Years of impunity for right-wing extremists began with the Bundys & led to failed Capitol Hill coup

[catbyte]

Arun Gupta

The Raw Story went to the Bundy occupation five years ago and warned the impunity would "blaze into another firestorm." That's exactly what happened on the US Capitol -- and could happen again.

In January 2016 a heavily armed militia led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon. For 41 days the two brothers used it as a base to carry out their fantasy of sparking a revolt against the U.S. government. They failed, but the impunity the Bundys enjoyed — before, during, and after their insurrection — proved to be a model and a source of inspiration for Trump's self-coup on January 6.

The lesson of the Bundy occupation was white conservatives with guns could threaten violence to further their political goals and face minimal consequences. That led to the deadly unrest of the Trump era: Charlottesville, Portland, Proud Boys, and Atomwaffen. Despite this, conservative white extremists were still able to incite violence. Before January 6, there were so many attacks on state capitols one expert on the extreme right asked, "how many times do they have to storm a capitol before it's taken seriously?"

Armed hordes storming the Capitol finally shocked the feds into action, and they have arrested 155 insurrectionists and counting. But the impunity remains. Just as the government went easy on the Bundys despite their blatant lawlessness, the government may go easy on a mob that wanted to put "heads on pikes" and came within a minute of carrying out their wish to "Hang Mike Pence."

Taking a bite out of violent white nationalism will fall to the incoming Biden administration. The last thing needed is new domestic terrorism laws that "will inevitably be used … against Black and brown people," says the ACLU. The government has plenty of powers to prosecute the extremists. While that won't end the threat of far-right terrorism, punishing insurrectionists with something to lose, the lawyers, doctors, executives, cops, politicians, military, entrepreneurs, Beverley Hill salon owners in Chanel boots and Louis Vutton sweaters, and most of all Trump and his accomplices in Congress, will isolate the most violent elements from broader public support.

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https://www.rawstory.com/what-is-right-wing-extremism/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. And that could have been nipped in the Bud

if it was not for f'ing screw ups by the DOJ and Jury Selection methods used.

[Sanity Claws]

2. Let's not forget the so-called Brooks Brothers riot in FL when counting votes in 2000

Those rioters who prevented the counting of votes were Republican operatives and have been rewarded. E.g. CJ Roberts.

[sabbat hunter]

3. years of impunity

Started with New Grinch when he became speaker of the house.

[BComplex]

4. Bingo! And the minority party that hates America is allowed a pass at every crime.

I'm fucking sick of it!

[Initech]

5. I actually think Gamergate is where things took a turn for the worst.

The whole Gamergate is really where these racist and sexist shitbags really started to let it be known that they were racist and sexist shitbags. Then they needed a leader. Trump was the leader who let it be known that they could be shitbags out in the open and they were proud of it. I know that racism and sexism are problems that go back hundreds of years. But in the modern era, if there's one incident where I could really point to as the starting place where things really started to go south, that would be it.

And it's all connected - the Bundys, Trump, white supremacism, white nationalism, they all started to come out of the proverbial Pandora's Box when this happened. And it's going to take a lot to put it all back in.

[Hoyt]

6. Exactly. These armed racist rubes should be in jail for life.

[Generic Other]

7. Armed occupation of Malheur refuge was 'dress rehearsal' for violent takeover of nation's Capitol

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214923437#post30

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214923437#post31

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214923437#post32

[kacekwl]

8. Nothing pissed me off quite as much

as that whole Bundy debacle. They all should be in prison to this day.

[moondust]

9. Farther back than that.

WP, August 21, 2017:

I warned of right-wing violence in 2009. Republicans objected. I was right.

White nationalists have only gotten more dangerous since then.

Eight years ago, I warned of a singular threat — the resurgence of right-wing extremist activity and associated violence in the United States as a result of the 2008 presidential election, the financial crisis and the stock market crash. My intelligence report, meant only for law enforcement, was leaked by conservative media.

A political backlash ensued because of an objection to the label “right-wing extremism.” The report also rightly pointed out that returning military veterans may be targeted for recruitment by extremists. Republican lawmakers demanded then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano rescind my report. The American Legion formally requested an apology to veterans. Some in Congress called for me to be fired. Amid the turmoil, my warning went unheeded by Republicans and Democrats. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security caved to the political pressure: Work related to violent right-wing extremism was halted. Law enforcement training also stopped. My unit was disbanded. And, one-by-one, my team of analysts left for other employment. By 2010, there were no intelligence analysts at DHS working domestic terrorism threats.

Since 2008, though, the body count from numerous acts of violent right-wing terrorism continued to rise steadily with very little media interest, political discussion or concern from our national leaders. As this threat grew, government resources were scaled back, law enforcement counterterrorism training was defunded and policies to counter violent extremism narrowed to focus solely on Muslim extremism. Heated political campaigning by Donald Trump in 2016 pandered to these extremists. Now, right-wing terrorism has become the national security threat which many government leaders have yet to acknowledge.
~more~

[Johnny2X2X]

10. Gun culture lives in a fantasy ladn

They take this tree of liberty watered with the blood of patriots mythical quote to heart and think their guns are going to overthrow our Democracy when a few of them don't like election results.

And they have another mythical quote about every blade of grass hiding an American with a gun as a reason why no one would invade us. I asked a gun nit friend about this and said, "So, you think that if a foreign army defeats the US Marines, US Army, US Airforce, US Navy, US Coast Guard, US National Guard, the FBI, and Local Law Enforcement, that you and your buddies and your AR-15s are going to be anything more than a flea getting run over by a take to that invading army?" He said yes, I replied, "that sounds pretty farfetched man."