Domestic terrorism not new to America, or the reluctance to deal with it
The domestic terrorists of 2021 generally don’t wear pointy hoods, but the extremists who attacked the U.S. Capitol share the white supremacy agenda of the Ku Klux Klan.
Now, they have names like Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Encouraged by a former president, they have been emboldened in recent years. Thus far, the majority of people charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection apparently are not members of organized extremist groups. Federal prosecutors have identified only 31 of some 230 persons charged as being affiliated with militant extremist groups.
Two S.C. men, Andrew Hatley and William Robert Norwood III, are among those charged; a third man, James Giannakos of Lexington County, is under investigation and linked to the Proud Boys. He is charged in a matter other than the Jan. 6 mob action. Norwood, from Greer, faces charges of violent conduct, obstruction of justice and theft. He was ordered detained following a three-hour hearing.
Outrage missing?
Two months after the Jan. 6 assault, following a Trump rally “the former guy” has termed a beautiful thing, investigations continue. Arrests continue to be made. What seems to be missing is public outrage. Some Republicans in Washington are so intent on moving on they act like their lives were not at risk on Jan. 6 when Congress was certifying the Electoral College results.
At a Senate committee hearing, FBI Director Chris Wray made it clear that the Jan. 6 assault was domestic terrorism. There is no evidence, Wray told senators, the people in the mob were imposters of Trump supporters; no evidence they were Antifa, a general term for left-wing protesters.
Wray said the FBI doesn’t care about the political preferences of violent extremists, whether they are leftists or rightists. As domestic terrorism has metastasized, FBI cases have tripled. Because of First Amendment and other concerns, domestic terrorism has been viewed differently than the foreign terrorists responsible for the 9-11 attacks.
OKLAHOMA CITY
The still-to-be-confirmed U.S. attorney general, Merrick B. Garland, supervised the investigation of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. Timothy J. McVeigh, a military veteran, demolished the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building with a massive truck bomb.
Before he became a federal appeals court judge, Garland also supervised the Unabomber cases and the Atlanta Olympics bombing in 1996.
“The militias and the right-wing terrorists [of the 1990s] were a foreshadowing of the groups you saw storming the Capitol,” said former deputy attorney general James Gorelick in The New York Times last month. “Their literature is the same, their tattoos are similar, and their language is similar.”
In 1950, Charlie’s Place in Myrtle Beach was a popular club for rhythm and blues, “Black music,” and people of both races danced together. Not a good practice, the Horry County sheriff said as a warning. The Carolina Ku Klux Klan attacked the club, firing hundreds of rounds into the club and the jukebox.
KLAN IN 2021
That was on Aug. 26, 1950. A Conway police officer, James D. Johnston, was among the 60 Klan members. Charlie Fitzgerald was taken and beaten.
The Klan has at least one active chapter in 25 states, including New York, Ohio and Illinois. One estimate places total U.S. Klan membership at 5,000 to 8,000. Originally started after the Civil War, the Klan revived in the 1920s and attracted millions of members.
All citizens and leaders should make no mistake about the seriousness of white supremacy turned violent. Free speech must be protected, but not violence.
In important ways, the Jan. 6 attack is a wake-up call that must not be ignored in South Carolina as well as in Washington.