A new, draft report from the Department of Homeland Security shows that domestic terrorism, specifically white supremacy, poses the greatest terrorist threat to the U.S.
Three separate versions of the document all came to that conclusion.
Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at CSU San Bernadino, said the report cited large rallies by white supremacists and white nationalists.
“We saw more of the bigger rallies in the 2.5 years leading just into and after Charlottesville, than we did in the previous 10 to 15 years,” Levin told KCBS Radio.
The Charlottesville rally occurred in 2017, when hundreds of white nationalists and neo-Nazis descended on the town for a “Unite the Right” event.
Levin said it's clear what form of terrorism is increasing.
“What we're seeing is a diversifying threat matrix, where folks at different ends of the ideological spectrum are borrowing tactics,” he said. “They’re arming themselves and now were seeing a greater diversity of people, some of whom are not hardened extremists, but they’re showing up at protests and they’re armed.”
Levin added that it’s bound to get worse as we get closer to the presidential election.
“Every election year since ‘92, hate crimes have gone up,” Levin told KCBS Radio. “They tend to go up in the last part of the year, and along with that, particularly when we see times of change, we see extremist violence related to that as well.
The Justice Department refers to white supremacy as the most consistent and lethal terrorist threat.