Central Florida braces for unrest
Experts say political extremism may only get worse after Biden is sworn in
After a pro-Trump mob overran the U.S. Capitol last week, experts who study hate speech and political extremism say law enforcement should be prepared for the possibility of more violence in the coming days, with demonstrations rumored at state capitols in Florida and across the country.
Central Florida law enforcement agencies say they’re not aware of any planned demonstrations, but stand ready to respond should the need arise. State leaders have said they’re ready for potential unrest this weekend and in the lead-up to Inauguration Day.
Experts on extremism warn that the far-right rage that erupted in Washington, D.C., last week is unlikely to subside even after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in Jan. 20 — and may only get worse, meaning federal, state and local police will need to remain vigilant.
“For the people who are involved in this movement, this is the beginning of something and not the end,” said Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report. The SPLC tracks hate groups throughout the country, including dozens operating in Florida.
Among right-wing radicals, many of whom call the Sunshine State home, Miller said Jan. 6 “was something to be celebrated.”
“It demonstrated that they have some organizational power,” she said. “They went and they seized the Capitol building and that’s a really powerful image. I think
it’s going to galvanize a lot of people to get involved.”
Extremist groups call Florida home
Florida has long been home to extremist groups across the ideological spectrum, and is also home to perhaps the most prominent far-right group associated with the pro-Trump movement: the Proud Boys.
The group has had a consistent presence this year, both at rallies in support of President Trump and counter-protesting at this summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations against police brutality.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the Miami-based leader of the Proud Boys, was arrested days before the Capitol riot for destroying a BLM banner stolen from a historic D.C. church. Though he was banned from D.C. and could not be there Jan. 6, the nonprofit news organization ProPublica identified other members of the Proud Boys among the rioters.
In an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Tarrio pledged that the group’s activities would not halt with Biden taking office: “I’m going to protest every single thing that he does that I don’t agree with,” Tarrio, 36, said. “I’m going to bullhorn the [expletive] out of it.”
Several from Florida have been among those arrested for participating in the Capitol riots, including Michael Curzio of Summerfield, in Marion County. A man seen in viral photos carrying a lectern from the House of Representatives was identified as Adam Christian Johnson, who lives in Parrish, a community in Manatee County.
According to the SPLC, which tracks extremist groups, greater Orlando is also home to a Proud Boys chapter, among at least 10 such organizations in the area, including anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim, Black separatist and Neo-Nazi groups, spanning from Heathrow in Seminole County to Kissimmee.
In May 2012, Central Florida made national headlines after 14 members of the skinhead group the American Front were arrested and accused of preparing for a race war at a compound in Holopaw, in what would become at the time the state’s largest domestic-terrorism prosecution.
Leader Marcus Faella was accused of readying a wellarmed gang for war against Blacks and Jews. Though the most serious charges against him fell apart, he was convicted of lesser charges at trial and remains on felony probation until 2028, records show.
The Orlando Sentinel this week reached out to major police agencies in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties. None said they were aware of any threats tied to the inauguration, and none were willing to discuss or describe what efforts they’re taking to monitor local extremist groups.
“We don’t discuss security protocols, but we are prepared to ensure that the residents and visitors throughout our county remain safe,” Michelle Guido, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff ’s Office, wrote in an email.
Miller, who studied the White Power movement of the 1990s said it’s unlikely that Trump leaving office will quell far-right unrest. She said such a movement can thrive with left-wing leaders in power to rally against.
“If we look back at the White Power movement, historically, what we see is the movement did begin to shrink in size, when law enforcement took it more seriously,” she said, adding that after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, law enforcement began investigating hate groups more aggressively and arresting leaders.
Michael Jensen, a senior researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, stressed that extremism is “not a problem that you can arrest your way out of.”
During the Obama administration, he noted, funding was provided for organizations like Life After Hate, an intervention program meant to pull people away from white extremism. The Trump administration later slashed grant funding for the group.
“We really do need to resurrect those programs, they were highly geared towards trying to promote community resilience, and community programs aimed at things like far-right extremism and conspiratorial views,” Jensen said.
Radicalized through social media
As information emerges about the makeup of the throng that stormed the Capitol, Miller said she finds particularly notable that many of those who sent members of Congress fleeing for safety were not obvious radicals, but rather “run-of-the-mill Trump supporters.”
It’s part of a trend, Miller and other have experts said, of people who are radicalized without joining or being indoctrinated directly by traditional hate or extremist groups.
Many instead are radicalized through platforms like Facebook and YouTube, as well as darker corners of the internet, where conspiracy theories like QAnon — the baseless conspiracy tying various prominent Democrats and celebrities to pedophilia and cannibalism — thrive.
Reports have varied as to whether D.C. law enforcement was aware of the threat in advance. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has since resigned, said he was unaware of online threats ahead of Jan. 6, though the Washington Post reported this week that a FBI officials in Virginia had warned that extremists were readying for “war” in Washington.
The violence was no surprise to journalists and other observers who monitor extremists online. As NBC News reported, fliers for “Operation Occupy the Capitol” had been circulating on Facebook and Instagram, while extremists on message boards were discussing how violent they should be.
“For large gathering events like that, you can still see the evidence that those things are coming, because they still have to be planned and they have to be organized,” Jensen said. “So, a day after the election, Facebook groups were already popping up demanding that people descend on D.C. on Jan. 6, to protest a potential Trump loss.”
The violence was also no surprise to marginalized groups, who have long been subjected to hate speech from the president’s supporters and discrimination from his administration, said Norma Henning, government affairs coordinator for CAIR Florida.
“Yes, this was an attack against democracy — it was an attack on all Americans — but it evolves from attacking marginalized groups and violating constitutional principles against those groups,” she said, citing the Trump administration’s bans on travel from predominately Muslim countries and border policies that separated migrant children from their families.
The fraying of extremists from organized groups could make future acts of violence harder to predict, Jensen said. So-called “lone-actor” attacks, such as the mass shooting that occurred at a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018, are more difficult to detect in advance.
“That movement away from groups where there might be visible signs something is happening because they have to acquire weapons and they have to fundraise and they have to plan and coordinate, that’s really not a thing anymore,” he said. “Now all it takes is somebody making the decision and getting in their car and ramming it into group of people. That can be really, really hard to prevent.”
Extremists among police, military
As law enforcement agencies and digital sleuths have sifted through the images of the Capitol riot, they’ve made an alarming discovery: many sworn to protect the U.S. Constitution were among those who sought to upend the peaceful transfer of power enshrined in it.
Among them, reportedly, was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas who was seen on the Senate floor equipped with flex cuffs and tactical gear. Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by Capitol Police, was described as an Air Force veteran-turned-QAnon adherent.
According to reports, at least one New York police officer and a police detective from Philadelphia were also spotted among the rioters. Several other police agencies across the country are also probing potential insurrectionists among their forces. The U.S. Capitol Police has itself suspended “several” officers as it continues to investigate.
The Sentinel surveyed about a dozen of the largest police and fire agencies in Central Florida, plus the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Those that responded said they were unaware of any members who had participated in the mob.
The local exception is Andrew Williams, a Sanford Fire Department paramedic and firefighter who, in videos leaked to the Orlando Sentinel, appeared to film himself boasting as he and others marauded through the Capitol. He is currently on unpaid leave after his arrest Tuesday on federal charges.
Williams’ attorney, Vincent Citro, in remarks after his client’s initial court hearing Tuesday, cast blame on Trump and the Capitol Police, who he said “encouraged despicable behavior.” Williams, he said, “took part in none of it.”
While Jensen said law enforcement officers are not more likely to become radicalized than others in the population, those who do develop extreme views are most likely to adopt far-right rhetoric.
“What we can’t overlook is the fact that far-right groups really try to recruit quite heavily from law enforcement and military populations,” he said. “They revere those individuals quite a bit because of the tactical skills that they can potentially bring to the organization.”
The FBI issued a bulletin warning against the “infiltration” of law enforcement by white supremacists as long ago as 2006, both as a method of recruitment and to disrupt investigations into fellow extremists.
Jensen said other countries like Germany have taken a proactive approach, requiring training for all military personnel to identify extremist views and warn against the risks of believing them. Jensen said a similar approach could be effective for U.S. law enforcement and military officers.
He said U.S. police agencies often fail to prevent radicalization, opting to instead punish or fire officers after they are tied to an extremist group, which can itself further radicalize them.
“What we’ve learned is that that’s a potentially dangerous way to deal with this problem because, if you take somebody and you kick them out without providing any rehabilitative services, all you’ve done is created a very angry extremist, somebody with a grievance,” he said.