FBI savaged by the left over warning about “Black Identity Extremists”
Next time, police may find themselves ambushed by a sophisticated, clear-thinking killer who plans his attack and is guided by a political ideology shared by countless Americans. An October FBI report — dismissed as racist by the mainstream left — warned that police would find themselves increasingly targeted by “Black Identity Extremists” in retaliation for perceived injustices against African Americans.
The report has drawn widespread condemnation from Congressional Black Caucus members, the ACLU, and various left-wing media organizations, such as the New York Times. In one of the more frenzied condemnations of the FBI’s action, the Times wrote that it:
…echoes and validates the way racist fringe groups on the right, like neo-Nazis and the K.K.K., see these activists.
Only the left can go into paroxysms of outrage about President Trump’s lack of “respect” for the FBI, and then turn around and compare the FBI’s actions to neo-nazis and the KKK.
There’s no fighting crazy
In the same way that authentic terrorist attacks should be distinguished from the homicidal whims of the mentally unstable, so too should the same designations apply to premeditated violence against police. According to the FBI, domestic terrorism requires that an individual or group “espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.”
Why is this distinction important? Because lawmakers and law enforcement can address problems stemming from an ideology, but it is far more difficult to address one-off actions of the mentally unstable.
In the same way that authentic terrorist attacks should be distinguished from the homicidal whims of the mentally unstable, so too should the same designations apply to premeditated violence against police. According to the FBI, domestic terrorism requires that an individual or group “espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.”
Why is this distinction important? Because lawmakers and law enforcement can address problems stemming from an ideology, but it is far more difficult to address one-off actions of the mentally unstable.
Six attacks
The FBI points to perceived instances of police brutality as a motivating factor behind attacks from black identity extremists. “Based on six targeted attacks since 2014,” the report states, “the FBI assesses it is very likely the [black identity extremists] suspects acted in retaliation for perceived past police brutality instances.”
To state their case, the FBI lists several high profile attacks against police in recent years. These include:
The July 2016 shooting of 11 Dallas law enforcement officers by Micah Johnson. Johnson’s journal and statements to police indicate that he was influenced by black identity extremist ideology.
In October 2014, Zale H. Thompson attacked four NYPD officers with a hatchet, injuring two. Statements from Thompson indicate that he was upset with the “white dominated” “oppressors” who were responsible for the deaths of African Americans in police shootings. Tattoos identified Thompson as a black separatist.
Gavin Eugene Long killed three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers in July 2016 during a sophisticated ambush. Rants from Long lambasted “crackers” and referenced a black male killed recently in Baton Rouge. His social media accounts and manifesto clearly identified his black separatist ideology.
The FBI lists several similar accounts, all possessing the same attributes identifying killers as part of black extremist movements who were upset at recent police violence.
According to the report, police are not the only victims of black identity extremism. Since the report was published, a Sudanese immigrant killed one civilian and wounded seven in a church shooting that barely registered with liberal media. Investigators found evidence that the killer initiated the ambush as revenge for the racially-motivated Charleston church shooting.
The FBI points to perceived instances of police brutality as a motivating factor behind attacks from black identity extremists. “Based on six targeted attacks since 2014,” the report states, “the FBI assesses it is very likely the [black identity extremists] suspects acted in retaliation for perceived past police brutality instances.”
To state their case, the FBI lists several high profile attacks against police in recent years. These include:
The July 2016 shooting of 11 Dallas law enforcement officers by Micah Johnson. Johnson’s journal and statements to police indicate that he was influenced by black identity extremist ideology.
In October 2014, Zale H. Thompson attacked four NYPD officers with a hatchet, injuring two. Statements from Thompson indicate that he was upset with the “white dominated” “oppressors” who were responsible for the deaths of African Americans in police shootings. Tattoos identified Thompson as a black separatist.
Gavin Eugene Long killed three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers in July 2016 during a sophisticated ambush. Rants from Long lambasted “crackers” and referenced a black male killed recently in Baton Rouge. His social media accounts and manifesto clearly identified his black separatist ideology.
The FBI lists several similar accounts, all possessing the same attributes identifying killers as part of black extremist movements who were upset at recent police violence.
According to the report, police are not the only victims of black identity extremism. Since the report was published, a Sudanese immigrant killed one civilian and wounded seven in a church shooting that barely registered with liberal media. Investigators found evidence that the killer initiated the ambush as revenge for the racially-motivated Charleston church shooting.
Historical grievances
According to a Foreign Policy analysis of the FBI report, “former government officials and legal experts” deny that any black identity “movement” exists, calling this terminology a politically motivated effort to equate black separatist violence with the threat of white supremacy.
However, it is worth noting that in a case examining whether or not Black Lives Matter activists could be legally culpable for inciting murder, U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson ruled that BLM is a movement and therefore cannot be sued.
Opponents of the FBI study have cited historical examples of law enforcement surveillance of African Americans as justification to avoid a dangerous precedent. During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) lectured Attorney General Jeff Sessions:
You should know that a lot of activists around the country are very concerned that we are getting ready to repeat a very sad chapter of our history.
Likewise, American Civil Liberties Union Director of the National Security Project Hina Shamsi complained:
We’ve seen this kind of shoddy analysis and bias-based conclusions all too often, applied to African-Americans, Muslim-Americans, environmental activists and others. The F.B.I. has a critical role in protecting civil liberties, but it routinely undermines them by unjustifiably and unfairly targeting minorities and those who dissent.
Yet, these outraged progressives could benefit from a history lesson, explained within the pages of the very report which they are protesting. During the period of time which Shamsi and Bass define as an era of unmerited racial profiling, law enforcement across America was experiencing a spike in violence from black identity extremists.
The FBI references the Black Liberation Army whose stated goal was “to take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States.” Active from 1970 to 1984, this group committed “26 armed assaults, 3 assassinations, 4 bombings, and 4 hijackings and hostage takings.”
According to a Foreign Policy analysis of the FBI report, “former government officials and legal experts” deny that any black identity “movement” exists, calling this terminology a politically motivated effort to equate black separatist violence with the threat of white supremacy.
However, it is worth noting that in a case examining whether or not Black Lives Matter activists could be legally culpable for inciting murder, U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson ruled that BLM is a movement and therefore cannot be sued.
Opponents of the FBI study have cited historical examples of law enforcement surveillance of African Americans as justification to avoid a dangerous precedent. During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) lectured Attorney General Jeff Sessions:
You should know that a lot of activists around the country are very concerned that we are getting ready to repeat a very sad chapter of our history.
Likewise, American Civil Liberties Union Director of the National Security Project Hina Shamsi complained:
We’ve seen this kind of shoddy analysis and bias-based conclusions all too often, applied to African-Americans, Muslim-Americans, environmental activists and others. The F.B.I. has a critical role in protecting civil liberties, but it routinely undermines them by unjustifiably and unfairly targeting minorities and those who dissent.
Yet, these outraged progressives could benefit from a history lesson, explained within the pages of the very report which they are protesting. During the period of time which Shamsi and Bass define as an era of unmerited racial profiling, law enforcement across America was experiencing a spike in violence from black identity extremists.
The FBI references the Black Liberation Army whose stated goal was “to take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States.” Active from 1970 to 1984, this group committed “26 armed assaults, 3 assassinations, 4 bombings, and 4 hijackings and hostage takings.”
Exempt from scrutiny
White supremacists, militias, Antifa, environmentalist groups, abortion and animal liberation activists and MS-13 all pose unique threats to public safety, yet Democrats believe that black separatists should somehow be immune to scrutiny because of past injustices against African Americans. Frequent first-class flyer Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) who sought to convince the FBI director to withdraw the report.
After meeting with Mr. Wray, she said, “I think we’ve opened the eyes, hopefully, of the director, and hopefully there will be some engaging discussion and we will work through this.”
White supremacists, militias, Antifa, environmentalist groups, abortion and animal liberation activists and MS-13 all pose unique threats to public safety, yet Democrats believe that black separatists should somehow be immune to scrutiny because of past injustices against African Americans. Frequent first-class flyer Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) who sought to convince the FBI director to withdraw the report.
After meeting with Mr. Wray, she said, “I think we’ve opened the eyes, hopefully, of the director, and hopefully there will be some engaging discussion and we will work through this.”
To justify the exclusion of the second deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history, wherein gunman Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State before killing 50, an article from Newsweek actually made the argument that “given its mix of apparent motives, is hard to categorize” the attack as terrorism. For context, white supremacists killed fewer people between 2002 and 2016 than Mateen murdered in a single attack.
Calls to censor this report are as politically motivated as the attacks that they seek to ignore and excuse. Meanwhile, the same liberals manipulate statistics attempting to demonstrate that other demographics, and the police more generally, are a part of systemic, hate-based phenomenon targeting minorities.
Source:>>>>>>>>>>Here
No comments:
Post a Comment