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Not One Single Republican Votes for Probe of Neo-Nazis in US Military and Police
Zero House Republicans supported a measure requiring the Pentagon and federal law enforcement agencies to publish a report on countering white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in their ranks.
Jul 14, 2022
Zero House Republicans on Wednesday supported a measure requiring the Pentagon and federal law enforcement agencies to publish a report on countering white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in their ranks.
Rep. Brad Schneider's (D-Ill.) amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2023 directing the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Defense "to publish a report that analyzes and sets out strategies to combat white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in the uniformed services and federal law enforcement agencies" passed in a party-line 218-208 vote.
Among present lawmakers, Democrats were unified in support and Republicans in opposition. Reps. Theodore Deutch (D-Fla.), Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) did not vote.
The House is expected to pass the full NDAA this week, after which it will conference with the Senate, where amendments to the annual military spending bill could be struck down.
Schneider's proposal requests "figures on the number of people who were discharged from uniformed services or law enforcement because of situations involving white supremacy and neo-Nazi activity," The Hillreported. It also calls for "information on how the agency leaders responded to 'planned or effectuated incidents' connected to white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideology."
The report--to be published no more than 180 days after enactment of the NDAA and every six months thereafter--would be submitted to congressional committees, and unclassified sections would be made public.
In a House floor speech on Wednesday, Schneider said that the U.S. is experiencing a rise in domestic terrorism, pointing to the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by a right-wing, anti-Semitic gunman, and the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, where Heather Heyer was killed when a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of progressive counter-protesters.
In a 2020 report titled Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement, the Brennan Center for Justice wrote that "the government's response to known connections of law enforcement officers to violent racist and militant groups has been strikingly insufficient."
Last year, a House Committee on Veterans' Affairs hearing on "Violent Domestic Extremist Groups and the Recruitment of Veterans" highlighted the dangers of far-right extremism among veterans and active-duty military personnel.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the percentage of all domestic terrorist incidents linked to active-duty military personnel and reservists increased in 2020 to 6.4%, up from 1.5% in 2019 and 0% in 2018.
Schneider cited a May presentation from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, titled "The Insider Threat and Extremist Activity Within the DOD," which detailed cases of domestic terrorism connected to members of the U.S. military.
"Such behavior, such extremism is a threat to us in all segments of society," Schneider said during debate. "There is no reason to believe that our military is any different."
"These are exceptions, they are rare," he added, "but we must do everything we can to identify them and to thwart them before risks become a reality."
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Rights Groups Fight Back Against 'Punitive and Unjust' Anti-Protest Law in Florida
"H.B. 1 is undemocratic legislation that has stifled our constitutional rights by obstructing the activity of Black community organizers. H.B.1 must be repealed, abolished, or simply outlawed."
Jul 14, 2021
A coalition of civil rights groups on Wednesday filed a motion in a Florida federal court seeking to block the state's recently enacted anti-protest law--which critics say targets racial justice demonstrators while letting right-wing protesters off the hook.
"We use protest as a vehicle for change and not only does this law silence our voices, but it puts our lives in danger."
--Nailah Summers, Dream Defenders
The ACLU of Florida, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), and Community Justice Project (CJP), with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP serving as counsel, filed a motion for preliminary injunction (pdf) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in a bid to block parts of H.B. 1, the so-called "anti-riot" bill introduced in the wake of last year's Black Lives Matter protests and signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in April.
The injunction was filed on behalf of Dream Defenders, the Black Collective, Chainless Change, Black Lives Matter Alliance of Broward, the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, and the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville.
"Among other things, the law risks criminalizing peaceful protest, shields those who injure or kill protestors (for example by ramming their vehicles into protestors) from civil penalties, discourages people from protesting, and otherwise infringes on First Amendment rights," the organizations filing the motion said in a statement. "The law was passed as a direct response to racial justice protests in 2020, and appears designed to target those who protest against police violence."
\u201cBREAKING: We've filed a motion for preliminary injunction with @ACLUFL and @cjpmiami to block key portions of Florida's anti-protest law, H.B.1. The law risks criminalizing peaceful protest and provides a shield for those who kill or injure protestors. https://t.co/OMA85sSiXt\u201d— Legal Defense Fund (@Legal Defense Fund) 1626286821
Critics argued that H.B. 1's civil legal immunity provision endangers lives and would have protected the neo-Nazi who murdered anti-racism protester Heather Heyer with his car in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017.
H.B. 1 is but one of scores of Republican-sponsored anti-protest bills introduced in dozens of states over the past year. As of late June, eight states have passed such laws.
The same groups that filed Wednesday's motion also sued DeSantis and other state officials in May over H.B. 1.
"This law has changed the landscape for what it means to organize and create safer conditions for our communities in Florida," said Nailah Summers, co-executive director of Dream Defenders, in a statement. "Protest has always been a vital tool for accountability for our public officials. We use protest as a vehicle for change and not only does this law silence our voices, but it puts our lives in danger."
"H.B. 1 is a punitive and unjust law created to silence communities, but protect vigilantes."
--Krystina Francois, The Black Collective
Krystina Francois, co-founder and board member of the Black Collective, said that "H.B. 1 is a punitive and unjust law created to silence communities, but protect vigilantes."
"Black Floridians deserve more than a law that continues to suppress their voices," asserted Francois. "Our constitutional right to assemble peacefully and demand justice from a society that would rather criminalize us than uplift our quality of life is necessary."
Ben Frazier, president of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, said that "H.B. 1 targets Black organizers, and their allies who stood up courageously to say 'Black Lives Matter!'"
"We protested against police brutality and against social, racial, and economic injustice," Frazier continued. "The enactment of H.B. 1 has frightened peaceful protesters from exercising their constitutional right to assemble and protest. Many of our supporters have declined to participate while expressing a fear of unfair arrests by law enforcement officers and the fear of potential bodily harm by vigilantes."
"The First Amendment, which guarantees our rights to voice our demands, is being muffled, strangled, and suffocated," he added. "H.B. 1 is undemocratic legislation that has stifled our constitutional rights by obstructing the activity of Black community organizers. H.B. 1 must be repealed, abolished, or simply outlawed."
Underscoring what critics of H.B. 1 say is the law's discriminatory intent, the editors of the Miami Herald on Tuesday published an editorial decrying the hypocritical leniency shown to Cuban-American demonstrators and their supporters who blocked a Miami expressway on Tuesday in a show of solidarity with anti-government protesters in Cuba.
\u201cFL Gov. DeSantis created an un-American anti-riot law in the wake of George Floyd demonstrations. It makes blocking a highway a federal offense, but the law hasn\u2019t been enforced among other protests. It was created as a means to target Black people! https://t.co/RJGFdhrAVo\u201d— Ben Crump (@Ben Crump) 1626291061
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, "Police encouraged people to disperse--to no avail." People at "SOS Cuba" demonstrations in Tampa and Orlando also blocked major thoroughfares and ignored police orders to disperse.
There were no arrests reported at the Miami protest. Three men were reportedly arrested in Tampa for assaulting or resisting officers, while one man was reportedly arrested in Orlando for disorderly conduct. There were no reported arrests for violations of H.B. 1.
Addressing DeSantis' dodging of reporters' questions about the uneven application of H.B. 1, the Herald editors wrote: "Honestly, we would have been more impressed if he had just responded: 'Nah, the Miami-Dade demonstrators seeking human rights in Cuba have nothing to fear from my anti-riot law. We created it to subdue Black folks seeking human rights in the United States.'"
\u201c"Let\u2019s be clear here, the only thing that changed ... are the demands and who is organizing them. When it was Black Lives Matter, DeSantis vowed to throw the book at them ... when it was Cubans, it became politically inconvenient to enforce the same law."\n https://t.co/xHdv14zHHk\u201d— Arturo Dominguez \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2 (@Arturo Dominguez \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2) 1626274493
Writing for Latino Rebels, Thomas Kennedy said: "Let's be clear here, the only thing that changed in terms of the protests are the demands and who is organizing them. When it was Black Lives Matter protests, DeSantis vowed to throw the book at them and condemned them profusely but when it was Cuban protestors, it became politically inconvenient to enforce the very same law he advocated for months ago."
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'The OK Legislature Wants Us Dead': Rights Defenders Decry Advancement of Anti-Protest Bills
The head of the state's ACLU accused Oklahoma lawmakers of "attempting to silence the voices of their constituents and criminalize vital calls for accountability and racial justice."
Apr 15, 2021
Dismissing warnings from civil liberties defenders, the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday approved a pair of bills the state's ACLU said would "chill dissent, and silence and criminalize Oklahomans who want to exercise our First Amendment right to peacefully protest."
"The foundation of this bill is to keep institutional racism alive."
--State Sen. George Young
Tulsa Public Radioreports thestate Senate passed H.B. 1674 (pdf) by a largely party-line vote of 38-10. If signed by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, the measure will grant civil and criminal immunity to drivers who "unintentionally" kill or injure people while "fleeing from a riot" if they have "reasonable belief" that doing so will protect them from harm.
Additionally, the proposed legislation would punish protesters who block traffic with up to a year behind bars and a $5,000 fine.
H.B. 1643 (pdf)--which criminalizes the online sharing of identifying information about police or public officials "with the intent to threaten, intimidate, or harass" them--was also approved by the state's upper chamber in a 39-8 vote.
Arguing in favor of H.B. 1674 ahead of the vote, state Sen. Rob Standridge (R-15) repeatedly referred to a May 2020 incident in which a pickup truck driver towing a horse trailer plowed through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters, injuring numerous people including a man who was paralyzed. The driver, who claimed he feared for his life, was not charged.
"This bill will protect innocent people trapped by a rioting mob," said Standridge. "Why would we wait for somebody that's fearing for their life to be charged by a DA that wants to make a political case of something? We see this around the country. We don't need it here. So, let's just put it on the books."
State Sen. Kevin Matthews (D-11), who is Black, objected to the frequent use of the word "riot" in the bill and by his GOP colleagues. Matthews noted that similar language is often used to describe the infamous 1921 massacre of Black people in his hometown of Tulsa.
"Let me give you some context," said Matthews, who leads the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission. "In my community, people were bombed from the air. People had cannons shot into our churches. Some accounts, 300 people dead and businesses burned down. And it was said that my people were 'rioting.'"
Matthews added that "it's not cute and it's not cool that we're trying to address what happened across America in passing every piece of legislation to keep people from protesting when African Americans are killed unarmed."
Another Black lawmaker, state Sen. George Young (D-48), said that "the foundation of this bill is to keep institutional racism alive. Many of you may not agree with that, but you got to look at it beyond your own positions and look at it through the eyes of others who this type of legislation would impact."
\u201cAnti-freedom bills, like HB 1643 and HB 1674 will chill dissent, and silence and criminalize Oklahomans who want to exercise our First Amendment right to peacefully protest.\u201d— ACLU of Oklahoma (@ACLU of Oklahoma) 1618444347
Critics of the bills including civil rights campaigners warned that the measures further endanger Black lives. Some pointed to the more than 100 incidents in just over three months last year in which drivers--both civilian and police--struck people at racial justice protests following the Minneapolis police killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd.
Others recalled Heather Heyer--a white woman who was killed in August 2017 when a white supremacist ran her over while she protested against the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virgina.
Jess Eddy, an anti-racism campaigner, told The Oklahoman that "those of us who have been organizing protests in the streets--what the United States Supreme Court has protected and established as one of the most sacred free speech forums--will now have to take extraordinary and dangerous measures to protect ourselves and our rights in Oklahoma."
\u201cI got hit by a car driving through our protest in Tulsa on May 30 and then witnessed several more throughout the year. \n\nThe OK legislature wants us dead.\u201d— Jess Eddy (@Jess Eddy) 1618442228
The ACLU of Oklahoma condemned both of the bills, with the civil liberties group's executive director, Tamya Cox-Toure, asserting in a statement that "the Oklahoma Legislature is attempting to silence the voices of their constituents and criminalize vital calls for accountability and racial justice."
"What is unbecoming is the fact that these anti-freedom policies are passed with a veil over their true intentions--to chill speech, criminalize accountability, and let us all know that a majority of the legislature cares more about protecting the deadly power of the state than they do about rights and liberties, or even public safety."
H.B. 1674 is one of many anti-protest measures that have been recently passed or proposed in more than a dozen states. Bills granting immunity to motorists who strike protesters under certain circumstances have been introduced in numerous states.
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