1 - NEW: Prosecuting white supremacists has been difficult. To learn how white extremism is policed and punished, we dug into 8 years of @TheJusticeDept data. Here’s what I found with @SimoneJWei and @Schwartzapfel found:
2 - Our analysis found dozens of examples where federal prosecutors successfully built cases against white extremists. However, they used mostly workarounds — charging a suspect with traditional crimes, like drugs and gun possessions.
3 - To see how law enforcement punishes white supremacists, we analyzed ~ 700 federal prosecutions from 2012 to 2020 that involved what the FBI calls “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism” and hate crimes. Almost all the cases involved White men. HT @aamatthies
4 - Academic research at the University of North Carolina did not include black extremist groups because few exist, said Ashley Mattheis, a communications researcher who studies violent extremism and propaganda: “It’s an incredibly small percentage."
5 - Two-thirds of the 671 cases we analyzed involved gun and drug charges against white supremacist gangs that formed in prison and spread to the outside world. Convictions and lengthy prison sentences were common.
6 - Former police and FBI officials said they monitored the racist vitriol that white extremists posted online, but couldn’t act unless their subjects posted a specific threat against a specific person.
7 - There is no law against domestic terrorism, which makes it difficult to track these crimes. Some former federal officials say we should label all terrorist acts as terrorism, whether the motivation is Islamist extremism or white supremacy.
8 - The line between hateful speech and criminal threats is tricky. The First Amendment protections on speech make it difficult to bring cases against white extremists who spew racist threats, but do not target a specific individual.
9 - The First Amendment challenge applies to law enforcement at all levels of an investigation, from local officers who want to open a case to FBI agents assigned to monitor domestic terrorism and the federal prosecutors who have to convince a judge that the case is valid.
10 - Our analysis reflects a part of the FBI’s work: investigations ending in charges. It doesn’t include untold hours agents spend surveilling suspects. Black Lives Matter and Muslim community leaders say the FBI spends too much time watching them.
11 - Published with @USATODAY.
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