White
supremacists in the military and law enforcement are not a new
phenomenon. But the crisis is growing like a cancer, and now,
apparently, the government is finally taking this utmost threat
seriously. In light of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, if America
fails to root out the white domestic terrorists in our midst, then
the country as a whole is in a heap of trouble. And those
specifically who are not white supremacists are in deep trouble.
On
Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to
require government agencies to produce
a report
on white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in federal law enforcement
and the military. This measure would include the Department of
Defense, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI.
With
a 218-208
vote,
the amendment was approved on purely party lines, with all Democrats
voting for the amendment and all
Republicans voting against it.
This breakdown should not surprise those who have paid attention,
given the Republican Party is a leading purveyor
of white supremacy
and party leadership has embraced an agenda of white
nationalism;
whatever passes as policy in that party these days reflects the
racist conspiracy theory known as the “great
replacement theory“—the
idea that the white man is an endangered species, and Democrats,
liberals and Jewish people are replacing him with Black and brown
people.
It
is likely the Republicans in the Senate will kill the legislation
because white supremacists are the base of the Republican Party. A
recent
poll
found that 7 in 10 Republicans believe in the great replacement
theory.
A
Pentagon
report
last year sounded the alarm on the white supremacist threat in the
armed services. The report focused on recruitment and called for
changes in the screening process for military recruits, given that
even a small number of domestic extremists pose a national security
threat and undermine military cohesion. The number
of white extremists
in the military is unknown. In the past, white supremacist service
members have
committed murder,
planned
acts of terrorism
and have been involved
in other disturbing activities.
Active-duty
servicemembers are “highly prized” members of domestic
terrorist groups who legitimize these groups and help increase
recruitment, according to the Pentagon report. And all that helpful
combat and weapons training translates into more successful terrorist
attacks. Over the past two decades, right-wing
extremists
have killed more people in America than any other extremist group,
according to a senior Department of Defense official.
Some
active-duty soldiers have been discharged for their membership in
white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. More importantly, white
supremacist servicemembers with ties to militia groups such as the
Oath Keepers participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S.
Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and
install Donald Trump as dictator.
As
we have learned from the congressional hearings, the Oath
Keepers—whose
members are reportedly tens of thousands of current and former
military and law enforcement officials—were key players in the
deadly attack. An estimated 13
percent
of insurrection-related arrests have been of veterans or active-duty
soldiers, and one-fifth of applicants to the neo-Nazi group Patriot
Front
claim military ties. At least five Patriot Front members, including
four
veterans and a National Guard cadet,
were arrested last month for planning to attack an Idaho Pride event.
Joining
forces with groups such as the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, the
Republican Party and others, the Oath Keepers harbor racist
and antisemitic beliefs
and call for a civil war—an “armed revolution,”
which they tried to carry out at the Capitol insurrection.
Perhaps
the most prominent military member involved in Jan. 6 was retired
lieutenant general and Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
A QAnon conspiracist who has ties to the Oath
Keepers and Proud Boys
and has openly flashed the white
power hand sign,
Flynn claimed President Biden stole the 2020 election from Trump, and
he called for violence. Flynn advised Trump to seize voting machines
across the country and impose
martial law.
And Flynn pleaded
the Fifth
when investigators asked him if the violence of Jan. 6 was justified
and whether he believed in a peaceful transfer of power.
If
that was not enough, Lt.
Gen. Charles Flynn,
then-deputy chief of staff of the Army and brother of Michael Flynn,
was involved in key discussions with U.S. Capitol Police and District
of Columbia officials on whether to send in National Guard troops to
end the violent Capitol riot. The Pentagon at first denied Charles
Flynn had been involved in any such calls that day.
Meanwhile,
Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a part of DHS, has fostered a
culture
of racism and violence
against migrants, with dehumanizing verbal abuse against people from
the Global South. The nation’s largest federal law enforcement
agency, CBP has employed white
supremacists and Ku Klux Klan members
since its inception nearly a century ago, according to the Southern
Poverty Law Center.
Border
Patrol agents have killed
100 people
in the last decade, abused Indigenous children and caused their
deaths, posted
racist and sexist material
online, and have spread replacement
theory
without being held accountable. The blatant racism and brutality of
the Border Patrol were on full display in September 2021, when CBP
agents were photographed and video recorded riding on horseback and
chasing, whipping and yelling at Haitian migrants on the Rio Grande
in Del Rio, Texas.
A
now-iconic photo shows a Border Patrol agent on horseback armed with
a whip and grabbing Mirard Joseph, a Haitian migrant. The
organization Haitian Bridge Alliance filed
a federal lawsuit against
the Biden administration and CBP on behalf of Joseph, alleging CBP
agents used horse reins as whips against Haitian people. A
CBP report
called for discipline for four agents for violations such as using
“denigrating and offensive language” and “force or
the threat of force.” denied. However, the report denied
allegations from the Haitian Bridge Alliance that agents used horse
reins to strike Haitian migrants, even as the images of such behavior
sparked international outrage.
White
supremacists have infiltrated the military and the police for
decades,
if not forever.
America, you have a problem on your hands, and it is coming from
inside. You armed and trained this threat, and you gave it a uniform,
so this is on you.
This commentary is also posted on The Grio.