Morning Briefing: DHS Advisory Warns of 'Heightened Threat Environment' Due to Domestic Violent Extremists
Morning Briefing: DHS Advisory Warns of 'Heightened Threat Environment' Due to Domestic Violent Extremists
U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a public advisory warning of a 'heightened threat environment' due to domestic violent extremists (DVEs).
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Morning Briefing: The United States remains under a “heightened threat environment” for far right domestic terrorism perpetrated by domestic violent extremists (DVEs) including “lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and personal grievances,” according to a public advisory issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The public advisory also named potential targets of extremist violence including “critical infrastructure, faith-based institutions, individuals or events associated with the LGBTQIA+ community, schools, racial and ethnic minorities, and government facilities and personnel, including law enforcement.”
Unnamed DHS officials told CNN that discussions in far right extremists spaces online of the 2024 election in “existential” or “apocalyptic” terms would “obviously would heighten our concern that individuals may act on that sense of existential threat.”
Sharon Robinson “has been arrested and charged by indictment with making multiple threatening calls to LGBTQ businesses in Denver and Glendale.” Robinson allegedly “called at least four businesses catering to the LGBTQ community just a few weeks after the tragic shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.
Donald Hazard, member of the far right militia group known as the Patriot Boys of North Texas, was sentenced to “nearly five years in prison for attacking police officers at the U.S. Capitol, seriously injuring one of them during a mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.”
Robert Morss, a former U.S. Army Ranger and substitute teacher, “will spend more than five years in federal prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol.”
Must Reads
Kelly Weill reports that “the parent who got a Florida school to ban Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem has ties to the far-right Proud Boys and conservative firebrands Moms For Liberty, The Daily Beast has confirmed. The links, first highlighted by the Twitter account Miami Against Fascism, follow an expose on Florida mom Daily Salinas by the Miami Herald. In an interview with the Herald, Salinas said she ‘is not for eliminating or censoring any books,’ but wants materials to be appropriate and for students ‘to know the truth’ about Cuba’… In August 2021, Salinas attended a protest against masks in Miami-Dade schools, where she was photographed standing next to Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys. Tarrio had already been implicated in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, for which he was later convicted of seditious conspiracy.” [The Daily Beast]
Chauncey DeVega writes that “most Republican and other right-wing elected officials and members of the political class and media machine likely do not know who Carl Schmitt is. That is most certainly true of Donald Trump, a man who is proudly ignorant and does not read. It is almost certain that the average Republican voter, and other rank-and file-members of the MAGA movement do not know who Carl Schmitt is. But that does not matter because they are most certainly compelled to embrace Schmitt's arguments in favor of violence against some type of ‘enemy’ such as Black and brown people, Muslims, the LGBTQ community, Democrats, liberals, progressives, and others deemed to not be ‘real Americans.’ In all, violence in its many forms (which includes random violence, terrorism, hate crimes, intimidation, and vigilantism) is central to the Republican fascists and larger white right and ‘conservative’ movement's project to end America's multiracial pluralistic democracy by gutting the rule of law and the country's democratic and other societal institutions.” [Salon]
Tess Owen reports that “Target has announced that it’s removing products from its Pride collection due to ‘threats impacting’ its employees’ ‘sense of safety and wellbeing.’ But the far-right, who’ve been bombarding the company with harassment, misinformation, and ‘satanic panic’ conspiracies since Target rolled out its 2023 collection earlier this month, are still not satisfied. After all, to them, this was just one small battle in their larger attack on Pride and LGBTQ rights. However, they are freshly emboldened, casting a grim shadow over Pride celebrations in the months to come… For over a year, the entire spectrum of the far-right, including hardcore neo-Nazis, white nationalists, Proud Boys, Libs of TikTok, and GOP lawmakers, have coalesced with terrifying unity around anti-LGBTQ hate, with a particular focus on trans issues and teaching kids about queerness, which they say is tantamount to ‘grooming.’” [Vice News]
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.
I would be happy to stand n protect any Target Pride merchandise from republican asswipes 🗂️! I would probably be testing out baseball bats while protecting merchandise