Looks like the FBI is worried about “lone offenders.”
The effort, known as the “Lone Wolf Initiative,” was started shortly after President Obama‘s inauguration, in part because of a rising level of hate speech and surging gun sales.
“Finding those who might plan and act alone, the so-called lone offenders … will only be prevented by good intelligence, the seamless exchange of information among law enforcement at every level, and vigilant citizens reporting suspicious activity,” said Michael Heimbach, the FBI‘s assistant director for counterterrorism.
Because rising hate speech and surging gun sales always go hand in hand, don’t they?
Hate groups have multiplied across the USA, from 602 in 2000 to 926 in 2008, reports the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups and works to limit their activities. Mark Potok, director of the center’s Intelligence Project, said the lone attacker is an extension of the “leaderless resistance” concept of activism advocated by white supremacist Louis Beam.
Yes, here we go. The SPLC report. No doubt in this tough economy the SPLC is having difficulty raising money just like every other non-profit, and what raises money better with left wing donors than a good scare story about bubbas with guns playing army? As SayUncle points out, it never went away. It just fits within their narrative again.
I understand the FBI and Secret Service have a job to do, and as I’ve said in the past, I hope they do their job well when it comes to protecting the President. But that ought not to extend to spying and profiling of American citizens, just because they hold the “wrong” opinions. The type of threat the FBI proposes to defend against would only be possible with a pervasive police state, and that should scare anybody.
One time I looked at the SPLC’s hate-group list to find out how many “white” vs “black” groups they had listed–lots of “white” groups, very few “black” groups. BTW, they had a libertarian “think tank” listed as a hate group. I wonder how many conservative groups are now listed as hate groups.
I’ll bet that whenever any group of white or mostly-white people gets together to shoot their guns with their gun club or whatever, and then the SPLC finds out about it, there will soon be another “militia” added to the SPLC’s online “hate group” list, that is, if they weren’t on this list already.
Hmmm, I wonder what they would think of me (white) taking my four classmates (direct from India) out sheet shooting?
Ummm….. “sheet shooting”, Peter?
I don’t like being clumped together in a group classification such as this.
Isn’t the racial profiling or similar or do I have to be something other than a white gun owner to claim that?
Yeah but these people don’t believe you should be allowed to have an opinion that isn’t theirs.
I watched a news report where someone from I think it was either the ATF of FBI said if you hear someone talk about basically anything that your would normally see on the threeper blogs you should call the cops on them.
The predictable thing all these reports have in common is that we all hate obama because he’s a democrat and black. Our honest concerns mean nothing. But this is old media…
SPLC has a nine figure endowment, they could stop fundraising today and never ru out of money.
rising level of hate speech
I’d think that impossible after the last 8 years.
I read that article and was particularly struck by the weak quote from the ACLU rep.
ACLU policy spokesman Michael German, a former FBI agent, said the government effort resembles a form of “predictive policing” that can sometimes result in the improper profiling of people based on race, ethnicity or political leanings.
I mean, yeah, he’s former FBI, but good grief… I thought the ACLU stood foursquare against profiling?
At any rate, the “lone wolf” gunman is, by definition, a low-profile threat. There’s so much chaff out there that picking up the actual threat is nigh-impossible.
“Finding those who might plan and act alone, the so-called lone offenders … will only be prevented by good intelligence, the seamless exchange of information among law enforcement at every level, and vigilant citizens reporting suspicious activity,” said Michael Heimbach, the FBI’s assistant director for counterterrorism.
So, informing on your scary neighbor is the only way to stop these attackers? I wonder what a hypothetical bystander would have thought of the conversation myself and a coworker were having about the large numbers of firearms and ammo he’s acquired over the years?