Homegrown Right-wing Violent Extremism on the Rise
Here are some of the current violent extremism trends in America, as well as the organizations that are most active right now on college campuses.
Terrorism and extremism experts are saying that there has been a sharp increase in homegrown, right-wing violent extremism in America.
“The right-wing terrorist threat that has been festering and growing for years — since the terms of former President Barack Obama and even before — is now at a critical level of participation and extremist action,” says Dr. Erroll Southers, professor of national and homeland security at the University of Southern California and director of the Safe Communities Institute. “There are troves of data showing the right-wing, white supremacist terrorist threat is dramatically outpacing the threat from Muslim Identity extremism, such as that espoused by al Qaeda and ISIS.”
A study released in January by the Anti-Defamation League found that attackers with right-wing extremist ties killed at least 50 people last year. The study claims, “The extremist-related murders in 2018 were overwhelmingly linked to right-wing extremists. Every one of the perpetrators had ties to at least one right-wing extremist movement, although one had recently switched to supporting Islamist extremism. White supremacists were responsible for the great majority of the killings, which is typically the case.”
Additionally, this past November, a report released by the FBI found hate crimes in the U.S. have spiked for the third year in a row, increasing 17% from 2016 to 2017 alone.
In this video, Dr. Southers details some of the current violent extremism trends in America, as well as the organizations that are most active right now, especially on college campuses. He also discusses the recruitment tactics these groups use to attract new members. Additionally, he talks about what institutions of higher education can do to address these recruitment tactics while honoring the First Amendment.
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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What a misleading article. The Ohio shooter and other mass shooters, such as the one that attacked the conservatives in Virginia, were actually liberals/socialists. Thus far, except for the terror attacks, ALL of these mass shooters were taking psychotropic drugs which have homicidal and suicidal warnings and all of these took cars to their destination. Yet, socialists aren’t clamoring to outlaw psychotropic drugs or further restrict cars, they instead blame conservatives and guns, neither of which is the cause of the hatred in the perpetrators heart.
No one wants to mention left wing terrorist groups such as Antifa, good call Rick.
Please consider writing an article on the safety concerns presented by Antifa – the alleged anti-facist group who wears hoods, terrorize/physically attacks conservative reporters and those who don’t follow their ideology. They are a threat, but, I don’t recall seeing an article on them.
Hi JC,
Thank you for your thoughts! We agree it’s such an important topic. Check out this article I think you’ll find helpful: https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/news/managing-controversial-speakers-on-college-campuses/
I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but all of these mass shootings are beginning to look very “Manchurian Candidate” to me, and this latest batch seems to be conveniently timed with the push to silence QAnon. Also, as mentioned by others, the Ohio shooter specifically was a leftist, though nearly all of these shootings were tied to personal relational or mental health issues and not political, except for the few that were terrorist attacks (San Bernandino, NYC truck attack, etc.) where religion was clearly expressed by the attacker either before or during the event. Also, in many of these cases, the guns were acquired illegally (which stricter gun laws will never stop), or legally through existing channels after passing background checks where someone failed to do their job correctly (which will also never be stopped by stricter laws). The issue is NOT guns, nor is it “extremism”. The issue is social emasculation where specific ideas are forcibly shunned in the public forum, feelings override facts, and the voices of those truly in need are squashed by the fantasies of a radical minority. Until that underlying issue is resolved, violence will continue, with or without guns.
Unbelievable: After reading this article (which was a waste of my time) I googled “Dr” Erroll Southers just to find photos of him with former President Barack Obama. That says a lot, he is so far left how can anyone believe anything he has to say. Don’t waste your time with this article!
Yes, please. Gather all the facts before you have a headline like this one!
Very biased Robin. Antifa is causing big problems on west coast campuses. Numerous cases of attacking peaceful conservatives and vandalism. At Washington one tried to chain lock College Republicans in a conference room. But the liberal prosecutor of course didn’t press charges.
I’m starting to believe Campus Safety magazine is more a rag with editors motivated by leftist, liberal ideologies than anything else. I’m so disappointed in the tone of this magazine over the past year or so. And to be quite honest, this needs to be looked into, IMHO. I definitely see a left-leaning slant. Might I also suggest researching the past writings and affiliations of the authors of the articles and the studies that this magazine prints. It can be very telling.