operate openly and spreading hate uninhibited by any socio-religious constraints.

The impeachment process should include re-playing some of Trump's viciousness in his political rallies to the Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee. One wonders if the likes of Representatives Gaetz, Meadows and Jordon, and many others, have ever really watched Trump in full-blown mode at his rallies. Trump inspires violence. That should be listed in the Articles of Impeachment.

This hatred of the "other" has always existed in the United States. In fact, the US was founded on it, despite what the framers wrote in our founding documents. The land we live on was acquired through genocide; the infrastructure that propelled us to international prominence was forged on the backs of black slaves. Our policies, overt and otherwise, continue to marginalize everyone who isn't white. We're kidnapping children at the border, for g-d's sake. The only thing that's different now is that the man in the White House is tipping over the rocks where the most violent racists have been dwelling with their festering hatred. Trump and his minions have certainly brought this ugliness to the surface, but they didn't create it. We are all responsible for not eradicating racism generations ago. I applaud the FBI for taking the risk so seriously, but it's not their job to make us a less hateful country. That's on us.

They also need to have a sit down with the local police, many of whom endorse the policies of our homegrown white supremacists. And they need to get serious about investigating these local police departments.

It's no coincidence that racist and anti-semitic attacks have increased especially since 2016, including threats to non-white lawmakers such as AOC and Ilhan Omar. "Federal prosecutors have backed a domestic terrorism bill that they say could aid in investigations, but the effort has stalled at the White House, a Justice Department official said." Well of course it stalled at the White House. Anyone who's ever witnessed a MAGA rally knows why. When Obama was in office, I heard a prominent far right talk radio host actually suggest someone 'take him out'. At the time I also naively thought he would be paid a visit by the FBI. Nope. We all know who started this, and for the incendiary rhetoric that has flourished since - the Real Fake News (oxymoron?) - Fox, and it's ugly twin, the aforementioned talk (hate) radio. They created the ultimate frankenstein known as trump, along with his many followers. They continue to turn up the heat, fan the flames with ever more outrageous commentary, pushing the susceptible to take up arms against a made up enemy (see Comet Ping Pong Pizza). We have a lawless president, and a complicit media apparatus (Fox, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) inciting lawless acts on his behalf. At what point does freedom of speech cross into inciting violence? Does the death toll have to exceed a certain number? How many have to die at the hands of one of these idiots before we put a stop to it?

Our synagogue has taken precautions including hiring private security and off-duty police officers for decades now. It's an unfortunate reality. There have been recent bombings in a local mosque. The FBI should be taking a proactive approach to dealing with the right wing extremists who plot and carry out these attacks on churches, mosques and synagogues. It would also be helpful if national officials including our President would speak out strongly against right wing extremism resulting in violence and not implicitly encourage and condone it. It has taken far too long for the Department of Homeland Security and FBI to acknowledge and act on the danger of homegrown terrorism.

Let's all recall the agita that ensued around the rehearsal of the first that assessment under then DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano early in the first Obama. My recollection was that she pointed to the economic crisis along with the election of the first black POTUS being the impetus for a possible rise in in white supremicist hate groups. The assessment was so vilified by conservative media and Republican politicians that the document was amended to soften the warning. What if we had just let the assessment stand? Wonder if things would be different today?

Having now appeared prominently in the "fake news" the names of these agents will next appear in a tweet from the White House demanding they be fired. They are, after all, attacking the core of trump's base.

For decades a suspicion drifted thru minority circles that sympathizers with fascist and white supremacy ideologies were working in our law enforcement agencies, focusing on almost any cause but white supremacy. Local police carried the same suspicions by their actions. That’s why it is so relieving and encouraging to read, FINALLY, that leadership has begun speaking out. Public acknowledgment is critical, as important, in my view, as the arrests themselves. Would the voice of the president be as clear!

It would probably be easier for the FBI to go after rightwing domestic terrorists if those terrorists didn't have so much support from the current Administration.

It’s about time.

Our church is putting together a medical response team to deal with victims should we have a shooting at our church. We already lock our sanctuary doors during services and have a Patrol that walks the grounds. We can exit the doors if we need to leave. Our music minister has an ear bud that connects to the patrol to alert them of danger inside the sanctuary. It’s a shame we need to have these safe guards, but this is our world now.

It sounds as if the FBI is taking a more thoughtful approach than it historically has used against various flavors of right wing white terrorism (which is an awful term, but I can't think of another one that encompasses domestic political violence arising from whites, which may or may not include racism as a central tenant). Starting with Gordon Kahl and the disastrous shootout in Medina, North Dakota, in 1983 the FBI took an aggressive, violent approach towards white political terrorists which nearly always seemed to result in deaths and merely further fuel the movements. I'd wager whatever was gained was offset by fueling resentment within the social base these groups drew from -- Ruby Ridge, Idaho probably cost the FBI more than it gained. In the present political environment, a much more thoughtful and strategic approach will be necessary. People who would have never taken sides in violent domestic political conflicts are now firmly in pretty extreme political camps and may well be silently cheering some level of political violence.

Undeniably with the division and anger floating in the air these days it wouldn’t be surprising to see violence emerge.

These "lectures," while meaning to reassure via communicating support, will also exaggerate the perception in the clergy people of the probability. "Keeping one eye" out for shooters in church is no way to go to church, and is fantasizing about something catastrophic that, as individuals, they are extremely unlikely to ever experience. The odds are astronomically against it, yet people are encouraged to fantasize while in church of mass shootings about to occur. Madness. As a psychologist!, I have been aware of this happening with regard to school shootings back in the 1990's: low probability events given high media coverage, saturating people consciousness, and facilitating terror. And imitation. Yes, address it, but if you go to church, think of what you're there for, and don't fantasize about nonsense.

Perhaps they should have a heart to heart with a major promoter of hate - Donald J. Trump. Every rally he attends is full of name calling, untrue statements, false information of facts. So lets start at the top.

All I ask is that the FBI do to far-right, violent, Nazi-esque mobs what they do to, say, totally peaceful members of Black Lives Matter. Is that too much to ask? Yes, FBI: do to the far-right what you do, as a matter of course, to any group to the left of yourselves--what you've done for nigh on a century.