US police, military confront enemy within after Capitol riot

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CHICAGO, Jan 14, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – They swore to serve and protect.
But, a week after extremists stormed the US Capitol, police
departments and military branches across America are investigating
reports some of their own formed part of the mob.

From Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran shot dead as she tried to
force her way toward the House chamber, to retired Air Force reserves,
Army officers and law enforcement from Seattle to New York, reports
have emerged of off-duty police and former members of the military
participating in the riot.

The reports have forced a spotlight on a threat that experts have
long warned about, largely in vain: extremism and white supremacy
within American security forces.

“We’ve neglected this threat for ten years. Ignored it, minimized
it, turned a blind eye to it. This administration has actually coddled
these people, calling them special,” said Daryl Johnson, a former
Homeland Security domestic terrorism team leader and intelligence
analyst, who served from 2004 to 2010.

Christian Picciolini, a one-time white supremacist who now works to
deradicalize extremists with The Free Radicals Project, said he was
not surprised some police and ex-military were among the rioters on
January 6 seeking to overturn the election results.

“It has long been an effort by white supremacists to infiltrate and
recruit from the pool of law enforcement, military and other first
responders,” Picciolini said.

The fears extend to the Capitol Police, the agency in charge of
securing the building.

Several officers have been suspended and around a dozen are being
investigated after reports of taking selfies with the mob and videos
which seem to show them allowing protesters into the building.

In 2006, the FBI published a report on infiltration of law
enforcement by white supremacist groups, and in 2009, the Department
of Homeland Security issued a warning authored by Johnson about
infiltration in the military.

Both times, the warnings largely fell on deaf ears.

“When that 2006 report came out it was just after 9/11 and no one
wanted to focus on domestic terrorism,” said Georgetown University
Associate law professor Vida Johnson.

As for the warning in 2009, “the new Obama administration didn’t
have the political capital to take that on, particularly with a Black
president,” she said.

“So here we are 11 years after that, having taken no concrete steps
to weed white supremacists out of policing or the military.”

– ‘They know better’ –

The problem has been around since long before Donald Trump announced
his presidential campaign in 2015.

But, experts say, since then he has given such extremist views a
platform, and there is a straight line between his rhetoric and the
riot at the Capitol.

“He’s directly responsible for it. He invited everyone to the
Capitol… and the Stop The Steal campaign (to overturn the results of
the presidential election) has been an intentional disinformation
campaign meant to rile people up,” said Lecia Brooks of the Southern
Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

Trump’s strongest support comes from white men, Vida Johnson pointed
out — the same demographic which dominates representation in law
enforcement, meaning it is “not a surprise” that the two groups
overlap.

When confronted with the problem in the past, some police
departments have cited another favoured Trump talking point: free
speech.

Daryl Johnson recalled reaching out to a police department in 2017
when his research found more than 100 officers identifying themselves
on social media as Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government extremist
group known for recruiting military and law enforcement members.

They said the posts fell under the First Amendment, he told AFP,
despite his warning that their allegiance to the Oath Keepers could
come before the department.

Other experts have also dismissed the argument.

“If you took that job to protect citizens, even if you’re a Trump
supporter, your job is to protect all citizens,” said Heather Taylor,
a former homicide detective sergeant in St. Louis and spokesperson for
the Ethical Society of Police, a group that fights racism in police
departments.

– Radicalization opportunity –

With the problem finally receiving attention, experts are calling
for renewed efforts to tackle it.

Taylor blamed much of the problem on police unions, which some
observers say protect bad officers.

They “continue the divide between the police and the community,” she
said, calling for departments to have a zero tolerance policy for
racist social media posts, and for accused officers to be put on
unpaid leave while any investigation is conducted.

Vida Johnson also pointed to police unions, noting that they bar
many issues of police discipline from being revealed to the public,
and said better officer screening must take place.

Daryl Johnson, for his part, feared the Capitol riot was only the
beginning of a darker period.

“What happened at the Capitol is a radicalization and recruitment
opportunity for these groups,” he said.

“They think they did something righteous and good. They think
they’re patriots.”