America must deal with extremism in ranks of law enforcement, military

Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021 | 2 a.m.

In the weeks since the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Americans have learned that the violent mob included retired military personnel, active law enforcement authorities from across the nation, and individuals who’d received military or paramilitary training. In the immediate aftermath, officials revealed that numerous officers who were on duty that day were under investigation for possible involvement in the assault or for inappropriately supporting the mob.

Now comes the news that the FBI, worried about an insider attack by the National Guard troops being assigned to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, is vetting those personnel for any ties to hate groups.

Let’s state the glaringly obvious here: The military and law enforcement have a problem with extremism in their ranks. It’s an issue that demands focused, thoughtful and sustained attention to the problem of radicalization within the ranks of the military and police. Any members found to be active in violent domestic organizations should be removed from service.

This is a problem that has festered far too long, largely because our society has not demanded it be addressed. A cursory internet search reveals dozens of stories of uniformed officials being found with ties to white-supremacy organizations and other hate groups, despite warnings by federal officials stretching back to the early 2000s that those groups were infiltrating the armed services and police departments.

“Since 2000, law enforcement officials with alleged connections to white supremacist groups or far-right militant activities have been exposed in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and elsewhere,” The Brennan Center for Justice reported last year. “Research organizations have uncovered hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials participating in racist, nativist, and sexist social media activity, which demonstrates that overt bias is far too common. These officers’ racist activities are often known within their departments, but only result in disciplinary action or termination if they trigger public scandals.”

It is important to note that the report cites “hundreds” of law enforcement personnel engaged in such behavior — out of nearly 700,000 law enforcement officers at all levels in the United States. By that standard, even a few thousand extremist officers might seem a vanishingly small percentage. However, because of their power over the lives of citizens, even a small group of malicious officers can have an outsized impact on our culture: A few thousand officers can expose hundreds of thousands of citizens a year to abuses.

The military faces its own challenges with extremism. Politico, in a story last week about the issue, revisited a 2020 survey showing that “more than one-third of all active-duty troops and more than half of minority service members reported witnessing first-hand examples of white nationalism or other ideologically driven racism.” And as with law enforcement, these hate group activities are often happening in plain sight through social media.

Las Vegas isn’t immune, as we learned after the Capitol riot when Metro Police announced they were investigating whether some of the department’s employees took part in the riot.

Let’s be perfectly clear: The vast majority of America’s armed services personnel and law enforcement officials honorably go about their duty to protect, defend and serve the public.

But the unfortunate truth behind the rise of extremists in the ranks is that their fellow officers often protect them behind a blue line or military code of silence. That must stop. It leaves the public at risk and creates a negative perception of uniformed personnel. And even worse, it turns into a virus that spreads over time.

The encouraging news on that front is that many of the law enforcement personnel who are under investigation stemming from the Capitol attack apparently were turned in by their fellow officers, who were justifiably appalled by the deadly violence aimed at police that day and were disgusted that anyone in uniform abetted it.

Perhaps the attack will be the catalyst that forces our society to confront the problem seriously, and for the rank-and-file to help root out the bad actors. We shouldn’t forget that the core of the Black Lives Matter protests was about stopping racist practices in policing.

After the violence in Washington, the growing influence of extremism among uniformed personnel can no longer be ignored. We’ve been warned for years that it was a growing problem, now Americans must work together to put an end to it.