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Tracking Threats and Harassment Against Local Officials
Following the 2020 presidential election, there has been a growing wave of threats against and harassment of election officials. Nearly 60 percent these threats and acts of intimidation took place in the five states which Trump falsely claimed he had won: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
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“Terror Granny” Charged with Plotting German Civil War to Bring Back the Kaiser
A 75-year old retired theology professor was arrested and charged with organizing a nationalist, far-right terrorist group aiming to bring back the Kaiser. The group aimed to attack power stations and transmitters in order to plunge large parts of Germany into black out in the hope of promoting civic unrest.
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Misuse of Texas Data Understates Illegal Immigrant Criminality
Activists and academics have been misusing data from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) in studies when claiming that illegal immigrants have relatively low crime rates. These studies fail to appreciate the fact that it can take years for Texas to identify convicts, while they are in custody, as illegal immigrants. These studies thus misclassify as native-born a significant number of offenders who are later identified as illegal immigrants.
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Self-Identified “Incel” Plotted Mass Shooting of Women at OSU
A 22-year old Ohio man admitted he plotted a mass shooting of women at a university in Ohio. The man identified as an “incel” or “involuntary celibate.” The incel movement is an online community of predominantly men who harbor anger towards women.
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Human Trafficking’s Newest Abuse: Forcing Victims into Cyberscamming
Tens of thousands of people from across Asia have been coerced into defrauding people in America and around the world out of millions of dollars. Those who resist face beatings, food deprivation or worse.
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Importing Even More Crime
The number of encounters with illegal immigrants recorded by the Border Patrol in FY2020 was 458,088. In FY22021, that number increased to about two million. The number of encounters with illegal immigrants who already had criminal records in FY2020 was 2,438. In FY2021, it rose to 10,763.
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How to Prevent, Prepare for, and Respond to Mass Attacks
What can people do right now to protect their communities from mass shootings? Researchers at RAND have spent two years working to answer that question. They looked at 640 mass attack plots that endangered, or would have endangered, four or more people in a public place between 1995 and 2020. More than half were thwarted before anyone got hurt—and in two-thirds of those cases, it was because of a tip from the public.
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The Oath Keepers Data Leak: Unmasking Extremism in Public Life
A data leak revealed the information of thousands of people whose names were in an Oath Keepers database as having paid for a membership at some point. The Oath Keepers are an anti-government extremist group associated with the militia movement.
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Two Constables, Four Police Chiefs and More Than 3,000 other Texans Were Members of the Oath Keepers: Report
A recent analysis of Oath Keepers’ membership rolls leaked last year found that Texas had more members of the far-right extremist group than any other state — and the most who worked as elected officials, law enforcement officers or members of the military.
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Why Outlawing Ghost Guns Didn’t Stop America’s Largest Maker of Ghost Gun Parts
Unregistered, unserialized weapons produced with Polymer80 parts have turned up at crime scenes across the country, but state-level efforts to close ghost gun loopholes continue to fall short.
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Five Facts About Mass Shootings in K-12 Schools
Preventing mass shootings in the United States, particularly those occurring in school settings, is an important priority for families, government leaders and officials, public safety agencies, mental health professionals, educators, and local communities. What does the evidence say about how to detect, prevent, and respond to these tragic events?
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Encouraging Individual Willingness to Report School Safety Concerns
How can states, districts, and schools best encourage people, especially students, to report threats of school violence so that action can be taken?
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The Accelerating Threat of the Political Assassination
The pattern of terrorism in recent years has arguably been trending in the direction of political assassination, especially in the United States. Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware write that assassins have long believed that their vicious acts would change the course of history. “The emerging trend is due in no small part to the reemergence of so-called “accelerationism” as a distinct violent extremist strategy. For extremists seeking to sow chaos and speed up some cataclysmic societal collapse, high-profile politicians provide an attractive target.”
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Antisemitic Incidents in United States Reached All-Time High in 2021
Antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the United States in 2021, with a total of 2,717 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism. This represents the highest number of incidents on record since 1979 – an average of more than seven incidents per day and a 34 percent increase year over year. Incidents reported in all 50 states. Attacks against synagogues and JCCs increased 61 percent.
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U.S. Schools Increase Security, and Some Arm Teachers
As classes are about to resume, many school districts have sought to boost security. Some are arming teachers to provide a line of defense against school shooters. It remains to be seen whether teachers toting firearms will save lives or do more harm than good.
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More headlines
The long view
How DHS Laid the Groundwork for More Intelligence Abuse
I&A, the lead intelligence unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) —long plagued by politicized targeting, permissive rules, and a toxic culture —has undergone a transformation over the last two years. Spencer Reynolds writes that this effort falls short. “Ultimately, Congress must rein in I&A,” he adds.
Southport Attacks: Why the U.K. Needs a Unified Approach to All Violent Attacks on the Public
The conviction of Axel Rudakubana for the murder of three young girls in Southport has prompted many questions about how the UK handles violence without a clear ideological motive. This case has also shown up the confusion in this area, and made clear the need for a basic reframing of how we understand murderous violence against the public today.
Strengthening School Violence Prevention
Violence by K-12 students is disturbingly common. Ensuring that schools have effective ways to identify and prevent such incidents is becoming increasingly important. Expanding intervention options and supporting K-12 school efforts in Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) would help.
Memory-Holing Jan. 6: What Happens When You Try to Make History Vanish?
The Trump administration’s decision to delete a DOJ database of cases against Capitol riot defendants places those who seek to preserve the historical record in direct opposition to their own government.
Evidence-Based Solutions to Protect Against Mass Attacks
Mass attacks like the New Year’s Day incident in New Orleans stir public emotion and have tragic consequences. While the investigations into this case will take time, we know from our work that there are things law enforcement and the public can do to mitigate and perhaps stop mass casualty events.