With Rise of Far-Right Extremists, N.Y.P.D. Creates Special Unit

[Edge-]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/n...mid=tw-nytimes

With Rise of Far-Right Extremists, N.Y.P.D. Creates Special Unit

Threats from far-right and neo-Nazi organizations, including groups like The Proud Boys, will be investigated.

For almost two decades, the intelligence bureau of the New York Police Department has built a security apparatus designed to track international terror groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Now, the department is aiming those resources at a different target: far-right and extremist hate groups.

Police officials say they have formed a new unit within the department’s intelligence bureau, known as “Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism,” or “R.E.M.E,” that will be primarily dedicated to investigating terror threats from far-right and neo-Nazi organizations, including groups like the Atomwaffen Division and The Proud Boys.

The unit became operational early this month, and already has dozens of open investigations, police officials said.

John Miller, the commissioner of the intelligence division, said the far-right extremist groups are not that different in nature from Islamic extremist groups like Al Qaeda. “There’s no different recipe except our offenders are likely to be on the ground here,” he said in an interview.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the unit’s creation on Wednesday at City Hall, just a day after a gun battle in Jersey City, during which two gunman opened fire at two different locations, including a kosher supermarket, killing three bystanders and a Jersey City detective.

“What we saw yesterday was a premeditated, violent, anti-Semitic hate crime,” Mr. de Blasio said. “In other words, you can say it was an act of terror.”

The two suspects, a man and a woman, were killed in a shootout with police. The man, whom police have not yet named, had a history of posting anti-Semitic and anti-police rhetoric online, one law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation.

The R.E.M.E. unit appears to be one of the first of its kind organized in a local police department, and its creation underscores the urgency with which law enforcement views the threat of far-right inspired attacks. According to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks such incidents, 50 people were killed by extremists in the United States in 2018, and every one of the incidents was linked to far-right ideologies.

The unit will use the same tools that are applied in other terrorism investigations, said Thomas Galati, the chief of the department’s intelligence bureau. In an interview, Mr. Galati declined to go into specific detail. But police officials said those tools could include anything from tracking internet message boards to undercover operations inside far-right groups.

The city’s police department had previously investigated threats from such organizations across several different divisions. But one week this summer rattled police officials in New York: A gunman in El Paso, Texas, opened fire in a Walmart and killed 22 people; a separate shooter in Gilroy, Calif. shot and killed three at a Garlic festival; and another shooter in Dayton, Ohio opened fire in a bar and killed nine.

Those three incidents prompted the department to expedite creation of the new unit, the police said.

“You can wait for that terrible thing that has a terrible impact on human life to happen in New York City,” Mr. Miller said. “Or you can look at those things that are happening in all those other places and say, ‘Let’s organize a more focused effort to detect and prevent that now.’”

The size of far-right groups in New York City remains unclear. Katherin Sizemoer, an intelligence analyst assigned to the new unit, said that while few of them are based in New York, the city is often mentioned as a target for attacks.

“Who do they see as being the threat to the society they want to create — this white ethnostate?” Ms. Sizemoer said. “A city like New York City, where you have all of these races and ethnicities and religions all in one place. That’s the threat.”

Last October, the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan was the scene of a violent brawl between The Proud Boys, a far-right group that disdains liberals, feminists and Islam, and anti-fascist activists. The violence came shortly after the founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes, a former Brooklyn hipster and right-wing provocateur, spoke at the club.

Two members of The Proud Boys were convicted on charges of attempted gang assault and rioting in relation to the melee.

Not far outside the city’s boundaries, far-right militias operate in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, law enforcement officials said. Long Island has an active chapter of Oathkeepers, a right-wing militia group, and another militia group, the Three Percenters, has had a presence in New York State for years.

Police officials said they had seen groups like The Proud Boys and Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, put posters at college campuses in the city.

“There are people we’re definitely concerned with in the tristate area,” Chief Galati said. “It’s our job to identify them and make sure they’re not acting out.”

The R.E.M.E. unit will include representatives from New Jersey and Pennsylvania state police, and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

How to deal with threats from far-right groups has been a subject of debate at the highest levels of law enforcement. While supporters of groups like the Islamic State or Al Qaeda can be charged in federal court for supporting an overseas terror organization, critics say there is no comparable charge when someone supports a domestic group that endorses violence.

But the police department’s new unit will likely test how far state and local prosecutors can push local laws to fill gaps in federal statutes. New York State has its own terrorism charges, including a material support charge that could be used against proponents of domestic, far-right groups, Mr. Miller said.

“We’re essentially legally all set for our state charge,” Mr. Miller said. “Our state charge makes no differentiation between domestic terrorism and foreign terrorism, and there is a material support charge.”

The New York Police Department has drawn fire from civil liberties lawyers in the past for its monitoring of political groups. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the police department helped launch a secret surveillance program targeting the city’s Muslim population. In more recent history, the department has kept tabs on groups that protest police brutality, like Black Lives Matter.

Mr. Miller said that is within the intelligence bureau’s purview to monitor far-right groups.

“Well, we’re authorized to do that,” Mr. Miller said. “We’re the only entity in the N.Y.P.D. designated in the patrol guide to investigate quote-unquote political activity, meaning political activity that could lead to illegal activity.”

Few elements here that I find interesting.

We're seeing another real-world expression of the concerns raised in the Obama administrations 2009 DHS report on the rise and threat of right wing terrorism domestically, the same report that conservative media and Republicans attacked nonstop and tried to dismiss - https://fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf

More reading on the consequences of Republicans rejecting this report wholesale here - https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...n-rouge-214089

Bolded the specific second bit, it's interesting that law enforcement see so many similarities between the approaches of these groups and international terror groups.

[Santti]

Pretty interesting development. Going to be fun to see the reaction from the alt-right, Trump, and other full-blown wackaloons.

Calling it before it happens; this thread is going to be trolled/sealioned to hell.

[TigTone]

You reap what you sow.

I have said it before people get tired of violence, being threaten, and constantly worrying “if my child’s school is next”.

Far right is just tightening a loose around their own necks.

Anyone associated with them will have to condemn them or be ostracized from rest of society.

[Kreuger]

Good, stopping violence is allways for the best

Maybe they would have been able to stop yesterdays attack

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/n...-suspects.html

[Blur4stuff]

I can't speak for NY, but in my area the extremists are certainly a lot bolder over the past few years. They're being much more open about hating anyone that isn't white/straight/their version of christian.

It's truly bizarre listening to someone claiming to be christian and in the next breath express their excitement that immigrants/refugees are being abused/tortured. I can't count how many times I've heard people wonder why we can't just shoot people crossing the border, women children and all.

[Puupi]

I can't speak for NY, but in my area the extremists are certainly a lot bolder over the past few years. They're being much more open about hating anyone that isn't white/straight/their version of christian.

It's truly bizarre listening to someone claiming to be christian and in the next breath express their excitement that immigrants/refugees are being abused/tortured. I can't count how many times I've heard people wonder why we can't just shoot people crossing the border, women children and all.

How's that un-christian? Have you read the bible or what has been done in the name of the church for the past two millenia?

[Blur4stuff]

Well, most christians I've interacted with growing up (family included) disregard the old testament and just focus on Jesus. They also don't trust or respect the catholic church. So pointing out any of those things makes no difference to them.

Even though, by supporting Trump and republicans they are still violating the teachings of Jesus. They have completely abandoned what they've always claimed they believed in.

[Mekh]

Well, most christians I've interacted with growing up (family included) disregard the old testament and just focus on Jesus. They also don't trust or respect the catholic church. So pointing out any of those things makes no difference to them.

Even though, by supporting Trump and republicans they are still violating the teachings of Jesus. They have completely abandoned what they've always claimed they believed in.

He's just trying to get the thread closed for forbidden topics, so we can't talk about the fact that actual police is creating a new unit to fight the would-be terrorists that are supporters of the current president.

[TigTone]

He's just trying to get the thread closed for forbidden topics, so we can't talk about the fact that actual police is creating a new unit to fight the would-be terrorists that are supporters of the current president.

That shouldn’t get the thread closed, should get the person bringing up off topic stuff in trouble.

[PC2]

Very good. All extremists are idiots and angry. Those people are bad for society.

[Cizr]

Good, every extremism should be fought. Jews have it especially bad being hated by far right, far left and islamists.

Pretty interesting development. Going to be fun to see the reaction from the alt-right, Trump, and other full-blown wackaloons.

Calling it before it happens; this thread is going to be trolled/sealioned to hell.

Trump already reacted to far right and racist many times. You can see it in my signature

[Stormspellz]

That shouldn’t get the thread closed, should get the person bringing up off topic stuff in trouble.

but then people side track and extend it which is just enough excuse for certain dwarf avatar to pop in a close it.

[Gestopft]

Quick! Make a Law & Order spinoff!

Da Dum! Do do do do doooooooo

But really, good plan by NYPD

[Puupi]

Dude, you're the LAST person that has the right to talk in this thread.

And no, the Jews don't have any issues with the far left.

I'm sure the far left love Rothschild's et al.

[PC2]

Dude, you're the LAST person that has the right to talk in this thread.

And no, the Jews don't have any issues with the far left.

You're talking about Cizr as a person, and not the point he was making. What's the point of doing that?

[Cizr]

Dude, you're the LAST person that has the right to talk in this thread.

And no, the Jews don't have any issues with the far left.

Why am I last person that has the right to talk in this thread?

Its the far left that has issues with jews. They hate Israel and love Palestine.

btw arent you that guy who was praising bolsheviks? They were pretty extreme you know....

[Shadowferal]

It isn't the Left that's always shooting up Jewish synagogues.

[Edge-]

Its the far left that has issues with jews. They hate Israel and love Palestine.

Not liking the behavior of the Israeli government doesn't mean that liberals hate Jews. That just means they disagree with the actions of the Israeli government, which represents Jews, Christians, Muslims, other religions, and those who do not follow any religion.

This is a strawman argument and always has been. And it's sure not "leftists" that have been behind any of the antisemetic attacks at synagogues around the world, that I can think of. Those have largely been far-right extremists.

[Kallisto]

It isn't the Left that's always shooting up Jewish synagogues.

Or chanting about how the Jews will not replace them.

[Wyrt]

It isn't the Left that's always shooting up Jewish synagogues.

Yeah, but the left has criticized the Israeli government for their inhumane policies. Clearly the Left hates Jews.