Brane Space: Why Isn't Domestic Terrorism A Federal Crime? Blame A Daft Interpretation Of The 1st & 2nd Amendments

Image result for brane space, RObert Bowers

Two domestic terrorists who ought to have been tossed into Supermax by now: Robert Bowers (L) who committed the Squirrel Hill Synagogue massacre last year, and Cesar Sayoc, the Trumpie renegade who sent dozens of pipe bombs to Dem leaders, others.

Evidently, from reading a piece in The Wall Street Journal yesterday ('Legal Curbs Hobble FBI On Domestic Terror', p. A4) the white nationalists, Nazis and other extremists can pretty well do what the hell they want in this country and get no more than a wrist slap if that- at least from the federal authorities. As we read:

"Lawmakers from both parties have made the case in recent years to make domestic terror a crime".

Hmmm....I'd always assumed it was a crime, but clearly not if lawmakers now wish to make it such. And why is this?

"Americans' rights to speak, organize in groups and even stockpile firearms are largely protected by the Constitution"

Which of course is a total misreading of that document. Because if you are organizing like on 8chan to attack a Jewish synagogue or a Muslim mosque, and stockpiling arms under some white Aryan umbrella ("speech") for that, then you sure as hell are a terrorist and criminal and merit the full heavy hand of the law.

Take the stockpiling weapons issue. Here again the Right and its supporters have lost all claims to common sense in interpretation of the Constitution. Because if you are caught with a cache of military grade weapons such as shown below, you definitely ought to have your ass in the slammer.
No photo description available.

Nazi sympathizer's Christoper Hasson's weapons stash - which ought to have earned him at least a year in the slammer on suspicion of mass murder or domestic terrorism

Take a gander at the weapons stash above. It is not innocuous or benign! There is NO good reason to have assembled such high -powered military weapons in one place. But this is the weapons stash found in February compliments of another domestic terrorist, Christopher Hasson.

Prosecutors said Hasson was a “domestic terrorist” and that he should be detained. He was arrested on drugs and weapons charges. Incredibly (and inexplicably) there was no DOJ alert or followup news release - as if the agency sought to contain the news that this bad guy was not a Muslim, But as noted by David Cay Johnston at the time,  after Jeff Sessions came in as AG, the cases involving right wing domestic terror were "downgraded", i.e. shuffled to the backburner.

We now know Hasson - who incredibly reached the status of Lt. in the Coast Guard- intended “to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country”, according to a filing to federal court in Maryland. Law enforcement officers seized 15 guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition from his home. What has become of this POS? Nothing! We learned in The Baltimore Sun (April 25):

"U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day noted Thursday that 50-year-old Christopher Hasson hasn't been charged with any terrorism related crimes and is therefore entitled to be released."

So, of course, he's cleared now to assemble another more deadly cache of weapons and this next time to massacre maybe dozens of people. Why? Because of inane, lax interpretations of the Constitution which lets the crazies and terrorists have at it while the innocent cower and shake in fear - because, well, the law is a frickin' ass.

How do I know this? Because the reprobate had Democrats in his sights and his online targeting materials read like a 'Who's Who' of liberal media stars and politicians.  The filing acknowledged Hasson to be a fan of the Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, and that he had compiled a spreadsheet of targets, including: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Joe Scarborough, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Ilhan Omar, as well as Chris Hayes ('All In') and CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

Hasson’s terror plot was first noted by Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of George Washington University’s program on extremism and a former US anti-terrorism official. It was, as I said, not put out there by the DOJ. We also now know this rabid dog  had been stockpiling weapons in his cramped basement apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland - probably for months in anticipation of his Nazi-spawned bloodbath.

Here's the deal: Once you are proven to have stockpiled weapons and compiled lists of targets it is no longer fantasy land and you have transited into hard reality. Therein you deserve being arrested, read your rights, then locked away in a secure hole to await a trial by a jury of your peers. No namby -pamby "plea bargains" either- any more than you'd award them to an Isis butcher who just beheaded two Christian girls.

Then there is the Tree of Life synagogue massacre that traversed from ideation to reality. .  Eleven people were killed and six wounded in the worst ever massacre of Jews in U.S. History. The slaughter - at a synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh was the work of a brain-poisoned crazy of the extreme Right named Robert Bowers who likely got infected by Trump's own hate rhetoric.

We know that Bowers took to "Gab", a white extremist hate site, like a fly takes to dog shit. There he shared a stream of anti-Jewish slurs and conspiracy theories, including repeating one long held trope of Right wing loons:

"Jews are the children of Satan"

Basically dehumanizing Jews just like Hitler and the Nazis did, turning them into an alien "Other" and hence fit for attacks. Bowers didn't invent all this hideous brain poison, but he did imbibe it and it drove his actions like it has millions of others who even now are just waiting for the right words from their Fuhrer Trump to act.

Bowers also frequently reposted anti-Semitic content that alleged Jews control the nation. On a doctored image of the Auschwitz concentration camp, he altered the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" to read: “Lies Make Money.” Another post said: “Open you Eyes! It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!!”

Bowers was also fixated on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) which helps immigrants settle in the U.S. In his last post before the shooting, this slime ball wrote: "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered."

Bowers, as Janice had volunteered at the time, at least needed to be locked up in a psych ward as a palpable risk to others, namely Jews.

Then there was Cesar Sayoc, who - before his pipe bomb dissemination in October 2018 - had been arrested nearly a dozen times in Florida, including a 2002 arrest for making a bomb threat. His criminal record in the state extended to the early 1990s, starting with his arrest for larceny at the age of 29, according to state records. Other charges of larceny, grand theft and fraud would soon follow across the southern part of the state.

In the 2002 bomb threat case, Sayoc pleaded guilty to the felony without a trial and was sentenced to probation. Probation for a bomb threat?! Why the hell wasn't he given five years?

But then we learn the sorry answer in the WSJ piece, previously cited:

"Severe legal constraints limit what the FBI can do at hone. And anything that would allow more rigorous intelligence gather on purely domestic threats could run aground in the courts and prompt criticism in Congress."

So, let's get this straight: The FBI can go full barrel in to halt a band of Isis renegades planning to do a mass beheading and blowing up nail bombs in Times Square. But can't do diddly or squat if white Aryan Nations, KKK and other extremists are planning a Vegas-style bump stock mass shooting of blacks and Jews - say in Dallas.

Sorry, this does not compute! But then as we learn (WSJ, ibid.):

"Domestic terrorism isn't a federal crime in itself"

So a cabal of white nationalist, Aryans, Nazis and other refuse can plan mass slaughters to their hearts' content and no federal law enforcement agency can do a thing to stop it, i.e. "without evidence of the violent crime."

In other words, in the federal milieu we'd have to wait for the scum to blow up or shoot up innocents before making a move. Thus:

"As a result the law enforcement response to domestic terrorism has been largely reactive instead of proactive."

What this means is that bringing down the hammer on these lethal malcontents is left to local law enforcement, such as the bust of the 15 year old punk in Volusia County, FL. This was the imp who volunteered on a gaming site that he planned to bring his dad's M15 to a school gathering to take out as many as he could. Of course, his whiny mom tried to defend the little savage, screaming at the cops: "Well, he's just a little boy!"

Nope, at 15 he's no longer a little boy. There've also been a half dozen other scumballs that local authorities have busted who had telegraphed their plans for mayhem on Jews or other minorities. They include one white nationalist from Ohio - who had also marched in Charlottesville 2 years ago, who even had obtained a .40 caliber weapon to take out the innocents in a Jewish community center.

Fortunately, in other words, local cops are not sitting and waiting (like the Feds) for massive violence to happen. They are taking proactive action on the basis of just the threats. As one put it on the NBC News last night: 'They better understand now that just making threats can get you years behind bars."

As it damned well should be, because threats of violence cannot be "free speech" as so many of the Right's imbeciles claim.

Former FBI special agent Cliff Watts in his recent WSJ Review piece, 'Our New Terrorism Problem' (Aug. 10-11, p. C1) writes:

"Today's white supremacist terrorists band together online, further radicalize themselves and fire one another up in much the same manner as their jihadist counterparts."

And we know for a fact the El Paso mass killer (Patrick Crusius) got his launch for butchery on 8 chan where the local den of cockroaches cheered him on. One even writing:

"The new guy deserves some praise, he reached almost a third of the high score."

Referring to a third of the nearly 60 slaughtered in the Orlando Pulse nightcliub massacre. And as I pointed out at the tie:

"If the FBI had been monitoring the site they'd have been alerted to his plans, put a GPS or other tracking on his vehicle, then taken him out before he even got to the outskirts of El Paso Then 22 lives could have been saved. "

And as Cliff Watts aptly noted (ibid.):

"The overall goal is clear and urgent: detect violent white supremacists online and intercept them on the ground by increasing the volume of intelligence and the speed with which it is shared among federal, state and local law enforcement officers."

Adding:
"As white supremacists have been pushed from more mainstream social media platforms, they have descended on less policed, more anonymous platforms such as Gab.com and 8chan."

Hopefully, we can soon get the Feds to catch up with local law enforcement to bust the domestic terrorists and also ensure they're all put away long enough to never darken anyone's door with terror again. Or at least give them each 5 years each in a federal pen for making threats, even if they don't carry them out.

See also:

Terrorism