Former FBI special agent Erroll Southers told TheBC ‘The News with Shepard Smith’ that the behavior of some law enforcement officers during Wednesday’s siege of the American Capitol evoked memories of Charlottesville and Kenosha.
“It reminds me of 2017 and Charlottesville when one of the people in the Unite the Right movement dropped a firearm and walked past the police,” said Southers, who is currently the director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies. The University of Southern Africa, California. very clear what’s going on here. ‘
Police’s response to Wednesday’s siege of the US Capitol is increasingly under fire. Critics include President-elect Joe Biden, who calls the treatment of rioters a double standard.
“No one can tell me that if it was a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they would not be treated very differently from the crowd of thugs who stormed the Capitol,” Biden said. “We all know that this is true and that it is unacceptable. Completely unacceptable.”
Former First Lady Michelle Obama wrote that Wednesday’s riot in the Capitol “made it painfully clear that certain Americans may, in fact, lower the flag and symbol of our country … they just have to look the right way.”
The FBI drew up a report warning of the infiltration of white nationalists into local law enforcement agencies in 2006. Southers said the siege of the U.S. Capitol has illustrated the situation since then.
“It raised his ugly head again … and confirmed what we thought was worse in 15 years,” Southers said.
A Department of Homeland Security and an FBI evaluation from last year showed that racist terrorist groups show unparalleled activity in the modern era. Southers told host Shepard Smith that the data “clearly states that the threat is from the right.”
The FBI confirmed on Wednesday that it had removed two explosive devices, including a “pipe bomb-like device”, at RNC headquarters, and Southers explained the message sent by the devices.
“I think of 1995, should we let buildings down like in Oklahoma City so we could get the message?” Southers said. “Yesterday, thank you, the building did not come down.”