Jane Westlake: Right-wing extremists are far more dangerous than Antifa

To The Daily Sun,

Ever since the Black Lives Matter protests began after George Floyd’s murder, Trump has refused to denounce the actions of police who are killing Black people at an alarming rate (31 percent of Black deaths per million compared to 13 percent of white deaths) and to even acknowledge that racism is a deep-rooted problem in this country.

When rioting and looting began after days of peaceful protests, Trump and Attorney General Barr immediately began characterizing the outside agitators as left-wing anarchists and Antifa. Reports of violence committed by white supremacists and right-wing extremists were increasing, but they refused to acknowledge them.

Violence should never be condoned regardless of who commits it, but to place all the blame on one side when the other is clearly more violent is both fraudulent and dangerous.

Social media is rife with fabrications about Antifa. By June 2, Twitter had shut down multiple fake accounts posing as Antifa that were run by white supremacists, sites inciting violence in the name of BLM. Trump threatened to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization but never mentioned the violence perpetrated by right-wing groups.

On May 29, federal Officer David Underwood was shot and killed in Oakland, California by two men, one of whom, Steve Carillo, was associated with the violent right-wing Boogaloo group. These men were not part of any BLM protest, but Trump and his followers have stuck to the false narrative that Underwood was killed by BLM protesters.

Brian Murphy of the Department of Homeland Security recently filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump appointees Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli told him to change intelligence reports to minimize the threat from white supremacists and to make them match Trump’s public comments about Antifa and left-wing anarchists.

According to Elizabeth Neumann, an expert on domestic terrorism who recently left the DHS, right-wing extremists are “hands down” a far more dangerous threat than leftists such as Antifa, yet the Trump administration ignores this threat. Neumann states that the numerous right-wing extremists arrested by the FBI for their violence at protests are “trying to start a race war.” In fact, more Americans have been killed by white supremacists in the last four to five years than by all other groups.

Mike German, a former FBI agent, agrees and has brought to light another concern: the infiltration of police departments across the country by white supremacists and far-right groups. These groups have “active links to law enforcement officers,” many of whom engage in racist and nativist social media. 

Kyle Rittenhouse was with a right-wing extremist Boogaloo militia when he killed two protestors. Police ignored him and Trump defended him. On the other hand, when Antifa supporter Michael Reinoehl killed a right-wing extremist, Trump called him a violent criminal who deserved to be gunned down.

Trump is playing a dangerous game. His objective is to incite more violence that he can pin onto Democrats to boost his election prospects. After causing untold deaths of Americans by his reprehensible and intentional mishandling of the coronavirus, what do more deaths matter to him?

Jane Westlake

Barnstead