WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th January, 2021) ASHINGTON, January 29 (Sputnik), Barrington M. Salmon - US authorities must take WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point news / Sputnik - 30th January, 2021) hite nationalism and domestic terrorism more seriously as security threats and prepare for the extremist violence that it sure to come, two former senior law enforcement officials told Sputnik.
On Wednesday, the US Homeland Security Department warned that domestic extremists opposed to the presidential transition could continue to mobilize and commit violence, emboldened by the January 6 breach of the US Capitol building.
White supremacist symbols were seen among the crowd of pro-Trump supporters who stormed Capitol Hill on January 6. President Donald Trump was impeached on charges of inciting the riot and faces a Senate trial in February. Trump, in denying the charges, said the speech he delivered before the riots was appropriate.
Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) Executive Director Diane Goldstein, a former Lieutenant Commander at the Redondo Beach, California Police Department, said the scourge of white supremacy is not being adequately addressed in the United States.
"Our biggest threat is domestic terrorism and white nationalism. We as Americans are not taking the threat of white nationalism seriously," Goldstein said. "In the 1990s, the Aryan Brotherhood and the Order were fomenting a lot of violence. Law enforcement took a real signature stand and pushed these people back. That's not occurring right now."
Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper warned that the Capitol Hill riot was not an aberration or anomaly.
"This is the first of others that we will see," Stamper said. "It's very troubling when I look at the future."
Stamper said the way security handled the onslaught was terribly neglectful and suggested that the lax response was "deliberate on the part of many" given they had intelligence ahead of the protest event. He said he always knew that far-right individuals have infiltrated police departments and the military but expressed surprise at the extent of that infiltration.
"With regard to the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers and others in law enforcement and the military, I know that the figure is much much greater than I thought 20 years ago," he said. "We're not just talking about a handful of bad apples - this is a significant thread in law enforcement. They should be prohibited from strapping on a gun."
Stamper was appalled at the way the rioters engaged at a subhuman level. The attack on Congress, a 200-year old deliberative body, was unconscionable, he added, with rioters invading the privacy of those in public office. They went through private desks and were peering in drawers, Stamper recalled.
The former top police official believes Trump bears a great deal of responsibility for what happened. Stamper accused Trump of being a white supremacist who "cheers on" police brutality and racism.
"I'm absolutely convinced that Trump allowed cops to exercise their most basic instincts, say what they want [and] do what they want," Stamper said.
The former police chief said racist and bigoted views are prevailing and the US must push back against what is not fair and equitable.
Stamper indicated that far-left extremists like ANTIFA also pose a problem by trying to hijack the Black Lives Matter movement and other social justice organizations.
Stamper, author of two books, including "breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Expose of the Dark Side of America's Police," said he hopes the riots serve as a "wake-up call." America, he said, is going through a racial reckoning precipitated by several police involved killings of Blacks.
"White middle-class Americans are seeing what African Americans have been saying for centuries," Stamper said. "If you only read about it [police cases] from the police chief or spokesperson, whether it's Tamir Rice. Eric Garner, Walter Scott, George Floyd or Sandra Bland, you're simply gonna get a simplistic and distorted view."
Stamper pointed out the video that went viral of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd last May.
"And if you saw Officer Chauvin squeezing the life out of George Floyd, you can't not be affected by it," he said. "Yet some can see something like that and rationalize it. It was murder in front of our very eyes."
People who had never taken part in a demonstration took to the streets, he noted.
"This is a symptom that cries out for a prescription. Change won't come next week but it will come if we grow the base and sustain the protests," Stamper said.
WHERE DOES AMERICA GO FROM HERE?
The two law enforcement community leaders said the US government must conduct a thorough investigation to identify rioters and any possible ties to lawmakers and administration officials along with how and what transpired in the days leading up to the incident on Capitol Hill. The probe, they said, can also identify those police and military involved with domestic extremist groups and ensure all are held accountable.
Goldstein said some law enforcement departments are already starting internal investigations. The Seattle Police Department, for example, put officers on administrative leave. The military, she added, needs to be doing so as well.
"In order to hold people accountable, we have got to be transparent and engage in investigations that affirm the facts of what occurred. There has to be an appropriate level of accountability," she said.
Goldstein said the incident exposes the pervasive nature of extremism while providing fodder for diagnosis.
"I think we need to be very cognizant of the potential dangers. I don't want to create fear but don't want to minimize what happened," she said. "I think you have to go back to many of the basics and how we plan out for any type of big event like the Super Bowl and transition in power. We have the system in place already. We have to use them and implement them"
People will continue to demonstrate, she added, but steps must be taken to prevent similar situations. Critical threat assessments should be conducted in every single state, using local and national resources, with incident commands, staging areas and meeting with organizers of demonstrations, Goldstein added.
Above all, she said, police departments must better address hiring practices. All Americans in society have to careful but "especially the police," she explained.
"We're the only people, along with the military with the authority to kill people. We have got to hire the best people who will support the ideals of our community," Goldstein concluded.
Earlier this week, Acting US Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman told lawmakers that the police failed to adequately prepare for the event despite knowing militia groups and white supremacists organizations would be attending.
A senior Pentagon official earlier this month said the US Defense Department is currently conducting a review of its policies concerning service members in domestic extremist groups so that it can more effectively address the issue.
