Attacks renew debate: Should U.S. have domestic terrorism law?

Anybody who spreads these ridiculous Trump is controlled by Jews or Trump is controlled by Russians conspiracy theories is brewing anger, hate and dissension.

People that say Trump is controlled by Jews are far right hate mongers.

People that say Trump is controlled by Russia are speaking the truth.

@burnbushAnybody who spreads these ridiculous Trump is controlled by Jews or Trump is controlled by Russians conspiracy theories is brewing anger, hate and dissension.

As are those daily fanning flames on social media. For example, employees of the Internet Research Agency.

It's to be expected that Americans will fight amongst themselves, something done for centuries, but employees of foreign governments spreading conspiracy theories in attempts to further deepen divides just make things worse. But then that's those employees' job.

The Pittsburgh synagogue attacker had posts on his Twitter espousing comments like "Trump is controlled by Jews".

Terrible. The alt right and ultranationalists, and their backers in the US and 'abroad', need to be countered. Trump and the GOP need to acknowledge that among their supporters are groups undermining the few remaining bits of US democracy.

Trump and the Republicans are politicians, they know the alt right supports them. But they need to be reminded they serve the majority of Americans.

I would imagine that like most people I have given very little thought to domestic terrorism laws. As we’ve seen with the abuse of the FISA court for domestic political purposes I don’t think most Americans would like for the President to have such enormous power over the nations citizens. It is bound to be abused at some point by someone in power. There have been plenty of hard to crack criminals with sick views in America’s history. The Klan, the Weather Underground, Black Panthers, and white nationalists. A domestic terrorism law is just the wrong tool for the job.

Trump and the GOP need to acknowledge that among their supporters are groups undermining the few remaining bits of US democracy.

Yes those Christians and coal miners are really destroying US democracy. Also those horrible blue collar people in the Rust Belt and the rural farmers and hunters. The law enforcement officers and the people of the military. All those deplorable people that support the GOP and Trump... the same people that protest those who denigrate the nations symbols and oppose those who wish to fundamentally change America’s democracy.

Come to think of it, if these people didn’t stand up for American democracy it would have been undermined a very long time ago.

The FISA court was not abused for political purposes. This is an unteathered from reality conservative conspiracy theory.

Yes those Christians and coal miners are really destroying US democracy. Also those horrible blue collar people in the Rust Belt and the rural farmers and hunters. The law enforcement officers and the people of the military. All those deplorable people that support the GOP and Trump.

If those Christians, coal miners, etc. are far right nationalists, then they are destroying our democracy.

This is an unteathered from reality conservative conspiracy theory.

One of the biggest problems faced by those of the intellectual capacity to not be dumb-as-$hit, is trying to figure out how to explain reality to people too stupid to comprehend it.

If we are ever able to figure that out, humanity will rocket into an exponentially better species than we are now.

In the meantime, we have to deal with delusion, and we aren't doing it very well unfortunately.

terrorism, supremacists, hatred crimes, all semantics, that's not the issue. Under the hood they are all same.

its the deeply rooted social rifts that need to be addressed

Prosecuting Antifa thugs under domestic terrorism law would keep the courts busy for decades.

Long overdue.

Prosecuting right-wing racists under domestic terrorism law would keep the courts busy for decades.

Long overdue.

Prosecuting right-wing racists under domestic terrorism law would keep the courts busy for decades.

Long overdue.

Its Antifa that are seen to be domestic terrorists by U.S authorities.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/antifa-domestic-terrorists-us-security-agencies-homeland-security-fbi-a7927881.html

"US security officials have classified the left-wing group Antifa as "domestic terrorists", confidential documents have revealed. "

One of many similar articles.

I don't understand why they don't start locking some of these people up.

Terrorism is terrorism whether it is of foreign or domestic origins.  One law should be applied to all that commit these acts.  I fail to see revelance as to where the terrorists come from.

S

The FBI has been warning us about the right wing, gun toting nutters for a couple decades. Trump and his embrace of hate speech has encouraged these vermin to come out of the shadows.

It's not only antifa that are seen as a domestic terrorist group.

White supremacists, sovereign citizens, black nationalists, radical religious and other cultist groups fall into this grouping. 

Far-left domestic extremist groups (which includes black nationalists) have killed eight people in 2017, according to Freilich’s database, while nine people have been killed in attacks by far-right domestic extremist groups (which includes white supremacists and sovereign citizens) — but the FBI has no category for “white identity extremists.”

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article191127799.html

It's not only antifa that are seen as a domestic terrorist group.

White supremacists, sovereign citizens, black nationalists, radical religious and other cultist groups fall into this grouping. 

Far-left domestic extremist groups (which includes black nationalists) have killed eight people in 2017, according to Freilich’s database, while nine people have been killed in attacks by far-right domestic extremist groups (which includes white supremacists and sovereign citizens) — but the FBI has no category for “white identity extremists.”

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article191127799.html

So two wrongs don't make a right. Can we agree on that? Still, what is terrorism? The isolated killing of an individual is difficult to link to terrorism I think. A coordinated campaign is clearly more in line with the definition and you would want to be ultra-careful on that definition of enacting domestic terrorism law. I would expect it to take months, if not years to reach a consensus.