It's "the single biggest threat to the country" and its past time Domestic Terrorism had its Own Law

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Sunday August 11, 2019 · 10:12 AM PDT

2019/08/11 · 10:12

White nationalists participate in a torch-lit march on the grounds of the University of Virginia ahead of the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 11, 2017. Picture taken August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith - RC130D23F2D0 — Their right to Free Speech ends ... where their Fist meets my Nose ... where their Speeding Car meets my legs ... where their Bullets meet our persons. Victims of Violence have Free Speech rights too. Victims of Violence have an inalienable right to Life and Liberty, too.

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Home-grown terrorism is JUST AS Dangerous as terror from abroad — and much more insidious, due to the legal protections, American citizens have over foreigners. The main tool in Law Enforcement’s toolbox for fighting “Domestic Terrorism” are Hate Crime statutes. These are difficult to prove after the fact; and of little use — before the fact, before the next “civilian massacre“ wreaks its horrific toll ...

What is "domestic terrorism" and what can the law do about it?

by Brain Pascus, CBS News — Aug 10, 2019

[...]

The USA Patriot Act from 2001 defines domestic terrorism as a dangerous act occurring within U.S. territory that violates criminal laws in ways that are "intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping." That definition is also in the U.S. Government Code, the 53 title compilation of federal legal statutes.

[...]

“What makes domestic terrorism different is that domestic terrorists are based or operate solely in the U.S., and their acts target the U.S. government or U.S. citizens," Solomon said. "They can be 'right-wing' or 'left-wing' extremists, such as white supremacists, anti-government militias, or anarchists. They can be 'single-issue' groups, such as animal rights or environmental rights extremists. And they can be 'lone wolves' with their own agendas. Think of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski."

Under the Patriot Act, the federal government has multiple resources to combat international terrorism. It has the authority to conduct surveillance of suspected terrorists, and can mount undercover sting operations and obtain financial records.

They have fewer tools to investigate domestic terrorism.

[...]

Currently the Federal agencies cannot designate White Supremacist groups as “Terrorist” groups — due to their Free Speech protections …

FBI Is Investigating 850 Cases Of Potential Domestic Terrorism

by Greg Myre, NPR, National Security — May 8, 2019

The FBI is investigating some 850 cases of domestic terrorism and considers it serious and persistent threat, the FBI's Michael McGarrity told the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday.

[...]

The federal government, law enforcement and even civil rights groups like the ACLU all consistently say that free speech rights under the First Amendment would make it problematic to define U.S. groups as terrorist organizations.

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"A white supremacist organization is an ideology, it's a belief," McGarrity added. "But they're not designated as a terrorist organization."

The U.S. has designated about 60 groups as terrorist organizations. Most are Islamist, all are based abroad.

The Patriot Act does define domestic terrorism, which gives law enforcement some additional authority to investigate, but this does not include an actual criminal charge of domestic terrorism.

Debate in Congress

High-profile attacks in recent years, including mass shootings at synagogues and churches, has led to increased discussion about whether Congress should establish a domestic terrorism law.

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There must exist some line, upon which crossing “their Speech” is no longer protected: We are not allowed to Shout Fire in a crowded theater — unless there really is one. I’m not allowed to express my outrage at you, by “using my fist” to bloody your nose.

These are examples of “forms of expressions” NOT protected according to the Supreme Court — how much more so, should the angry threats of mass shooters, not be considered “protected ideology” … far beyond the reach of Federal Law Enforcement.

Especially considering these dire warnings, from the top guy at Federal Law Enforcement ...

FBI DIRECTOR TO CONGRESS: MOST DOMESTIC TERROR CASES ARE DRIVEN BY "WHITE SUPREMACIST VIOLENCE"

Despite Trump's denials, FBI Director Christopher Wray says right-wing racist terrorism is a major threat

by Igor Derysh, salon.com — July 24, 2019

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Tuesday that the agency has seen an increase in the number of domestic terror arrests this fiscal year, a majority of which have been motivated by white supremacy.

Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI has recorded about 100 domestic terrorism arrests in the last nine months. “A majority of the domestic terrorism cases we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence,” he told the panel.

[...]

Wray’s testimony followed a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in May, where FBI counterterrorism chief Michael McGarrity testified that the bureau was investigating 850 potential domestic terrorism cases. McGarrity said that nearly half of the cases involved racially motivated extremists, most of whom were white supremacists.

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[FBI Director Wray] he believes homegrown violent terrorism was the single biggest threat to the country.

[...]

If Wray truly believes that “homegrown violent terrorism was the single biggest threat to the country” — WHY then do they make it SO DAMN hard for Journalists to report on this threat?

The stats on Mass Shootings, and Domestic Violence Shootings, and Suicide Shootings etc. etc. should be ‘front and center’, for all our citizens, and lawmakers, and reporters to see. To contemplate. To plan to correct. To plan to avoid.

We do not bury traffic violation (and arrests) under ‘mountains of paperwork’ — why then does the DOJ bury its equally dangerous “public health threats” — of an ammo variety?

We the victims of gun violence, have a right to know — the very real threats lying in wait.

The FBI Told Congress Domestic Terror Investigations Led to 90 Recent Arrests. It Wouldn’t Show Us Records of Even One.

Four days after asking for information on the FBI’s claims of 90 domestic terrorism arrests, we are still waiting. And, frankly, it got kind of weird.

by Fritz Zimmermann, ProPublicia.org — Aug 9, 2019

[...]

Our first inquiry on Monday was straightforward: We asked for basic information about each of the 90 arrests, which we assumed had all been publicly announced.

An FBI spokeswoman wrote back: “We would not be able to provide you with a comprehensive list of these press releases. As there is no federal domestic terrorism [DT] statute so DT subjects are charged under other federal, state, and local charges.”

[...]

We wrote to the FBI again: “Thank you for getting back to me this fast and for your answer. I am a bit confused though: The number of DT arrests I was referring to originally comes from the FBI Director and was later clarified by a FBI spokesperson. So where would that number come from? I would be happy if you could clarify this point?”

The spokeswoman responded: “What do you mean? We clarified the number, it’s a comprehensive list of press releases that I’m saying we’re unable to provide.”

The spokeswoman, saying she was speaking “on background,” and thus not to be identified, later suggested that we go on the Department of Justice’s public affairs website and “see what pops up.”

So we did. When we typed in domestic terrorism arrests for the past nine months, five cases came up. But only one of the cases actually involved an American arrested for seeking to harm others in the U.S. — Cesar Sayoc, the man recently sentenced to 20 years for mailing 16 explosive devices to a variety of current and former government officials and the philanthropist George Soros.

Obviously, that was far short of the cases Wray had referenced. [...]

OK, I’m pretty good with a search engine — “just go away” challenge accepted.

Here’s the web site: Office of Public Affairs — Dept of Justice.

My first search (including “...” and + qualifiers) turns up pretty much what Fritz Zimmermann described — a jumbled mess:

"Domestic Terrorism" + arrest

My final search, got rid of the “noise”, but left only 1 noteworthy link to bring to your attention:

"Domestic Terrorism" + arrest +"white supremacy"

That lone warning, shouting into the ether, is shown next in its entirety:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, February 25, 2019

Opinion: The Grave Threats of White Supremacy and Far-Right Extremism

New York Times Opinion (Published February 22, 2019)

by Thomas T. Cullen, United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia

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Last week, federal agents in Maryland arrested a United States Coast Guard officer and said he was plotting to assassinate Democratic members of Congress, prominent television journalists and others. The officer, Lt. Christopher Hasson, apparently inspired by a right-wing Norwegian terrorist who slaughtered 77 people in 2011, stockpiled firearms and ammunition and researched locations around Washington to launch his attacks, according to investigators. Fortunately, the F.B.I. arrested him before he could act.

This frightening case is just one of several recent reminders that white supremacy and far-right extremism are among the greatest domestic-security threats facing the United States.

Regrettably, over the past 25 years, law enforcement, at both the federal and state levels, has been slow to respond. This is in part because of the limited number of enforcement tools available to prosecutors. But there are steps that can be taken to help the police and prosecutors address this growing threat — including, on the federal level, a domestic terrorism law.

In 2017, hate crimes, generally defined as criminal acts motivated by the victim’s race, ethnicity, religion, or gender, increased by about 17 percent nationally, to 7,175 from 6,121 (the number of police agencies reporting crimes also rose, by about 6 percent); in my state, Virginia, they were up by nearly 50 percent, to 202 from 137.

Killings committed by individuals and groups associated with far-right extremist groups have risen significantly. Seventy-one percent of the 387 “extremist related fatalities in the United States” from 2008 to 2017 were committed by members of far-right and white-supremacist groups, according the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. Islamic extremists were responsible for 26 percent.

The rising scourge of domestic hate has been underscored by particularly heinous acts in the past few years. In 2015, an avowed white supremacist murdered nine black congregants at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Last year in Kentucky, a white man with a history of making racist remarks was charged with shooting and killing two African-Americans in their 60s at a grocery store after trying to enter a nearby black church. Several months ago, an assailant shouting anti-Semitic slurs stormed the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh with a semiautomatic rifle and murdered 11 people.

Virginia, too, has experienced extremist violence. In August 2017, several hundred people — mainly young white men heavily influenced by white-nationalist propaganda — converged on Charlottesville, ostensibly to protest the possible removal of Confederate monuments from public parks. Among other odious acts, these “Unite the Right” protesters marched with lighted torches on the campus of the University of Virginia. They chanted “Jews will not replace us!” before attacking a small group of students and counterprotesters at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson.

The following day, some of these Unite the Right enthusiasts attacked and injured counterprotesters in Charlottesville. Their violence culminated when a white supremacist from Ohio drove his car into a crowd of people, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring about 30 others.

In 2009, Congress took an important step in arming federal investigators to deal with hate crimes by passing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This law makes it possible to prosecute as hate crimes violent acts committed against victims because of their race, color, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity or disability. The law provides stringent maximum penalties, including life imprisonment, if someone is killed during a hate crime.

But the hate crime law has its limitations. First, it requires proof that an individual acted because of a specific proscribed animus enumerated in the statute. That means investigators must uncover concrete evidence that the defendant was primarily motivated by, for example, racist or anti-Semitic views. Although this evidence exists in many hate crimes, it proves elusive in others.

Second, because it is a federal statute, prosecutors must prove a “jurisdictional” element, such as travel by the defendant across state lines. For those hate crimes that do not involve interstate travel or communication, the law can’t be invoked.

Given these limitations, elected officials should consider providing law enforcement with additional tools. At the federal level, this could include a domestic-terrorism statute that would allow for the terrorism prosecution of people who commit acts of violence, threats and other criminal activities aimed at intimidating or coercing civilians.

State officials can update and strengthen existing hate-crime laws, many of which do not include protections for some of the categories of people listed in the federal hate crimes law. Although many states have expanded these protections, the Indiana State Senate this week moved to weaken a proposed hate crime bill. In addition, states can authorize localities to place reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on demonstrations that will likely result in widespread violence and other criminal activity, like the rally in Charlottesville.

At both the federal and state levels, immediate steps are required to curtail the alarming rise of hate crimes and extremist violence in this country.

Sounds like some sound legal advice. Somehow we have to find a way to get ~~Congress~~ the GOP to act on it. This is afterall, "the single biggest threat to the country" according to the FBI Director.

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In the lead-in to the ProPublicia.org article they are promoting their citizens outreach page:

DOCUMENTING HATE

Hate crimes and bias incidents are a national problem, but there’s no reliable data on their nature or prevalence. We’re collecting and verifying reports, building a database of tips for use by journalists, researchers and civil-rights organizations.

I'm a victim or a witness & I want to TELL MY STORY

I'm a journalist & I want to GET INVOLVED

Stay alert. Stay safe. Stay informed.

Demand change, again and again — until it happens.

Vote the bums out, that refuse to enact the change, that the clear majority demands.

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Make America Safer Again

Make America Sane Again

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WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 06: In the wake of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, a young girl watches as activists gather in Lafayette Park across from the White House during a gun reform legislation rally sponsored by various protest groups August 6, 2019 in Washington, DC. Activists gathered to â€œdemand that Donald Trump cease his racist, violence-inducing attacks on the Latinos, immigrants and communities of color, and to urge the Senate to pass H.R. 8, a bipartisan background checks act passed by the House.â€�(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) — If it’s Hate that pulls the Trigger — then Haters should no longer be allowed to “Shout Fire” in a peace-loving Nation.

It is truly tragic that Hate Speech like “shoot them” is openly endorsed and condoned from the Hater-in-Chief, who has been sparking this dangerous rise in “Domestic Terrorism” from Day One.

This threat too must end (by the ballot, or by the Congress). If democracy is to indeed survive.

YouTube Video

Did Trump Laugh When Audience Member at Rally Suggested Shooting Immigrants?

Snopes: rates this as True.

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