Far-right Extremism and Gun Violence: Reimagining Prevention

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Tweet text:latest @hatewatch: i wrote about reimagining preventing extremist-related gun violence after buffalo. with insights from @milleridriss, @MrBrianHughes, @intelwire, @beccalew, @aamattheis, and @LiSchlegel:

splcenter.org
Far-right Extremism and Gun Violence: Reimagining Prevention
As the U.S. reels from another spate of mass shootings, experts and practitioners concerned with understanding and preventing harms related to extremist radicalization are renewing calls for a more
11:35 AM · Aug 16, 2022

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/08/16/far-right-extremism-and-gun-violence-reimagining-prevention

As the U.S. reels from another spate of mass shootings, experts and practitioners concerned with understanding and preventing harms related to extremist radicalization are renewing calls for a more robust system of prevention and support for those at risk.

In May, a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, left 10 people, all of whom were Black, dead. The suspect, in documents distributed online just before the event, claimed he was motivated by violent white supremacy. The incident underscored the challenges facing deradicalization and prevention experts and practitioners: Law enforcement officials were aware the suspect had made “generalized threats” in the past and referred him to a psychiatrist for evaluation. They did not follow up afterward, and whatever psychiatric intervention occurred was not enough to stop what came next.

The alleged shooter detailed plans for a mass shooting and promoted his extremist views on the popular chat app Discord, seemingly unabated. He used Twitch, a livestreaming app favored by gamers, to distribute footage of his attack to the world. And he did all of it, as he wrote in a March 30 Discord post, to inspire others to do the same.

The alleged perpetrator, an 18-year-old New York state resident, faces 25 criminal counts, including a domestic terrorism charge, in connection with the massacre. (He has pleaded not guilty.) But this violent attack is far from unique, as the accused perpetrator’s racist screed – a memeified, cut-and-paste job lifted from white supremacist terrorists of years past – makes clear. Certain factors in this case typify all white supremacist violence: the cracks within the system that made his alleged attack possible; the networks through which he has funneled his propaganda; a culture that prioritizes carceral solutions; and, above all, the already strained mechanisms for deradicalization and prevention.

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