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Students’ Troubling Reaction to School Violence Compounds the Problem
Among U.S. high school students, the decision to carry a weapon to school is tied to experiencing violence at school, reports a new study. But weapons increase the potential for injury and death when there is interpersonal conflict, so understanding the relationship between exposure to violence and weapon carrying is essential for developing effective public health interventions.
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Should Nine Oath Keepers Receive Terror-Enhanced Sentences?
More than 1,000 people have now been charged with federal crimes stemming from the Capitol insurrection. Of them, about 665 have been convicted, and roughly 485 sentenced. Among the convicted are nine members of the extremist group Oath Keepers, six of whom were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. The government wants the judge to impose terror-enhanced sentences on the nine, but Roger Parloff writes that the government’s request seems excessive - with one exception: Oath Keepers’ leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes. “A terrorism enhancement for him seems appropriate and, indeed, unavoidable.”
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DC Police Officer Indicted for Leaking Information to Proud Boys Leader
A DC police lieutenant was indicted on for leaking to Enrique Tarrio, the leader of The Proud Boys, information about a police investigation of Tarrio, and then lying about his communication with Tarrio.
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Backgrounder: Police and Security Unions
The history of unionizing police officers and security guards in the United States is complex. It spans over a century, and has been shaped by different factors, including changes in the political and economic landscape, shifts in public opinion toward organized labor, and the evolving roles and responsibilities of law enforcement professionals.
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U.S. in a Massive Crackdown on Darknet Fentanyl Trafficking
In a massive global crackdown on fentanyl trafficking on the darknet, U.S. law enforcement agencies and their international partners announced Tuesday the arrests of nearly 300 suspects and seizure of a large cache of drugs, cash, virtual currency and weapons.
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Stopping Illegal Gun Trafficking Through South Florida
American-made guns trafficked through Florida ports are destabilizing the Caribbean and Central America and fueling domestic crime. It’s time for the United States to get serious about stopping the flow.
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Texas House Requires Panic Buttons in Every Classroom and Armed Guards in Every School
Lawmakers have said school safety is a priority this session, but it is still unclear whether they’ll listen to Uvalde families who want to raise the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic guns from 18 to 21.
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FBI: Active Shooter Incidents Fell in 2022 but Remained Relatively High
The FBI is reporting a slight decline in the number of “active shooter” incidents last year but says the tally still surpassed the levels seen in most of the last five years. The FBI defines an active shooter as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” such as a school or night club.
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SPFPA Disney Local under DOL Investigation
Three officers of a Walt Disney Land local police security union allegedly received payoffs to affiliate with a national union, according to sources, and the U.S. Department of Labor is now investigating.
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U.S. Cities Less Violent Than Two Years Ago, Data Shows
The truth about American cities: Despite popular belief, they are much less violent than they were just a couple of years ago. Consider New York: The city witnessed a staggering 50% increase in homicides in 2020 and 2021. But last year, they fell by 11% to 433, and so far this year, they’ve dropped another 7% to 113, according to city police data.
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Officers of China’s National Police Charged in Transnational Repression Schemes Targeting U.S. Residents
Forty defendants accused of Creating fake social media accounts to harass PRC dissidents, and Working with employees of a U.S. telecommunications company to remove dissidents from company’s platform.
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Two Arrested for Operating Illegal Overseas Police Station of the Chinese Government
Defendants Aare New York City residents who allegedly operated the police station in lower Manhattan and destroyed evidence when confronted by the FBI. The defendants and their co-conspirators helped the Chinese intelligence service locate Chinese dissidents living in the United States.
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Why Do Mass Shooters Kill? It’s About More Than Having a Grievance
The year 2023 is still young, and already there have been at least 146 mass shooting events in the U.S. on record, including the killing of five people in a Louisville, Kentucky, bank that the shooter livestreamed. There were 647 mass shootings in 2022 and 693 in 2021, resulting in 859 and 920 deaths, respectively. Since 2015, over 19,000 people have been shot and wounded or killed in mass shootings. In the wake of most shootings, the news media and the public reflexively ask: What was the killer’s motive?
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Study Links Hard-Right Social Media with Incidents of Civil Unrest
An increase in social media activity on “hard-right” platforms — those that purport to represent viewpoints not welcome on “mainstream” platforms — contributes to rightwing civil unrest in the United States, according to a new study. A new Yale-led study finds evidence that social media activity on hard-right platforms contributes to political unrest offline. “The magnitude of the effect we found is modest but two characteristics of social media and civil unrest caution against dismissing it,” said Yale sociologist Daniel Karell.
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New Statistical Model Accurately Predicts Monthly U.S. Gun Homicides
The United States experiences a staggeringly high rate of gun homicides, but accurately predicting these incidents – especially on a monthly basis – has been a significant challenge. A new methodology, overcoming limitations of official government data, could change that.
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More headlines
The long view
What Can We Learn from the Nation’s Historic Decline in Murders?
The U.S. endured a spike in gun violence during the pandemic, but it’s subsiding in many places. A researcher puts the latest homicide statistics into context — and warns lawmakers not to become complacent.
Is Left-Wing Terrorism Making a Comeback in Germany? Analyzing the “Engel – Guntermann Network”
For Germany, the reemergence of more violence orientated left-wing extremist actors has diversified the threat posed by non-state actors even further. Violent left-wing extremism is also of growing concern across Europe. While left-wing violent extremism does not currently represent as acute a threat as currently manifested by jihadist and right-wing terrorist attacks, the recent concerning trend among German left-wing extremists is toward greater violence and transnationalism.