Given the discrepancies between the deadly toll of leftwing and rightwing violence, American law enforcement agencies have long faced criticism for failing to take the threat of white supremacist violence seriously, while at the same time overstating the risks posed by leftwing protesters. After a violent rally in California in 2016, law enforcement officers worked with neo-Nazis to build criminal cases against anti-fascist protesters, while not recommending charges against neo-Nazis for stabbing the anti-fascists.
Antifa activists have been the targets of domestic terror attacks by white supremacists, including in a terror plot early this year, in which law enforcement officials alleged that members of the neo-Nazi group the Base had planned to murder a married couple in Georgia they believed were anti-fascist organizers. Antifa is not going around murdering people like rightwing extremists are. Its a false equivalence, said Beirich.
Ive at times been critical of antifa for getting into fights with Nazis at rallies and that kind of violence, but I cant think of one case in which an antifa person was accused of murder, she added.
The new CSIS database only includes attacks through early May 2020, and does not yet list incidents connected with the massive national protests against police violence after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, including the killings of two California law enforcement officers by a man authorities say was linked to the rightwing boogaloo movement.
Today, Jones said, the most significant domestic terrorism threat comes from white supremacists, anti-government militias and a handful of individuals associated with the boogaloo movement that are attempting to create a civil war in the United States.
Daily interpersonal violence and state violence pose a much greater threat to Americans than any kind of extremist terror attack. More than 100,000 people have been killed in gun homicides in the United States in the past decade, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. US police officers shoot nearly 1,000 Americans to death each year. Black Americans are more than twice as likely to be shot by the police as white Americans, according to analysis by the Washington Post and the Guardian.
But the presidents rhetoric about antifa violence has dangerous consequences, not just for anti-fascists, but for any Americans who decide to protest, some activists said.
Yvette Felarca, a California-based organizer and anti-fascist activist, said she saw Trumps claims about antifa violence, particularly during the George Floyd protests, as a message to his hardcore supporters that it was appropriate to attack people who came out to protest.
Its his way of saying to his supporters: Yeah, go after them. Beat them or kill them to the point where they go back home and stay home afraid, Felarca said.