Rightwing Killers - 25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States

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A Dark and Constant Rage: 25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the
United States


https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/CR_5154_25YRS%
20RightWing%20Terrorism_V5.pdf

James Harris Jackson, traveled to New York City with the alleged
intention of launching a series of violent attacks on black men to
discourage white women from having relationships with black men.
After several days, Jackson chose his first victim, a 66-year old
black homeless man, Timothy Caughman. Jackson later allegedly
admitted that he had stabbed Caughman with a small sword he had
brought with him, describing the murder as a “practice run.”

Right Wing Terror Incident 1993-2017 by Movement

However, after the killing, Jackson’s angry energy dissipated and
he turned himself over to the authorities. A week later, New York
prosecutors announced that they were charging him with second-
degree murder as a hate crime and also with a state charge of
terrorism.
Jackson’s aborted killing spree was a shocking example of right-
wing terror in the United States but it was unfortunately far from
an isolated example.

For over a century and a half, since “burning Kansas” of the 1850s
and the Ku Klux Klan of the 1860s, right-wing terrorism has been
an unwelcome feature of the American landscape. Yet today, many
people are barely aware that it exists and most people don’t
recognize its frequency or scope.

Far more attention in recent years has been given to the threat of
homegrown radical Islamic terror—a danger that has generated such
horrific acts as the Orlando and San Bernardino shooting sprees.
Yet the very real specter of radical Islamic terror in the United
States has existed alongside an equally serious threat of terror
from right-wing extremist groups and individuals.

Both movements have generated shooting sprees, bombings, and a
wide variety of plots and conspiracies. Both pose threats so
significant that to ignore either would be to invite tragedy.

To illustrate the threat of right-wing terrorism in the United
States, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism has
compiled a list of 150 right-wing terrorist acts, attempted acts,
plots and conspiracies from the past 25 years (1993-2017). These
include terrorist incidents from a wide variety of white
supremacists, from neo-Nazis to Klansmen to racist skinheads, as
well as incidents connected to anti-government extremists such as
militia groups, sovereign citizens and tax protesters. The list
also includes incidents of anti-abortion terror as well as from
other, smaller right-wing extremist movements.

ADL’s Center on Extremism defines terrorism as a pre-planned act
or attempted act of significant violence by one or more non-state
actors in order to further an ideological, social or religious
cause, or to harm perceived opponents of such causes. Significant
violent acts can include bombings or use of other weapons of mass
destruction, assassinations and targeted killings, shooting
sprees, arsons and firebombings, kidnappings and hostage
situations and, in some cases, armed robberies. Domestic
terrorism consists of acts or attempted acts of terrorism in which
the perpetrators are citizens or permanent residents of the
country in which the act takes place.

The right-wing terrorist incidents in ADL’s list include those
that best fit the above criteria. They are drawn from the much
larger pool of violent and criminal acts that American right-wing
extremists engage in every year, from hate crimes to deadly
encounters with law enforcement. Right-wing extremists annually
murder a number of Americans, but only some of those murders occur
in connection with terrorist acts. There are, after all, hundreds
of thousands of adherents of right-wing extremist movements in the
United States and all such movements have some degree of
association with criminal activity. No one should think,
therefore, that the incidents listed here represent the breadth of
right-wing violence in the U.S. But, as acts of terrorism, they
do show right-wing movements at their most vicious and ambitious.

The Perpetrators

The people who committed or attempted the terrorist acts listed
here came from a variety of right-wing extremist movements. In a
few cases, extremists connected to terror incidents here even
adhered to more than one right-wing extremist movement; in such
cases, the seemingly dominant ideology was selected for
statistical purposes. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, for
example, was primarily an anti-government extremist but also had
white supremacist leanings. Richard Poplawski, who gunned down
three police officers in Pittsburgh, was a white supremacist who
also had leanings towards the anti-government movement.

Most right-wing extremists in the United States fall into one of
two broad umbrella movements or spheres: white supremacists and
anti-government extremists. An overwhelming majority of the
terror incidents listed here (85%) were committed by adherents of
one of these two spheres. Moreover, the number of acts attributed
to each sphere is almost identical: 64 terror incidents are
related to white supremacists, while 63 are related to anti-
government extremists. Many people, when picturing right-wing
terrorism, tend to think of white supremacists, but anti-
government extremists such as militia groups and sovereign
citizens pose just as much of a threat.

White supremacists involved in right-wing terror incidents include
adherents of every major segment of the white supremacist
movement, including neo-Nazis, racist skinheads, “traditional”
white supremacists (such as Ku Klux Klan groups), white
supremacist prison gangs, the religious sect Christian Identity,
and the Alt Right. Leaving aside dual-movement extremists such as
Timothy McVeigh, the worst white supremacist terrorist was Dylann
Roof, a “traditional” white supremacist who embarked upon a deadly
shooting spree at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South
Carolina, in 2015, killing nine.

The anti-government extremists, who are often collectively termed
the “Patriot” movement, consist primarily of adherents of the tax
protest movement, the sovereign citizen movement, and the militia
movement (with the latter including Oath Keepers and Three
Percenters). Though the “Patriot” movement goes back to the mid-
1960s, it was in the mid-1990s that it really came into its own in
terms of becoming a major domestic terrorist threat, one that
equaled the threat posed by white supremacists. Oklahoma City
bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were dedicated adherents
of the “Patriot” movement and their 1995 attack on the Murrah
Federal Building gave notice that anti-government extremists now
posed a major threat.

It is common for the media and others to assume that anti-
government extremists are also mostly white supremacists, but this
is not the case. Though there is some overlap between the two
spheres, the main anti-government extremist movements direct their
anger at the government and there have always been people of color
in these movements.
Indeed, the sovereign citizen movement in particular has
unfortunately seen particularly strong growth within the African-
American community in recent years. Two of the sovereign-citizen
related incidents on this list, the LaPlace, Louisiana, shootings
in 2012 and the Columbus, Ohio, bomb-making attempt in 2016,
involved African-Americans. Two incidents not included on this
list involved extremists who were primarily black nationalists but
who had secondary sovereign citizen affiliations: the 2014 plot
by two men to blow up the Gateway Arch and kill law enforcement
officials in St. Louis, Missouri, and the 2016 deadly ambush
killings of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The militia movement has spent much of its history trying to
distance itself from accusations of racism or white supremacy but
in recent years much of the movement has willingly embraced a
particular type of bigotry: anti-Muslim hatred. This
Islamophobia has taken numerous forms, from armed protests in
front of mosques to a major terrorist plot in October 2016 in
Garden City, Kansas, where three militia members were arrested in
connection with an alleged plot to blow up an apartment complex
that primarily housed Muslim Somali-American residents. The
militia movement could produce more such terror attempts aimed at
Muslims in the future.
Anti-abortion extremists are responsible for 11% of the terror
incidents collected here. Compared to the incidents connected to
white supremacists or anti-government extremists, the number of
abortion related terror attacks and attempts is low. However,
given the small number of anti-abortion extremists relative to
adherents of the other, much larger movements, the consistent
stream of terror incidents that flow from this movement is
worrisome.

Anti-abortion extremists are an example of what is called “single-
issue extremism.” Single-issue extremists are typically the
extreme wing of a broader, more mainstream movement dedicated to a
single cause or issue. While most people in those movements would
not think of committing acts of violence, adherents of the extreme
wing of those movements are more likely to consider violent
activity, operating under a sense of extreme urgency and with a
conviction that the ends justify the means. A few other right-
wing single issue extremists, such as anti-Muslim extremists and
anti-immigration extremists, have also committed violent acts
included among the 150 listed here.

All of the perpetrators and alleged perpetrators listed in this
report have ties to extremist ideologies, but not all of them
actually have had connections to specific extremist groups.
Indeed, “terrorist groups” as such—i.e., groups that form and
exist largely for the purpose of committing terrorist acts—are
rare in the United States, where the rule of law is strong and
such groups have great difficulties in finding purchase. Even
when extremists are connected to specific groups, they rarely
commit their actions at the direction of the group. Rather,
extremist groups in the United States tend to serve a purpose of
radicalization more than anything else, whether of their own
members or, as in the case of Dylann Roof, of non-members who may
be influenced by their propaganda.

The perpetrators of some of the incidents on this list were part
of formal groups, while others were essentially involved in
“cells”—informal associations of extremists banding together to
commit an act. But just as common as these two types were lone
offenders—the “lone wolf” terrorists responsible for a large
number of America’s terror incidents. Indeed, approximately half
of the 150 incidents listed in this report involved lone wolf
offenders. Today, thanks to the Internet, it is easier than ever
for someone to become steeped in extremist ideologies, even to the
point of being willing to commit acts of great violence, without
ever being involved in an organized extremist group.

The Incidents

The list in this report includes 150 incidents involving acts,
attempted acts, and plots of right-wing terrorism from 1993
through part of 2017. A few of these terror acts are well-known,
such as the bombings conducted by Timothy McVeigh and Eric
Rudolph, while many other incidents garnered little more than
local media coverage and are unknown to most Americans. Such
lists always involve some value judgments on the margins and there
are some incidents on the list that some people might think don’t
belong on such a list, while there are items missing from the list
that some people might think should be included, such as the armed
standoffs involving members of the Bundy family and others in
Nevada in 2014 and Oregon in 2016.

In many cases where a possible incident was not included, it was
for one of several reasons. First, for some reported incidents,
an extremist connection has never been satisfactorily established
or has in fact been disproved. For example, in 2014 Dennis Marx
attempted to use firearms and explosives to attack an Atlanta
courthouse; some media outlets reported or speculated that Marx
was a sovereign citizen. However, no evidence confirming this ever
emerged and the police eventually acknowledged he had not been
involved in the movement. Similarly, some media speculated that
Jared Lee Loughner, who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and
18 others in a 2011 shooting spree in Arizona, was a sovereign
citizen, but this also turned out to be untrue.

An additional group of incidents did not make the list because,
while an extremist definitely committed an act of significant
violence, the act was a spontaneous act of violence without
noticeable premeditation; such acts are usually not included here.
Finally, some incidents—usually discoveries of extremists with
major illegal arsenals of weapons and/or explosives—were not
included because there was insufficient evidence of any target or
intent to use the weapons for an act of terrorism. The incidents
in these two categories are serious criminal violations but not
really incidents of terrorism.

Those omissions still leave 150 terror incidents from the last
quarter-century. This lengthy string of dangerous attacks and
plots illustrates how deeply seated the threat of right-wing
terrorism is in the United States.

Right-wing Terror Incidents in the United Stats, 1993-2016

A look at these 150 incidents over time reveals that two specific
surges of right-wing terrorism have occurred over the past 25
years. The first was the surge of the mid-to-late 1990s, a result
of a great increase in right-wing extremism as a result of a
variety of factors that include the election of Bill Clinton, the
passage of NAFTA, the passage of gun control measures such as the
Brady Law and the Assault Weapons Ban, and the deadly standoffs at
Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993, which
energized white supremacists and anti-government extremists,
respectively.
The 1990s surge had died down by the turn of the century and
right-wing terrorism occurred less frequently in the early-to-mid
2000s. Events ranging from the non-event of a Y2K-related disaster
to the replacement of Bill Clinton with George W. Bush to the 9/11
terror attacks all played a role in dampening right-wing furor.

Unfortunately, this state of affairs did not last. Near the end
of Bush’s second term, right-wing terror incidents began to
increase again and this trend accelerated by 2009, thanks in part
to the election of Barack Obama, whom both white supremacists and
anti-government extremists hated, and to the major economic
disasters of the Great Recession and the foreclosure crisis. The
latter two in particular allowed the sovereign citizen movement to
greatly expand. The result was a second surge of right-wing
extremism, one that was accompanied by a surge of right-wing
terror incidents. This increased level of terror-related activity
remains high today, though whether or not it will sustain itself
during a Trump administration remains to be seen.

The worst right-wing terror attack, the Oklahoma City bombing,
killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. Thankfully, none of
the other incidents achieved anywhere near that level of lethality
and destructiveness. In large part, this has been due to
effective law enforcement, at both the federal and state/local
levels, who have uncovered and prevented many attempts at
terrorist acts. Indeed, only a minority of the incidents recorded
here—65 out of 150--could be considered “successful” acts, by
which is meant that the terrorist(s) succeeded in carrying out
part or all of their plan or were able to wreak some sort of
damage (such as shooting someone) while attempting to carry out
their plan. This does not include bombs that were successfully
planted but which failed to go off.
Some of the attempted acts never had a good chance of success,
while others could easily have been deadly. Even though most
terror incidents were not successes, the minority that did succeed
resulted in 255 deaths and approximately 603 people injured (not
all injury counts are consistent). Were it not for the efforts of
law enforcement to detect and prevent right-wing acts of terror,
that deadly toll would be far higher still.

Right-wing Terror Incidents 1993-2017 Weapons of Choice


To accomplish their deadly aims, extremists used a variety of
tools and tactics, but overwhelmingly firearms and explosives were
the most common weapons chosen. Indeed, 55 of the 150 terror
incidents involved use or planned use of firearms, while another
55 involved explosives. Moreover, of the 17 incidents involving
multiple weapons types, firearms and explosives were by far the
most common combination.

It is worth nothing that, although bombs were used or considered
by extremists just as often as firearms, their successful use rate
was much lower. This is largely due to the fact that explosives
are far more difficult to obtain and to use in the United States
than are firearms, which are abundant, easy to use, and very
deadly. There is far better regulation of explosives than firearms
in the United States.
In a minority of cases, right-wing extremists attempted arsons or
incendiary devices such as Molotov cocktails; abortion clinics
were a frequent target of such violence. And, from time to time,
extremists would select more exotic means of murder, such as using
the deadly toxin ricin or poisoning a water supply or trying to
build a radiological weapon.

Target(s) of Right-wing Terror Incidents 1993-2017


Whatever weapon they planned to use against their targets, right-
wing extremists have had no shortage of targets. Indeed, some
ambitious plots have contained an entire array of targets slated
for death and destruction.

Of the various targets of right-wing anger, it is governmental and
law enforcement institutions that are most often threatened. Of
the incidents examined here, 66 involved some sort of government-
related target. This is largely due to the fact that white
supremacists and anti-government extremists alike, as well as most
of the lesser right-wing movements, hate government and law
enforcement. This category includes federal, state and local
branches of government and law enforcement.

White supremacists are responsible for most of the racial and
religious targeting. Virtually any person or institution
associated with a non-white race can be a potential target for
white supremacists, but African-Americans, Hispanics, and multi-
racial couples/families have been the most common groups
victimized. The most frequent religious targets were, not
surprisingly, Jews and Muslims (including non-Muslims perceived as
Muslims). Actual or perceived immigrants, as well as LGBT
targets, were also subject to victimization.

Abortion-related targets, typically clinics that provide abortion
services as well as the people who work at such places, were also
common. While anti-abortion extremists were the extremists most
likely to attack abortion-related targets, other right-wing
extremists, most noticeably white supremacists, also occasionally
attempted such attacks.
Right-wing extremist have also taken aim at a variety of other
targets. Commercial targets have included various businesses and,
in particular, financial institutions. Infrastructure targets
include a wide range of installations, from refineries to dams to
water supplies. In some cases, extremists have simply targeted
crowded public areas, hoping to cause significant human
casualties.

The Present and Future of Right-Wing Terrorism

Over the past 25 years, right-wing terrorism has exhibited a
considerable amount of stability. Part of this is due to the fact
that most of it comes from two mature and well-established
movements: the white supremacist movement and the anti-government
“Patriot” movement. They have specific goals and specific enemies
and can be expected to produce a steady stream of extremists
willing to use violence to achieve those goals or harm those
enemies. Moreover, though fringe movements, they nevertheless
have deep roots in American society and cannot simply be rooted
out or eliminated. Right-wing terrorism is not going away anytime
soon.

be with newer types of extremist movements, which enables it to
utilize informants and undercover officers to a much fuller extent
than might otherwise be the case. It is no coincidence that a
number of the prevented acts recounted in this study were
prevented thanks to “sting” operations, which are one of the most
consistently successful law enforcement tools against terrorism—as
long as law enforcement is sufficiently familiar with the relevant
movement(s).
Most of the 25 years examined here for right-wing terrorism have
occurred in what can be deemed the “Internet era.” However, the
Internet of the mid-1990s was very different than that of ten
years later or today’s on-line world. Overall, right-wing
terrorism has remained pretty consistent throughout this era, but
the evolution of the Internet has resulted in some changes.

In particular, the social networking revolution that occurred
during the period 2006-2009 has made it easier for extremist ideas
and tactics to spread very far, very fast. This can allow new
extremist movements, such as the white supremacist Alt Right, to
quickly gain purchase, and can allow established movement, such as
the sovereign citizen movement, to rapidly resurge. Social
networking has also allowed extremists to meet each other and even
to plot on-line. The October 2008 school attack plot in Tennessee
and the Georgia militia plot of February 2014 are two examples
where extremists who met on-line later joined up in the “real
world” to plot terrorist acts.

The Internet may also have made lone wolf terrorism—terrorism
committed by a lone perpetrator not acting at the behest of any
organized group—a more common phenomenon, because one can now
self-radicalize using on-line resources with little need to engage
with other extremists in the “real world.” The shooting sprees of
Keith Luke in 2009 and Dylann Roof in 2015 are examples of
terrorist acts committed by lone extremists who radicalized on-
line with little or no real interaction with other extremists.
Lone wolves have long existed within America’s radical right, but
could be even more likely in the future.

Finally, for the past quarter of a century, right-wing terrorism
has been a consistent feature in the landscape of American
violence, but it has garnered far less notice than some other
forms of terrorism, most notably Islamic terrorism. Though a few
incidents, such as the Oklahoma City bombing, or the bombings of
Eric Rudoph, received extensive media coverage, many of the
incidents collected here received scant media attention,
particularly from major national media sources.
One reason for this under-coverage may be very simple: a
surprising number of the terrorist acts and plots listed here
originated away from major media centers. While some incidents
took place in locations such as New York City, Chicago, or Los
Angeles, many others occurred in out-of-the-way places such as
Garden City, Kansas; Fairbanks, Alaska; or Lenoir, Tennessee. As
a result, such incidents are less likely to get national media
attention and, if they get any, less likely to get sustained
coverage.

Whatever the reasons for the lack of coverage, one of its
consequences has been an inadequate awareness among policy-makers
and the public alike of the threat posed by violent right-wing
extremists. Today, the United States still does not even have a
federal domestic terrorism statute. Federal spending on training
law enforcement on issues such as right-wing violence and
terrorism is extremely low.
One thing is certain: if the United States does not treat right-
wing terrorism as a real threat and react appropriately, there is
no chance of lessening the danger posed by violent right-wing
extremists and the 150 terror incidents described in this report
will be joined by still more.
EXTREMISM, TERRORISM & BIGOTRY