White Supremacist Terrorism: A “National Security Crisis” or a Law Enforcement Challenge? Consider the Data by Charles Dunlap – Lawfire
Everyone is rightly concerned about the dangers extremists can pose, but the post (“Addressing the National Security Threat of White Supremacist Terrorism”) by Jonathan Greenblatt and George Selim, two officials of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), doesn’t help. It fails to put the risks, as real as they are, in a sufficiently objective context. But that’s exactly what the public needs to make reasoned and fact-driven decisions not just about resource allocation, but also about the civil liberty and other societal consequences that an authentic national security crisis can implicate.
Does the data justify transforming a law enforcement challenge into “national security crisis”? Greenblatt and Selim apparently think so. In their view since the “majority” of the 50 extremist-related deaths in 2018 their organization identified were “specifically perpetrated by white supremacists,” there is sufficient grounds for characterizing the situation as a “national security crisis.”
ADL’s analysis does attribute 78% of those 50 extremist murders in 2018 (amounting to 39 deaths) to white supremacists, but what Greenblatt and Selim don’t tell you is that as tragic as those 39 deaths were, they are among “16,214 reported cases of murder or non-negligent manslaughter in the United States” which occurred the same year. So, yes, while it’s undeniable that white-supremacists represent a genuine danger, aren’t those who committed the thousands of other murders of greater concern? In fact, if there is a “crisis,” isn’t it more appropriately framed as a law enforcement one within the capability of America’s 680,000 police officers to handle?...