Growing support for political violence raises alarms

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://thehill.com/regulation/3561521-growing-support-for-political-
violence-raises-alarms/

Just hours after his arrest last month near the home of Justice Brett
Kavanaugh, a 26-year-old California man carrying a Glock 17 pistol,
burglary tools and zip ties told an FBI agent what had inspired his cross-
country trip to assassinate the conservative Supreme Court justice.

The suspect, who has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 20 years in prison
if convicted, said he was upset about the leaked draft opinion overturning
Roe v. Wade and the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed two
teachers and 19 children. According to court records, the suspect believed
Kavanaugh would vote to further loosen gun laws, and said that killing the
justice before turning the gun on himself would give his life purpose.

The chilling incident is among a series of violent threats recently that
have targeted political figures and comes amid a shifting landscape in
which the share of partisans who think violence is sometimes justified to
achieve political ends has grown significantly.

“The idea that violence is legitimate for political purposes has moved
into the mainstream,” said Robert Pape, a political science professor at
the University of Chicago. “It’s still a minority. … But if you’ve got 10
percent or 15 percent of a community that believes that violence is
acceptable for some political causes, that just encourages more violence
for those causes.”

A rash of recent violent threats against U.S. lawmakers has raised new
concerns about the safety of political figures, particularly after the
assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe illustrated in
the starkest possible terms the stakes of a heightened threat environment.
And the Jan. 6 coup attempt served to remind Americans that the U.S. is
not immune from the kind of political violence that is relatively common
in some parts of the world.

One recent high-profile incident came earlier this week when a man was
arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.),
who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus. According to law
enforcement, officers discovered the suspect in the street outside
Jayapal’s Seattle home on the evening of July 9 standing with his hands in
the air and a handgun holstered on his waist.

A neighbor told officers that they heard the man yell, “Go back to India,
I’m going to kill you” and saw his vehicle drive by Jayapal’s residence
about three times while he yelled profanities, according to legal records.

The 48-year-old suspect was released from jail Wednesday after police were
unable to adequately show he had made the alleged threats, according to
the Seattle Times, which reported that law enforcement had obtained a
court order requiring the man to surrender his guns, citing concerns about
his mental health.

Earlier this month, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), one of two Republicans on
the House Jan. 6 select committee, shared threatening letters and
voicemails he’s received.

“I hope you naturally die as quickly as f—ing possible,” one caller said.

“Going to come protest in front of your house this weekend. We know who
your family is and we’re going to get you,” another caller said. “Gonna
get your wife, gonna get your kids.”

The calls were compiled in a video that Kinzinger described in an
accompanying tweet.

“Threats of violence over politics has increased heavily in the last few
years,” he wrote. “But the darkness has reached new lows.”

According to Pape, the rising threat of violence that he and his
colleagues at the Chicago Project on Security and Threats study is not
exclusive to the political left or right, with Pape citing as examples the
attempt on Kavanaugh’s life and the white supremacist mass shooting in May
at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.

Rather, the issue comprises multiple factors, which Pape analogized to a
three-legged stool: These include an individual’s volatility and
opportunity to inflict harm, as well as the degree of community support
for politically inspired acts of violence.

Although it’s difficult to pinpoint when sympathy for political violence
began “seeping into the mainstream,” he said, “we can be confident that
these community sentiments for violence are here today.”

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) attributed much of the trend not only to
former President Trump, who was well known for promoting violence at his
rallies and continues to push lies about the election, but also to those
Republicans in Congress who continue to defend the former president and
his actions surrounding Jan. 6.

“Everybody gets threats these days, and it’s made worse by the fact that
certain of our members fail to condemn political violence, particularly
when it’s directed at the Capitol, the vice president, the Speaker,”
Scanlon said.

“I only came in in 2018, and the threats that I’ve received have always
been in connection to the former president,” she continued. “Certainly we
saw a coarsening of public dialogue, a willingness to throw around
baseless accusations that the former president supported — modeled as
behavior — and I would attribute much of it to his example to the
country.”

U.S. government agencies appear increasingly concerned about heightened
risk of political hostility in America, as well as the international
dimension of the problem.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned that violence in the
U.S. is increasingly likely to be politically motivated, a trend that
could collide with concerns over the threat from lone actors.

In a June terrorism advisory bulletin, the agency noted a wide range of
divisive topics, from abortion to the border, could be motivators for
those likely to use violence to express discontent. It’s something already
being played upon by foreign actors.

“Chinese, Iranian, Russian, and other foreign malign influence actors have
sought to contribute to U.S. internal discord and weaken its focus and
position internationally,” DHS wrote.

“These actors have amplified narratives that radicalized individuals have
cited to justify violence, including conspiracy theories and false or
misleading narratives promoting U.S. societal division.”

Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, told The Hill that the quantity of threats has risen
considerably since 2016.

“Violence and intimidation on the right started following the election
cycle in 2016. And so we would see justifications for violence among
regular people rising at the election period – 2016, 2018 at Trump’s
impeachment – obviously at the different events leading up to
certification over January 6,” she said. “There’s a sense that this
violence is increasingly targeted at politics.”

The authors of a recent book “Radical American Partisanship: Mapping
Violent Hostility, Its Causes, and the Consequences for Democracy” found
that the share of partisans who say violence by their own party is at
least a little justified to advance their party’s goals has risen steadily
over recent years, up to around one in five.

Na,alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.usa.republican,misc.survivalismthan
Kalmoe, a professor at Louisiana State University who co-authored the new
book with professor Lilliana Mason of Johns Hopkins University, said that
polling results varied depending how questions were worded and the
severity of violence at issue. But the overall upward trend in public
support is clear, he said.

“Rising favorable views toward violence certainly elevate the risk of more
threats and acts of violence against leaders,” Kalmoe said, “and it
creates a broader political environment that is more encouraging of
extreme political actions.”

Mike Lillis contributed to this report.



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