Morning Briefing: Retired Boise Police Officer Connected to White Supremacists
Matt Bryngelson, retired Boise Police Department Officer, connection to white supremacists part of a widespread problem of local law enforcement connections to far right extremists.
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Morning Briefing: Matt Bryngelson, a retired captain in the Boise Police Department, was scheduled to speak at a conference “held by an organization known for white supremacist views,” as first reported by Molly Conger.
Lauren McLean, the mayor of Boise, promised that the city would conduct an investigation, and said in a statement that the “community, city council and my office deserve to know if any resources were used by Bryngelson, or others in the department, to advance racist ideology.”
The city is reportedly “working quickly to identify investigators but had no timeline.”
Mike Masterson, former chief of the Boise Police Department from 2005 to 2015, wrote in an OP-ED for the Idaho Statesman that “professional and legitimate inquiry should not be allowed to become a witch-hunt,” and the actions of Bryngelson represent “the behavior of a single rogue cop.”
However, in 2019, investigation by Reveal “identified hundreds of police officers across the country who were members of closed racist, Islamophobic, misogynistic or anti-government militia groups on Facebook.”
In May, an investigation by Reuters found a “significant number of U.S. police instructors have ties to a constellation of armed right-wing militias and white supremacist hate groups, a report that adds to a fast-growing body of evidence showing a deadly threat inside U.S. police departments.”
In September, an investigation by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) “identified 373 people in the Oath Keepers database believed to be active law enforcement officers, 117 people who seem to be currently serving in the military, and 81 public officials who either currently hold or are running for public office in 2022.”
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Must Reads
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What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.