'A nightmare scenario': Extremists in police ranks spark growing concern after Capitol riot

[UpInArms]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON – Charges against police officers, public safety workers and military veterans in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol have reignited concerns among lawmakers and law enforcement officials about violent extremists infiltrating government agencies.

Out of 324 arrests in the Capitol riot so far, 43 are current or former first responders or military veterans, according to USA TODAY analysis. At least four police officers and three former officers face federal charges. Two have been fired, one resigned and one was suspended without pay. Each of the officers charged has either pleaded not guilty or not yet been arraigned.

The alleged participation of public safety officials who have sworn to uphold the Constitution has led lawmakers to sound the alarm.

... snip ...

The Capitol insurrection, where 140 police officers were injured and three later died, featured numerous examples of violent extremism and white supremacy. Rioters carried Confederate flags and nooses, and wore shirts saying the deaths of six million Jews during the Holocaust weren't enough. Amid the crowd, law enforcement officers reveled in social media posts about how they "attacked the government," according to court documents.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/elections/2021/03/21/police-charged-capitol-riot-reignite-concerns-racism-extremism/4738348001/

[llashram]

1. nothing new here

if Americans want racism gone, it would be a conquered enemy of our American democracy. Simple as that, really. Too many people want their entitlement fixed to race and/or skin colour.

[mahannah]

7. Nothing is that simple.

[DanieRains]

24. Actually It Is Simple

People don't ever want to lose privilege.

They will fight.

Always.

[apnu]

2. Black people everywhere: 'We've been saying this for generations' (nt)

[lark]

5. White liberal young people - we recognized this truth back in the 60's, took us longer.

We realized this when we were maced, beaten, arrested & even killed for protesting the Viet Nam horror and racist voting laws.

[Baitball Blogger]

23. So, looks like the Black Live Matter movement scores a positive change.

Raising Awareness, and they did it masterfully.

[mucifer]

3. I know it's been an issue in Chicago for decades and probably since there

was a Chicago police department. I'm glad people finally are talking about it in a more mainstream way.

[ck4829]

4. K&R

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. Racism, the Blue Wall and RW media a toxic cocktail they're...

drinking.

But maybe Jan 6th arrests and prosecution will shed some harsh light on the nests.

Read 'em their rights, and lock 'em up.

[hydrolastic]

8. Psychology class i took once said that a police person and a criminal

Have the same personality traits. Its just the choices made early on that differentiate them. What I wonder about is the mental twist that they experienced when they were going home from the melee. The moment they went from patriot to felon. What i find amazing is hearing about their statements and still standing by Trump.

[DENVERPOPS]

30. I would argue

that the same exact thing would be true of most of the top Corporate CEO's and executives. These individuals are narcissistic psychopaths and have found corporations socially acceptable and "legal" hideouts.......If they weren't in the corporations, they would probably be in Prison.......

It has been blatantly obvious with what we have just seen, what these "corporate" types do in the Government when they are given complete and over powering power in running our country.

Trump, his cabinet, and administration immediately concentrated on things that made them and their Uber Rich groupies more money, at the same time their actions showed no compassion for the people they employed, their customers, general population, or the environment.

They immediately chose to become tyranincal dictators and ignore all Rules of Law.....ahead of all else............

Like you pointed out, there are many good cops, and sadly, an increasing numbers of bad cops who have been given power and now are gravitating towards exhibiting their core psychological tendencies and deep sadistic behavior towards the public.

If you disagree, look no further than the Pharmaceutical Industry, or the Oil and Gas Industry to name a few.
Likewise look no further than the escalating flagrant police brutality and killings of innocent people that we have seen by the bad/sick cops.

Many of us have been screaming our heads off about all of this from the rooftops since Reagan was installed in 1980, and people just looked at us like WE were the crazy fanatical ones.........

[Botany]

9. Many cops listen to and believe that they are hearing the truth from hate talk radio, TV, and ....

... what they see on right wing web sites. 80% of the police graduated in the bottom 20% of
their high school class.

[TheRickles]

12. Do you have a link for that stat? It's fascinating and I'd like to share it. Thanks.

[Botany]

33. That figure is something I have heard a # of times a few years back.

I tried to look it up but I couldn't find anything now.

[TheRickles]

41. Thanks for trying. If you ever find something,

please consider posting it. My peeps are into primary sources, so just the assertion alone won't carry much weight with them. But if there's something hard to back it up, that'd be great. (my hunch is it's true, FWIW).

[DENVERPOPS]

31. That wouldn't surprise me a bit.

The other thing that is interesting that many of the newly hired cops were previously military, and have recently come back from war zones.

They only have known and lived, by showing absolute and complete force for every situation. Shoot or be shot... And countless numbers of them are suffering from major un-treated PTSD..........

[MarcA]

34. Also security firms and private police forces. n/t

[Botany]

36. I have known a # of cops and what they have to or had to deal with on a daily basis is grim.

A # of them have a simple philosophy. We always go home.

[DENVERPOPS]

45. As you said:

"I have known a # of cops and what they have to or had to deal with on a daily basis is grim."

The same or much worse can be said of the millions of incredibly wonderful medical caregivers dealing with Covid Patients this past year.
Every minute of every day, they were dealing with something horrific, invisible, and deadly that could kill them. Many of them did not always go home.

Paramedics and EMT's are another group of GROSSLY under respected first responders...............I have found that paramedics in urban areas are paid FAR LESS than Cops or Firefighters, when in fact they answer calls one after another when on duty, and are forced to make life or death decisions, many times every day, in the treatment of patients and there is no one backing them up.

They see the absolute worst horrors of things that most can never even imagine, and probably suffer from more PTSD than Firefighters and Police put together.

You can see it in the amount of them that suffer burnout, long before their careers would last until retirement.

Any cop who says my job is extremely dangerous, or any firefighter that says their job is extremely dangerous, should ride along with Denver Paramedics for a week of shifts........

[Normanart]

42. Not a new thing

When I came back from Vietnam, the only job offers available were from law enforcement. This was 1968.

[pidge]

52. Lots of kids that don't do well in high school do quite well in life.

[Efilroft Sul]

10. USA TODAY got the headline wrong. It wasn't a "riot;" it was an insurrection.

Calling it a riot downplays the severity of what happened.

[PSPS]

17. Yes, the word "riot" seems to have become the preferred noun now everywhere.

At least they used "insurrection" in the first sentence of the story.

[LittleGirl]

27. That's the instigators word for Jan 6

Riot rather than “Insurrection” against our government!

That is the truth.

[Cinnamonspice]

40. Agreed.

[HUAJIAO]

11. "Rioters carried Confederate flags and nooses,..."

TERRORISTS, not rioters,,,,

argghhhh

[panfluteman]

13. Racism Is the Original Sin of Our Country. Donald Trump's Big Lie

Will have far reaching toxic effects that may not be fully known or appreciated for decades to come. Of course, Trump originally told the Big Lie to keep himself in power, but he is no longer in power, so that original purpose was not reached or realized. Although the original self serving purpose of the Big Lie was not achieved or realized, the toxic legacy of racism that it subtly keyed into has been stirred up, and Lord knows where it will wind up. Trump was such an irresponsible sociopath that he doesn't give a rat's @$$ about the long term consequences or collateral damage to our politics, our society, or our nation.

[DENVERPOPS]

32. THIS....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that there are a large number of us who do KNOW EXACTLY where this is going to end up, and we don't need the Lord to tell us...
It seriously frightens me that there are 70 Million U.S. Citizens running around out there that love the potential tyranny, and anarchy.....
All of these rightwing fanatical massively armed "citizens" should be rounded up and dropped off in Afghanistan......seriously....

And your last sentence is right on target, but it isn't just Trump, it seems that is what the ENTIRE Republican Party stands for.....

[bluestarone]

44. TRUE and to add to your last sentence

I would add years of russian planning and blackmailing. Making THIS a perfect storm attempt to DESTROY our country! THIS was planned for years! (with QTHUGLICON assistance) There is many TRAITORS among us, Hell 175 House members and who knows how many Senate traitors! We have a MESS to deal with and 4 years to break them up.

[DENVERPOPS]

47. YES, bluestarone

Last edited Sun Mar 21, 2021, 02:53 PM - Edit history (1)

When and if the depth of the Putin involvement is ever known, and politicians are identified as being complicit, the citizens of the U.S. will be totally shocked.

Putin has been working to this end for decades.....he is hell bent on destroying the U.S. government and Democracy to get even for Russia getting trashed by the U.S. during the cold war.

My Russian friend, who is still in contact with many friends and family back home made an interesting statement one day:

He said that the Russian people have been laughing their asses off as they read about the past four years and Trump.
They are amazed at how successful Putin has been at destroying the U.S. and Democracy without starting a war, or firing a single rocket or missile...............And how easily it has been for Putin to "play" Trump and the Republican Senators............

The advances that Russia has made in the past four years are nothing short of incredible, (and frightening).......They have made un-believeable advances in all aspects of Military might and weapons.......The same can be said of their development of things purely aimed at world domination. They are totally in control of the Northern Pole and all the ownership of it's oil, gas, and mineral resources to name just one area of domination.....

And China, to a lesser extent, is right behind them........

[bluestarone]

49. WOW! i would use your EXACT words!! WE do see what's happening.

I do HOPE that this ALL can be turned around. 70 million people in their corner, is gonna be very difficult overcome! WE won this time but i really worry about Americas future!! The filibuster fight (i believe) is our ONLY chance of stopping their destruction of OUR freedoms!!

[DENVERPOPS]

50. I am old

and won't be able to witness the outcome..........

I do however, spend a lot of time worrying about all of our kids and grandkids futures at this point........................

Most of the Republican voters that I have conversed with these past five years (actually 40 years) have not one single clue about what is going on....Sadly, Democrats are, until recently, guilty of burying their heads in the sand and asleep at the wheel also.......

I read incessantly, and when this whole Covid thing was first being mentioned in December, 16?months ago. I freaked out and began mentioning to people what I was reading. (I had many courses in microbiology in college which gave me the advantage to watching and reading about it) In January of 2020, my wife and I started stockpiling food and other things we thought would be important in facing what was coming....Medicine, TP, etc etc etc Many looked at us as having gone off the deep end, and our preparation was "Much Ado About Nothing"......In that point we were way ahead of most of the nation in getting prepared.

And then, the Pandemic exploded and everyone started preparing. One day, our Hyper Republican neighbors saw us unloading some stuff in large quantity, and laughingly yelled out: HOAX ...........They had seen the movie "Outbreak" and wrote it off as pure fiction driven crap by the Hollywood liberals.............

I still feel that the saddest thing about Covid, is that it didn't attack just Republicans, especially Republican Politicians................

[bluestarone]

51. Like you, i do not fear fo myself. i'm NOT fighting this for myself, (73 years old)

It's all about the young people. My grand kids and G.Grand kids. This is the strangest disease i've ever witnessed. I do not understand how it affects different people in different ways! At times i wished these QTHUGS would get VERY SICK. (if they would, maybe they would abide by masks mandates. 50 to 70 million SELFISH people in this country. (THIS is something, i would have never believed to happen) I do hope this all will SPLIT the RETHUGLICONS which will help us i 22 and 24!! You take care!!

[DENVERPOPS]

53. Will do

you be safe and well also!

[WinstonSmith4740]

14. Yeah, it's not like they were WARNED or anything.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/28/fbi-far-right-white-supremacists-police

[DENVERPOPS]

48. THIS

Like wise with the U.S. military...............

[Wounded Bear]

15. About time they looked into this...

it's been growing steadily since the 1990's at least.

[cayugafalls]

16. Here is a direct link to the 2006 paper "White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement"

Issued by the FBI.

We've know for a long time that this was occurring and no one cares, no one listens, no one does anything about it, because white supremacist have infiltrated all walks of life, including politics.

https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/White_Supremacist_Infiltration_of_Law_Enforcement.pdf

[PSPS]

18. Police unions are all nazis and their political "campaign contributions" help elect nazis.

[cayugafalls]

19. Anti-racism needs to be a Sea Change event. It needs to start in school curriculum's and filter up,

not down. There will be no change until, as a society, we make racism and racists cultural pariahs.

We need to bring back Social Studies with an emphasis on changing and combating the ills and sickness that infiltrates our culture.

[Ohioboy]

20. If you want to beat people up and get away with it for awhile, become a cop

I remember when I made a cop mad at me because I dared to talk to his girlfriend. We lived in a small town, and the cop, myself and his girlfriend were all in our mid- twenties. He tried to make my life miserable, but he eventually lost his job due to his abusive nature. He was not just an asshole to me. He had done it to others as well. He stepped out of line one too many times and got fired.

[dlk]

21. White nationalism has been swept under the rug for far too long

This infestation has now reached critical mass, as we have seen with the violent insurrection to overthrow our government on January 6th.

[patphil]

22. I've always thought that the problem with law enforcement is

that cops don't hold themselves to the same standards as they do the general public.
that things that would get you or I arrested are routinely ignored, or covered up to protect fellow officers. Behavior's that would get you or I fired from our jobs are also ignored or covered up.
I wouldn't be surprised if 20% of the police in any given city have done things that should have got them fired or even prosecuted.
And now we see that the whole process of vetting candidates for law enforcement jobs needs to be overhauled. Not to mention continual monitoring of individual officer's on line statements, and their connections to radical, even dangerous, groups.

A law enforcement officer needs to be held to a higher standard than the citizenry in general. They have to be role models and leaders in terms of how people are treated.
Instead, time after time, we see or read about horrifying scenes of police misconduct and brutality.
And now we see more and more police actively expressing views and engaging in activities that run counter to the laws of the land; sometimes openly working to oppose them.
I think it's time to flush those bad cops from the system.

[ancianita]

25. The National Guard presence gives time to weed them out. Get rid of the NG,

and extremists in police ranks will continue, and will provide "entry" to militia extremists to demolish the very government that pays their salaries. Their stupidity is dangerous on many levels.

[Evolve Dammit]

26. This has long been a serious problem. Reflects the racism imbedded in our culture, sadly.

[Kid Berwyn]

28. Plus, the politicians.

[BobTheSubgenius]

29. I think the best one can hope for in the short-to-medium term is to tamp it down.

Reduce the amount of extremists in the police forces, because the problem will never been eliminated without the crumbling of the Blue Wall, which might never happen. And quite possibly, not even that will be 100%.

Attempts at eradication will inevitably put some 'innocent' officers under suspicion, and those resentful feelings of those being scrutinized, guilty or not, will fester and destroy confidence in both the institution and in their fellow officers.

There's a reason that Internal Affairs is almost universally known as The Rat Squad, even among good cops.

[jaxexpat]

46. More the reason to further empower Internal Affairs with authority over and above union agreement.

It may be time to entirely rethink the propriety of negotiated contracts for law enforcement employees. Especially in light of the current public outcry against their overreach, preventing accountability and providing protection for the guilty. It looks like there is no authority that can effectively discipline, much less prosecute, criminal cops. Just the suggestion by mayors and/or city councilpersons to actually serve the needs of the public is answered with threats and actual reprisals and walk-offs by these, the very persons everyone depends on for public safety and security. In essence, every citizen is at the mercy of the good will of any and all policemen even while we know some to be bad actors. We have no recourse but suspicion, mistrust. Some of their ranks apparently think they have no recourse but to further radicalize, presenting a very real danger to society.

It's a slippery slope and we have not slid completely to the bottom yet. But it will be no-mans-land on the streets if we can't prevent dangerous morons from becoming armed dangerous morons with a license to kill.

[DallasNE]

35. Why Do You Suppose

Black Lives Matter was formed? Cause and effect. Only people that have had their head in the sand doesn't already know this.

[Cozmo]

37. This freaks me out but doesn't surprise me. What I want to know is

Did Capitol Police get rid of all those jerk employees taking selfies with the insurrectionists? That memory still burns in my brain.

[Martin68]

38. Time for the police and the military to clean house before more lives are lost.

[MarcA]

39. Democracy is not a spectator sport and no system

is any better or worse than the people of which it consist.

[Cozmo]

43. Cops hide behind a blue wall. The cop community makes it easy to be an asshole

Racism and violence provides a comforting pillow they can rest their heads on. Police institutions need to make racism not such a comfortable place to be.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

54. K&R

[Omaha Steve]

55. After a review by forum hosts....LOCKING

Opinion and analysis. Can be posted in GD.

[Omaha Steve]

56. After a review by forum hosts....LOCKING

Opinion and analysis. Can be posted in GD.