The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/hate-crimes/)
The presence of white power militants at the storming of the U.S. Capitol this month is the latest sign of how a violent fringe group committed to race war is exploiting the nation’s polarized politics, according to a University of Chicago analyst of paramilitary groups.
Social media firms have been scrambling to crack down on domestic terrorist threats ahead of the inauguration and beyond, but experts say their efforts are only temporary solutions. For one thing, the lack of industry-wide coordination around the issue means fringe movements can easily migrate to smaller platforms, and often darker corners of the web, say the experts.
Hate-crime killings set a record in 2019. President-elect Joe Biden has vowed to try stemming the trend, but does he need new legislation to succeed?
The deadly insurrection at the Capitol should serve as a wake-up call to those who have ignored the warnings, says one expert on right-wing violence, who called it “the beginning of a new movement, not the end of an old one.” At least 120 individuals have been arrested so far, many of them members of groups following conspiracy theorists.
A state advisory board in California has recommended that police agencies routinely review the cell phones, computers and social media pages of police officers for racist and otherwise offensive content in an effort to weed out officers who are prone to racial profiling.
Social media played a key role in Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol Building, with sites favored by the far-right such as Parler and Gab sharing information on which streets to take to avoid the police and which tools would pry open doors. Meanwhile, Facebook announced it will ban President Trump “indefinitely.”
Georgia’s recently enacted hate crime law may nudge remaining states which have resisted similar legislation into action. A bipartisan coalition of legislators in Arkansas and South Carolina reportedly is spearheading the efforts.
This defense is often used to excuse murder charges, where attorneys argue that their client became so panicked or enraged after becoming a target of someone who is LGBTQ that they can’t be held accountable for their violent actions. Some 39 states still allow the tactic in court.
FBI data show hate crime incidents increased 2.7 percent last year, following a UN report released last month noting an increase in racist incidents targeting Asian Americans during the pandemic — which the UN traces to President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the “China Flu.”
Registered sex offenders are especially at risk now, thanks in part to the burgeoning conspiracy theories fomented by groups like QAnon, warns an activist.