Do you think the ADL decided to classify the hundreds of incidents of BLM burning down and destroying businesses and the dozens of murders at BLM riots as left wing terrorist incidents? Especially since they actually managed to change policy in America with the destruction done in their name.
The FBI, Homeland and ADl all classify things differently but explain the classifications. that is necessary as you need to understand the distinctions to combat them.
I cannot speak for them, you would have to read what they say.
But here is my understanding.
Things like riots, which have occured since near the countries inception, that are linked to trigger events, such as 'trying to end slavery', the 'verdict in Rodney King trial' or when people see 'horrendous police abuse', are not classified the same as the extremism being categorized here.
Why?
- Because to combat this type of extremism, you can identify groups and the people within them, all pushing a set of very similar goals and towards a very similar set of violent actions to achieve those goals. This is much like identifying a terrorist group and then surveiling them, so you can take action. That is the bulk of right wing extremism in America.
- What you are speaking to with BLM, or riots that would form in Southern States, over fights to end slavery, are generally 'reactions to injustice' that can and do lead to violence and property harm and that get magnified by general 'anti government groups (left and right, some of which may be tracked in my prior bullet) who do not necessarily care about the BLM cause, but see this as something they can tag in to for their own agenda. Yo usay 'but after Rodney King riots, many changes to policing were made'. True but that is reactionary as well and does not speak to what you suggest.
Here is a key distinction.
If the FBI prior to Rodney King or George Floyd related riots, tried to stop them based on trying to identify, years earlier the 'BLM extremists', they would have come up with NOTHING. With the crimes done by Right Extremists, the MAIN TACTIC to stop them, is to surveil them, get into their groups and see their plans as they unfold. They are organized and mission driven and with a goal that can be deduced.
Right wing extremism parallels, in every way, muslim extremism that results in terrorism. You use the same tactics to defeat both. Those tactics would be largely useless to stop a BLM large protest , triggered by a Rodney King event or George Floyd event, as BLM is not driving the protest that form, even if they try to assert themselves as a main voice of the Protest, and subsequent riot that may form.
www.theguardian.com
abc7chicago.com
