Reports indicate that there are 917 extremist organizations promoting hatred and violence in the United States. The FBI warned of armed protests from these groups around the country.
Although hundreds of extremist groups have come to light since Donald Trump came to power in 2016, the phenomenon of organizations promoting hate and violence, protected by the Freedom of Speech Amendment, has grown rapidly and silently. in the United States.
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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors extremism and racism in the US, claimed in its 2016 report that there were 917 extremist groups in the country; the year before there were 892 hate groups. The largest is the KKK (it has 130 groups), the second largest hate group after the black separatists (193). There are also white nationalists (100), neo-Nazis (99), skinheads (78), neonates (43) or anti-immigrants (14). During Wednesday’s violent takeover of the Capitol, many of these groups made their public appearance, encouraged by Donald Trump’s speech and covered in flags, hats and other symbols that identify the far right, but with an aggravating factor: they threaten newly violent shots in the country.
As reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), they have received information about “armed protests” planned in all 50 states of the country between the 16th and 20th, when Joe Biden takes office.
Nothing new. The magazine will be published in October 2020 The nation unveiled an intelligence agency report warning of a “ violent extremist threat ” from far-right militias, including white supremacists. The report cites the 2021 presidential inauguration ceremony as a “possible trigger.”
Even more serious. Chad Wolf, the acting US Secretary of Homeland Security who stepped down on Monday, last year warned of domestic terrorism by extremist groups. “As a secretary, I am concerned about any kind of violent extremism…, but I am especially concerned about violent extremists with white supremacy who have been exceptionally deadly in their gruesome attacks lately,” he warned.
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The data presented in the Department of Homeland Security document indicated that nearly 70% of the attacks and conspiracies the country suffered in the first eight months of the year were framed in “ white supremacy. ” 39 people were killed in these attacks.
And it is these groups that have the US in suspense today after their terrifying appearance on Capitol Hill: Three Percenters, known as the “Threepers”, are backing Trump and targeting their hatred of Muslims and immigrants. In the attack on Wednesday, they walked with a flag with the figure of the Kraken, a symbol they adopted after the president’s lawyers said that “we’re going to wake up the squatters” while speaking without evidence about electoral fraud.
The ‘Proud Boys’ wear orange caps, yellow jackets and black T-shirts with their names on them, and they have adopted the OK symbol to identify themselves. Its leader, Enrique Tarrio, did not participate in the assault on the Capitol, but he did celebrate. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said that between 2,000 and 2,500 members of “Proud Boys” attended the Washington protests. And he warned that this would be repeated: “People are coming back here for the inauguration. Maybe we will show up. We have not made a decision yet ”.
Members of the 4Chan online forum, which hosts racist and anti-Semitic speeches, were also at the shoot with the white, green and black Kekistan flag representing the Kek country they invented.
The ‘Oath Keepers’ identify themselves in black caps with their names, claim to have taken on the task of protecting the country and the constitution, and recruit ex-military personnel. The leader says if force is needed, it will be used to protect the White House. There is another group that has been dubbed “America First” and took over the Capitol with flags and that slogan, others went with Camp Auschwitz signs, anti-immigrants, the Nationalist Social Club dressed as police officers and they were mistaken for them during the capture of the Capitol. These groups move in the nets like fish in the water. Through online forums, they are encouraging supporters of Donald Trump to focus with weapons across the country to oppose the new president. As they did for the Jan. 6 intake. In recent days, the concentration on virtual chats and forums has heated.
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According to analysts, they found in the social networks and supremacist forums an ideal terrain to exploit their discourse, attract followers and promote all kinds of conspiracy theories.
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, forced to resign due to the security fiasco, said in an interview with The New York Times that if the security authorities disagree on what happened last week, “it will happen again” at Biden’s inauguration.
The UN Counter-Terrorism Committee has recently been forced to issue a warning against the “growing transnational threat of far-right terrorism”.
Thus, the various warnings set a trend: in the past five years, terrorist attacks labeled as far-right have grown by 320% worldwide, according to the Global Terrorism Index, one of the benchmark indicators in the subject that the Institute for Economy and Peace (IEP ) works out.