“Oregon continues to have a high number of incidents of domestic violent extremism disproportionate to the state’s population,” the report reads. “It is paramount the state be as well positioned as possible to prevent and counter acts of violent extremism and domestic terrorism.”
It notes that the Southern Poverty Law Center reported 10 active hate groups in the state in its annual report on such activity, and that extremist ideas were moving further into mainstream politics.
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The auditors explain that the threats have “become increasingly complex and volatile” due largely to the presence of social media and other internet activity used to propagate “extremist narratives and activity.” This activity drives the online radicalization that has created so many violent extremists in recent years.
“Attacks on the Oregon state capitol and the U.S. capitol over the last couple years clearly demonstrated the risk to public safety and the high cost on public resources resulting from domestic terrorism and violent extremism,” Audits Division Director Kip Memmott said. “Our report notes that Oregon is especially at high risk for this type of violence.”
The report outlined key areas where state officials should address mitigating the risks: Infrastructure, public awareness, state governance, insider threats, and federal grants. It suggested the state’s homeland security council devise a statewide strategy featuring “specific, measurable outcomes” to counter extremism. And it advised the state to revise its plan to protect critical infrastructure like hospitals and power plants with the “latest information” on threats of domestic violent extremism.
The auditors pointed to Oregon’s “history of violent extremism”—ranging from its struggles with the Rajneeshi cult compound in The Dalles in the 1980s to the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by a group of far-right “Patriots” in 2016. Like much of the nation, there was a "spike" in these incidents in Oregon in 2020.
“The rise in domestic terrorism is an immediate threat to Oregonians and we cannot simply wait for the next incident to occur," said Secretary of State Shemia Fagan in a statement. "We can and must take immediate steps to prevent individuals at risk from being radicalized and becoming violent.”
The report emphasized improving the availability of information about these extremists, both among the public and particularly with law enforcement. “The lack of publicly available information regarding domestic violent extremist plots and threats compounds the difficulty for policymakers to understand the nature and extent of the threat,” it says. “The state should create a system for public transparency of this information where release does not violate the privacy of any individual or cause harm to state security.”
Neither Oregon nor federal agencies publish reports on terror plots or incidents. However, auditors said the state should boost awareness of extremism and how extremist groups recruit and target people online.
Billy Williams, the former U.S. attorney for Oregon who prosecuted the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation, told KGW-TV that he believes a lack of specific domestic terrorism laws emboldens bad actors.
"I think the criminal violence on the street level—in Portland and other major cities in the United States—has ramped up again because of positions taken around the country in not enforcing the law," Williams said. "The rule of law matters. People need to be held accountable and if they know they are not going to be, well, we see what the result is."
The auditors’ report, unfortunately, is infected with the FBI’s bizarre system of categorizing domestic terrorists that ends up placing neo-Nazis in the same category as antifascists and essentially equating them as similar threats. In discussing the violence of summer 2020, it reads: “This tension culminated in an act of domestic violent extremism when a member of the far-right group was shot and killed; a member of the far-left group was charged with his murder but was shot and killed days later by law enforcement officials,” referring to the August killing of Aaron Danielson, a Patriot Prayer demonstrator, by self-identified antifascist Michael Reinoehl during a Portland fracas. “According to the FBI’s definition, this criminal act of homicide was an act of domestic violent extremism and served to harm the far-right community and further inflame tensions.”
This is a problematic description of the event considering that Reinoehl insisted before he was killed that he had acted in self-defense, and that, moreover, right-wing extremists had been assaulting Portland residents throughout that day, driving around downtown and shooting paintball guns at pedestrians from the back of pickups. It reflects a “both sides do it” mentality that has warped both the public and official response to an endless series of events that all have entailed far-right invasions of urban areas with the intention of provoking violence.
Nonetheless, the bulk of the report focuses on far-right extremist activity in Oregon, though it rarely describes it as such. The report recommends the state seek out federal funding sources—particularly Urban Area Securities Initiative grants—in its efforts to mitigate the risk of domestic extremism. Finally, it points to better and more training for police and state employees in “identifying potential threats.”
One of these threats, it notes, comes from law enforcement officers who have been radicalized, either while on the job or beforehand, infiltrating the agencies deliberately:
For much of 2021, there have been numerous calls to mitigate the threat posed from law enforcement staff or government employees who may act on behalf of violent extremist beliefs, generally described as an insider threat. These calls for risk mitigation culminated on June 15, 2021, when the White House released its National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. As part of its strategy, the Office of Personnel Management is reviewing screening questionnaires for civil employees in “sensitive” positions, such as those with access to critical infrastructure or personnel records. As a result of the elevated threat, the U.S. Department of Defense is considering the prohibition of extremist activities for civilian and contract workers.
Many of Oregon’s problems, in fact, have revolved around law enforcement’s clear mishandling of the threat of far-right extremists, often siding with them in their confrontations with the local leftist activists being targeted for violence. Police officers helped spread hoax rumors of violent leftists targeting rural areas while traveling aboard “antifa buses,” and later encouraging vigilante thugs who turned out with weapons during wildfire season to confront another hoax, “antifa arsonists.”
None of this is made clear in the auditor’s report. And while its recommendations are a good start, it’s unlikely the problem will be resolved until that clearer recognition of the situation reaches officialdom both at the state and the federal level.
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