Words and Deeds: Increasingly Militant Social Media Discourse by Far-Left Extremists

President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr have attributed much of the meyhem and violence which accompenied some of the racial justice protests to antifa and anarchists, but to date, after thorough investigations and hundreds of interrogations, the Justice Department has not charged any left-wing groups in connection with the civil unrest.

The antifa follower who shot and killed a far-right activist in Portland would have been the first far-left extremist to face charges, but he was killed by the police when they came to arrest him.

Extremism experts say that while the threat of violence from far-left extremists is real, organized groups on the far right pose a greater threat of violence, and this is also the assessment of DHS. In August, DHS intelligence analysts circulated three drafts of the department’s State of the Homeland Threat Assessment 2020. The three drafts say that white supremacists present the gravest terror threat to the United States. “[A]ll three drafts describe the threat from white supremacists as the deadliest domestic terror threat facing the U.S., listed above the immediate danger from foreign terrorist groups.” Betsy Woodruff Swan writes in Politico. “None of the drafts Politico reviewed referred to a threat from Antifa, the loose cohort of militant left-leaning agitators who senior Trump administration officials have described as domestic terrorists.”

Still, the increasingly more militant social media discourse by anarcho-socialist extremists may be a precursor to greater violence by far-left extremists. This is especially the case since, according NCRI, the anarcho-socialists share similar characteristics with Islamist Jihadists and the far-right Boogaloo Bois. Among these characteristic are:

·  Apocalyptic beliefs

·  Utopian legends/narratives

·  Use of private or fringe internet forums

·  Organized militia

·  Use of creative memes and online propaganda

·  Martyr narratives

·  Lone wolf terror attacks

·  Highly strategic recruitment/operational security measures

NCRI notes that anarcho-socialist extremists do not share one characteristic which Islamist Jihadists and Boogaloo Bois share — “Cell-like terror attacks.”

The increasing vehemence and militancy of far-left extremist social media discourse should be taken seriously by intelligence and security agencies. On Saturday, two police officers were shot in Compton, California. The gunman is still at large and his identity and ideology still unknown (police officers have so far been the target of choice of Boogaloo Bois: a Boogaloo follower is now facing charges for killing one police officer in the Bay Area on 29 May during a BLM protest, and for killing a second officer on 6 June when the police came to arrest him; other followers of Boogaloo are facing charges in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado for plotting attacks on law enforcement).

But there is no mystery about the ideological affinity of the far-left extremists who were captured on video blocking an entrance to the hospital where the deputies were taken for treatment. The far-left extremists, ghoulishly, kept shouting “death to police,” “I hope they f—-ing die,” and “kill the police.”

Regarding its earlier study of Boogaloo Bois, NCRI says:

Our research was the first to provide an in-depth characterization of the emerging threats against police by the extreme libertarian-anarchist movement, the Boogaloo; our assessment proved accurate, with terror attacks against law enforcement appearing only months after the report, including fatalities.

Thoughts precede words. Words precede deeds. We have seen it on the far right. We are likely to see it on the far left.

Ben Frankel is the editor of the Homeland Security News Wire.