Quote (Thor123422 @ Nov 15 2020 11:12pm)
Of course people are skeptical about claims that police organizations are compromised by far-right organizations, that's an enormously consequential statement that requires an abundance of evidence. Let's do a deep dive into your source and see if it passes muster.
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In 2017, the FBI reported that white supremacists posed a “persistent threat of lethal violence” that has produced more fatalities than any other category of domestic terrorists since 2000. footnote3_mpt7ryx3 Alarmingly, internal FBI policy documents have also warned agents assigned to domestic terrorism cases that the white supremacist and anti-government militia groups they investigate often have “active links” to law enforcement officials.
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Obviously, only a tiny percentage of law enforcement officials are likely to be active members of white supremacist groups.
The paper quotes FBI sources acknowledging white supremacists as a threat circa 2017. It goes on to note that "obviously", any connections with white supremacists represents a tiny percentage of law enforcement, and certainly does not support the notion that law enforcement in deep blue cities within deep blue states are controlled by far-right terror groups.
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Some officers who have associated with militant groups or engaged in racist behavior... have had their dismissals overturned by courts or in arbitration. Such due process is required to ensure integrity and equity in the disciplinary process and protect falsely accused police officers from unjust punishments. Certainly, there will be cases where an officer’s behavior can be corrected with remedial measures short of termination. But leaving officers tainted by racist behavior in a job with immense discretion to take a person’s life and liberty requires a detailed supervision plan to mitigate the potential threats they pose to the communities they police, implemented with sufficient transparency to restore public trust.
We really have to question the partiality of the article. Why would officers who have had their wrongful dismissals correctly overturned be "tainted" by accusations of racist behavior? Isn't that the entire point of neutral arbitration?
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The FBI’s 2015 Counterterrorism Policy Directive and Policy Guide warns that “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers.” footnote1_loeg3z312 This alarming declaration followed a 2006 intelligence assessment, based on FBI investigations and open sources, that warned of “white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement . . . by organized groups and by self-initiated infiltration by law enforcement personnel sympathetic to white supremacist causes.” footnote2_tpzae1513 Active links between law enforcement officials and the subjects of any terrorism investigation should raise alarms within our national security establishment, but the federal government has not responded accordingly.
The author has already answered his own question. Only a "tiny" percentage of law enforcement officers, presumably in conservative states, are involved. Of course the federal government hasn't "responded" in the way the author would prefer, it's a marginal problem by the author's own admission.
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The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have identified white supremacists as the most lethal domestic terrorist threat to the United States. footnote3_2rw576h14 In recent years, white supremacists have executed deadly rampages in Charleston, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and El Paso, Texas. footnote4_2cyp37215 Narrowly thwarted attempts by neo-Nazis to manufacture radiological “dirty” bombs in Maine in 2009 and Florida in 2017 show their dangerous capability and intent to unleash mass destruction. footnote5_6qkfgjh16 These groups also pose a lethal threat to law enforcement, as evidenced by recent attacks against Federal Protective Service officers and sheriff’s deputies in California by far-right militants intent on starting the “Boogaloo” — a euphemism for a new civil war — which killed two and injured several others. footnote6_88x3k4n17
And yet the Charleston shooter did not have connections with either law enforcement or actual white supremacist organizations. This is an odd non-sequitur.
To be honest, I got bored reading 1/3rd of the way through, if there is something important I missed, let me know.