US Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism-Now They Don't Know How to Stop It

[kpete]

U.S. Law Enforcement
Failed to See the Threat
of White Nationalism.
Now They Don’t
Know How to Stop It.

For two decades, domestic counterterrorism strategy
has ignored the rising danger of far-right extremism.
In the atmosphere of willful indifference, a
virulent movement has grown and metastasized.

BY JANET REITMANNOV. 3, 2018





he first indication to Lt. Dan Stout that law enforcement’s handling of white supremacy was broken came in September 2017, as he was sitting in an emergency-operations center in Gainesville, Fla., preparing for the onslaught of Hurricane Irma and watching what felt like his thousandth YouTube video of the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va. Jesus Christ, he thought, studying the footage in which crowds of angry men, who had gathered to attend or protest the Unite the Right rally, set upon one another with sticks and flagpole spears and flame throwers and God knows what else. A black man held an aerosol can, igniting the spray, and in retaliation, a white man picked up his gun, pointed it toward the black man and fired it at the ground. The Virginia state troopers, inexplicably, stood by and watched. Stout fixated on this image, wondering what kind of organizational failure had led to the debacle. He had one month to ensure that the same thing didn’t happen in Gainesville.

Before that August, Stout, a 24-year veteran of the Gainesville police force, had never heard of Richard Spencer and knew next to nothing about his self-declared alt-right movement, or of their “anti-fascist” archnemesis known as Antifa. Then, on the Monday after deadly violence in Charlottesville, in which a protester was killed when a driver plowed his car into the crowd, Stout learned to his horror that Spencer was planning a speech at the University of Florida. He spent weeks frantically trying to get up to speed, scouring far-right and anti-fascist websites and videos, each click driving him further into despair. Aside from the few white nationalists who had been identified by the media or on Twitter, Stout had no clue who most of these people were, and neither, it seemed, did anyone else in law enforcement.

There were no current intelligence reports he could find on the alt-right, the sometimes-violent fringe movement that embraces white nationalism and a range of racist positions. The state police couldn’t offer much insight. Things were equally bleak at the federal level. Whatever the F.B.I. knew (which wasn’t a lot, Stout suspected), they weren’t sharing. The Department of Homeland Security, which produced regular intelligence and threat assessments for local law enforcement, had only scant material on white supremacists, all of it vague and ultimately not much help. Local politicians, including the governor, were also in the dark. This is like a Bermuda Triangle of intelligence, Stout thought, incredulous. He reached out to their state partners. “So you’re telling us that there’s nothing? No names we can plug into the automatic license-plate readers? No players with a propensity for violence? No one you have in the system? Nothing?’’





...........



OMG MORE (about time):
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/magazine/FBI-charlottesville-white-nationalism-far-right.html

thread:

Link to tweet

[asiliveandbreathe]

1. I do believe this is an important discussion - but, you know what-

Where has law enforcement been....I just don't understand, in this day and age of technology..states are NOT communicating with each...after so many reports from the Southern Poverty Law Center - including maps....

This disgusts me..and to think we are worried about parents and children trying to escape terror in their own countries....just to survive..

[Lonestarblue]

12. Some law enforcement is part of the white nationalism.

Here’s a link from 2016 about the FBI warning 10 years before that white nationalists were infiltrating police forces. We’re certainly seen the evidence of black bias in the numerous police shootings of black people, usually with no consequences. Somehow we need to make those who believe in and support white nationalism pariahs.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforcement

[asiliveandbreathe]

14. Yes, and in 2009 - Janet Napolitano DHS identified

extremism and "lone wolf".....feigned indignation erupted - by republicans of course....

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/011011_lone_wolf_attacks/dhs-report-warned-lone-wolf-attacks-2009/

Levin worried that political fallout rendered the report's findings "impotent," as well as future reports from the department profiling extremist groups. "Rather than the report being a hit piece, the hit piece was what was done in the wake of the report."

The report was spot on!!!!

[Marie Marie]

18. Yes and this: She was forced to apologize for her findings.

[asiliveandbreathe]

29. Yes...the report needs to be revisited..in light of the fact - most of what was written has come to

fruition....

From link above...

"Not only was [the report] buried, the actual unit which created it was disemboweled," said Brian Levin, a professor of criminal justice and the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. He noted that DHS is congressionally mandated to study long-term trends among extremist groups. - probably not so today.....

[allgood33]

39. We can call on a Democratic House to open up investigations.

Most Law Enforcement love Trump because he gives them license to be the fascist, racist jack boots they always wanted to be and with a gun they can use without much consequence. The good ones among them are ostracized, bullied, threatened and disrespected. I know three really good troopers in MD and 1 County police officer who retired ASAP either on disability or by legal age because they couldn't stand what was going on among their ranks. Sadly, even some minority officers were among the worst. I was born in PA and two relatives joined law enforcement there...same shit. If there wasn't corruption and payola there was rank racism. Sad. We need massive law enforcement cleansing.

[asiliveandbreathe]

42. Perhaps the discussion will bring back 'round the original report - extremism....

Peel back the onion, so to speak...we have seen lately, some very fine ret. Fed. investigators speaking truth to power...Malcolm Nance comes to mind, as well as others...the good ones - Ret. law enforcement officers, Serpico types...there is good and bad in every profession, desperate people do desperate things..certainly greed plays into the equation, as well....

Each state, county, and city - take stock....

For now - VOTE.....

[LiberalLovinLug]

32. Bingo

Its not that they didn't see it coming. They facilitated it.

[murielm99]

23. We have been giving to the SPLC since the 1980s.

The information is out there.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Didn't Trump shut down the departments that were investigating the rise

of white supremacist groups?

[TomSlick]

8. Actually, it was before Trump.

The GOP Congress shut it down during the Obama administration.

[The Liberal Lion]

16. exactly.

With even seeing the title of this post I thought "what a load of shit. The Obama administration saw it, tried to monitor it, and the republicans in the congress shut him down".

[TomSlick]

21. I heard an early briefing on the danger of right-wing, white-supremacist, etc. groups posed

--- before the program was shut-down.

It was chilling.

[paleotn]

27. Bingo.

[Hortensis]

3. Nonsense. White nationalism has always been part

of this and every other white nation. Black nationalists of black nations. Hard-core right wingers, nationalist or other types, always cause trouble and require monitoring.

I haven't read this article yet, but if it's like every single other one I've read with this kind of "government's too stupid to know how to scratch its butt" theme, it's failed to point out that white nationalists are Americans and that it's not government's job to stop American citizens from believing in and voting their beliefs.

THIS IS THE CITIZENRY'S CHOICE AND RESPONSIBILITY. Democratic republics must be tended and directed by their citizens. They don't run on their own. If some citizens choose to sit on their butts while other citizens elect white nationalists to restyle their nation, and persecute all who don't agree with them, that is democracy.

"It's the vote, stupid." Right up until the day we let it be taken away, even choose to have it taken away, our vote is our power.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. The roots of the modern idea of a police force are protection of property and finding people

escaping slavery. With that heritage, and the power it grants, educating the actors in the carceral state is a tall order.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Let's be honest,there are Police Deptments where the

White Nationalist's are employed or they are so biased against non Anglo persons,that their true mission has been compromised.

[uponit7771]

5. But of course they knew they had to stop BLM !!!

[ck4829]

6. It's up to us

[brush]

9. Come on, people. Think. We're progressives here. We know what this is when we think about it.

This whole absence of knowledge of white nationalism/terrorism is nothing but another aspect of white, male privilege.

Most LEOs are white males so many don't even think to be suspicious of other white males and their activities.

Hell, many police departments have been infiltrated by these white supremacists. All the killings of unarmed black men and other POCs is no coincidence.

People of color are the people LEOs are suspicious of and aggressively police.

Other white males, those engaged in nefarious terrorists activities even, get waved through with impunity.

We should know this, people, even if it's only subconsciously.

Time to bring it forward to our conscious minds. We already know 95% of active shooters—actual terrorists—are white males.

HELLO!

[malaise]

25. That fugging simple

It explains why a drunk white kid gets no prison time for killing a Hispanic family in a car crash.

[brush]

34. There you go.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. Trump directed FBI to focus on brown people

Do people forget? Trump ordered the FBI to stop looking at White Supremacists and focus on Muslims and minority groups for domestic terrorism.

[GetRidOfThem]

11. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an important source of intelligence that law enforcement

should tap into. I am full of myself in terms of timing on this one: In February I had a gallery opening, 40% of the proceeds went to the SPLC, whom I had picked as the charitable beneficiary. Now they are in the news all the time.

No, I agree, law enforcement was caught flatfooted...

[SharonAnn]

15. SPLC has been writing and publishing on this for more than 20 years

I guess it’s just been “whistling in the wind” because Law Enforcement Agencies did’t Act.

[saidsimplesimon]

13. Case in point, former Maricopa Co. Sheriff

Arpaio. He knew about these threats as I bet most Sheriffs also know.

These nationalists contributed to and for decades voted for him.

[Corgigal]

17. Oh come on,

this isn't a hard one. Request the southern poverty center for a inservice. Each large agency send one person to the inservice. Ask them to share their intelligence, the names an even locations. Even the FBI should be there, they know these same group because they need to be funded and love to do bank robberies.

No charge.

[oldlibdem]

19. They knew.....

They purposely chose to ignore it for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is they view the alt-right as comrades as opposed to the criminals they are!

[lark]

20. Too many in both police and FBI are white nationalists, so of course this is hidden on the downlow.

It was a thing to recruit white nationalists for policemen and I think that's exactly what we saw at Charlottesville. The white cops let the fascists beat up others and did zero until someone was killed. They caused this by their deliberate inaction.

[DallasNE]

22. Law Enforcement Failed To See It

Because they are too often right wing soulmates themselves. It is why we need movements like Black Lives Matter. The surprise would have been if they saw it.

[gopiscrap]

24. that's because most cops are racist, entho-centric pigs themselves

[ananda]

26. Failed or willfully ignored or played down?

Hmmm

[Garrett78]

28. Well, the Obama Admin did create the Countering Violent Extremism Task Force.

Of course, the staff and budget has been all but eliminated.

[Solly Mack]

30. Bullshit. They knew. They've always known. From the Klan to the White Citizens' Councils to

America First, to Neo-Nazis to Aryan groups, so on and so forth through to the "alt-right".


They knew.

They chose to ignore it. To play it down. To pretend it didn't exist.

From 2009:

https://fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf

[Duppers]

37. Thanks.

Downloaded that.

[Danascot]

31. The Far Right Is Far More Dangerous

Twenty years earlier, when right-wing extremists blew up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, the Clinton administration went after their ilk. But even as right-wing violence began to grow again in succeeding decades, federal law enforcement devoted far greater resources to countering the jihadist threat. Such a response was understandable in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attack, when al-Qaida was clearly plotting massive attacks on American soil.

That policy makes no sense today.

Not surprisingly, however, the Trump administration has virtually disbanded the Department of Homeland Security division aimed at thwarting right-wing terror. Within the White House, presidential advisers such as Sebastian Gorka —a supposed "terrorism expert" and a figure connected with Nazi nostalgists in his homeland of Hungary — insisted Islamist terrorists were the only real threat. Gorka is long gone from the National Security Council, but his misguided outlook remains influential.

Now we know how wrong he was to discount the murderous ambitions of the far right. And we should stop deluding ourselves that "both sides" represent an equivalent threat to security and order. It is a very dangerous lie.

https://www.creators.com/read/joe-conason

[Initech]

35. Oh absolutely.

They're the ones who aren't sending us their best people. They're rapists, they're murderers, they're arms dealers. They have to go.

[Blue_true]

33. Police agencies (all of them) should become more familiar with the Sourthern Poverty Law Center and

The Anti-Deformation League. Both have studied white supremacy for more than two decades and have plenty of names and acts of violence.

Once police agencies are up to speed, they should treat white supremacist organizations like they treated the American Italian mob.

[Roland99]

36. NYT Mag is full of BULLSHIT!!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211359119

[workinclasszero]

38. They didn't see it because they are a part of it and/or agree with the white nationalist terrorists

Look at the alt right/nazi/KKK riot in Cville.

The police stood by and watched it/let it happen.

[Mr. Quackers]

40. The police can start by cleaning their own

racist white nationalist houses first.

Oh, and stop killing black men.

[BumRushDaShow]

41. "There were no current intelligence reports he could find on the alt-right"

Because they didn't "fit the description". They preferred to invest more resources in going after BLM and the fake "New Black Panther Party" rather than look in the mirror.

SPLC has been tracking these groups for decades.

[ck4829]

43. Kick