FBI warns that it's seeing an upsurge in white supremacist domestic terrorism

The warning signs have been building like dark storm clouds for a while now, and it appears that storm—a real one, comprised of a wave of domestic terrorism—may be about to break: According to CNN’s Evan Perez, the FBI has seen “a significant rise in the number of white supremacist domestic terrorism cases in recent months,” citing a “senior counterterrorism official.”

Yes, regardless what Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens or Michael Tracey might tell you, the threat of white-nationalist terrorism is neither “nonexistent” nor a figment of the liberal imagination: As people ranging from Poway to Christchurch to Pittsburgh can tell you, the terrorism is real, as are its victims—which includes not just the immediate victims, but the communities these acts are intended to target. Talk to Jewish and Muslim communities to ask if they think terrorism is just a problem in their minds.

We’ve been describing these warning signs the past several months—the rash of inchoate violence from angry, “red-pilled” young white men; the compounding cases of domestic terrorism piling up on our doorsteps; the surging tide of white-supremacist propaganda as well as organizing; and the signs that monitoring this tide is not a priority for the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security.

As we recently explained, one of the problems is that domestic terrorism by homegrown white men is not a federal crime—it’s actually a hole of sorts in the law books. CNN’s report explains how this has affected the FBI’s ability to pursue these cases:

The domestic terror cases generally include suspects involved in violence related to anti-government views, racial or religious bias, environmental extremism and abortion-related views.

The FBI wouldn't provide specific numbers to quantify the increase of the number of white supremacist domestic terrorism cases. Unlike international terrorism investigations, domestic terrorism cases pose thornier issues for the FBI because of First Amendment protections. The US doesn't have a domestic terrorism law and no government agency designates domestic groups as being terrorist organizations. That means many cases the FBI calls domestic terror-related end up with a variety of charges for violations of laws related to guns or even other state charges.

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2K16r4w