America has a terrorism problem

Sunday, June 12, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson opened Thursday night’s hearing of the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attacks with a reminder that each of his colleagues swore an oath to defend the Constitution from threats both foreign and domestic.

His motives for issuing this reminder are clear: The United States of America has a domestic terrorism problem, and our elected officials, especially Republicans, aren’t doing enough to stop it.

“I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, the Klu Klux Klan and lynching,” Thompson said. “I am reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try to justify the actions of the insurrections on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Earlier in the week, Garnell Whitfield Jr., the former fire chief of Buffalo, N.Y., was even more direct about the problem while testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?” he asked the panel of senators. “Because if there is nothing, then respectfully, senators, you should yield your positions of authority and influence (to) others who are willing to lead on this issue.

“We are people of decency,” he continued. “We are taught to love even our enemies. But our enemies don’t love us. So, what are we supposed to do with all of our anger and pain? You expect us to forgive and forget. Again? And what are you doing? You were elected to protect us.”

Unfortunately, it took the murder of his mother at the hands of a gun-toting terrorist at a grocery store for anyone to listen to Whitfield’s words. And odds are, his plea for action has already been forgotten by GOP senators, who blocked the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act from moving through the Senate and are now too busy tweeting their disdain for the Jan. 6 hearings to be bothered with a local fire chief whose mother was murdered for “shopping while Black.”

We repeat: The United States of America has a domestic terrorism problem, and our elected leaders are not doing enough to stop it.

It’s not as if the attack on the Capitol or the massacre in Buffalo are isolated incidents. We’re not even halfway through 2022 and we’ve already seen the Buffalo massacre; an armed attacker hold Jews hostage at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas; a 9-year-old white boy attempting to whip a young Black girl; a New York City gay bar lit on fire with people inside; another black queer bar in New York attacked by a pepper-spray bomb; and a plot to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Just two weeks ago, the pastor of a church in Texas went to a city council meeting to advocate for executing LGBTQ people. A pastor from the same church reiterated his colleague’s words in a sermon one week ago, saying that “They should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head!”

The church previously made headlines last year when one of its leaders said he was happy that a gay person was killed at a Pride event. “The Bible says that they’re worthy of death,” he said at the time. “They say, ‘Are you sad when f--s die?’ No. I think it’s great. I hope they all die. I would love it if every f-g would die right now.”

Police data compiled by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, show a more than 30% increase in violent hate crimes in major U.S. cities, with crimes targeting Asian Americans, Jews and Black people accounting for the bulk of the increase.

The FBI has reported 57 bomb threats to historically Black colleges and universities, and Jewish community centers have endured 42 bomb threats, all since January.

The United States of America has a domestic terrorism problem, and our elected leaders are not doing enough to stop it.

Nor are these attacks new.

It’s been 10 years since an openly avowed white supremacist shot 10 people, including himself, at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis.

Nine years since the Boston Marathon bombing.

Eight years since a 22-year-old misogynist killed six and injured 14 others in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Seven years since a 21-year-old white supremacist shot and killed nine people at a Charleston, S.C., church.

Six years since 49 LGBTQ people died in a hate-motivated shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla.

Five years since the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally saw Klansmen join with Southern nationalists to carry torches and mow down counter protesters with a car, killing one and injuring 28 others.

Four years since the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting left 11 dead.

Three years since 23 people were killed by a gunman in El Paso, Texas, who was “simply trying to defend my country from ethnic and cultural replacement brought on by an invasion.”

And according to the Center for Strategic and International studies, the past two years (2020 and 2021) have seen the highest numbers of domestic terrorist attacks and plots since it began tracking, with 73 domestic terrorist attacks and plots in 2021 alone.

The United States of America has a domestic terrorism problem, and our elected leaders are not doing enough to stop it.

Perhaps most concerning, it is not as if the perpetrators of these attacks are unknown to us.

On the same day as the first hearing of the Jan. 6 committee, a gubernatorial candidate in Michigan was arrested by the FBI for his role in the attacks.

Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Louie Gohmert of Texas have all been credibly accused of helping to plan the attack on the Capitol.

The current sheriff of Riverside County, Calif., was once a dues-paying member of the Oath Keepers terrorist organization.

Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser to Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, has close ties to the Proud Boys terrorist organization and has been photographed with Proud Boys leadership on numerous occasions.

And our very own gubernatorial candidate, Joey Gilbert, was present at the Jan. 6 insurrection, though he maintains he did not engage in any violations of the law.

This type of blatant flirting with domestic terrorism cannot be allowed to continue. Our elected leaders and law enforcement must step up and do something about domestic terrorism or risk losing even more credibility and respect.

The voters must also step up and ensure terrorists are not given positions of power from which to promote their violent extremism.