When do crimes become terrorism?
Hate acts may get that label, but the law stops there
One man goes on a stabbing spree at the home of a rabbi during a Hanukkah celebration. Another opens fire with a shotgun inside a Texas church with deadly results.
But when do these two apparently unrelated acts of hate during the holiday season become clear cases of domestic terrorism? And should perpetrators be prosecuted as terrorists under the law?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t hold back in labeling the machete attack in Monsey on Saturday night “an act of domestic terrorism.” Officials have yet to characterize or offer a motive for the killing of two worshipers at the West Freeway Church of Christ in the Fort Worth suburb of White Settlement the next morning.
In the New York case, the 37-yearold suspect faces five charges of attempted murder. The criminal complaint against him, as obtained by The New York Times, says he had been researching Adolf Hitler online before the attacks. In Texas, the 43-year-old gunman was shot to death by a member of the church security team who is being hailed as a hero.
Whether or not it was the primary intent of the attackers, both incidents struck fear into those gathered as members of communities of faith. And that would basically fit the definition of domestic terrorism under the USA Patriot Act of 2001: acts violating criminal laws to “intimidate or coerce a ci
vilian population” or to try to affect the policy or conduct of government.
Domestic terrorism may be part of the law, but prosecutors can’t file it as a charge. Those deemed responsible in highly publicized incidents that many would consider acts of terrorism may face charges of homicide, assault or commission of hate crimes depending on how heinous their actions, but not a charge of inciting terror itself.
To some experts, it’s a hole that ought to be filled.
“I think we do need it,” said Mary McCord, legal director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and a former acting U.S. assistant attorney general for national security. While hate crimes can overlap with what is generally considered terrorism, having domestic terror as a separate prosecutable act would recognize it as unique.
“A lot of domestic terrorism crimes could be hate crimes. But not everything,” she said. For example, she said a domestic terrorism law might better protect the U.S. from anarchists rather than just people whose hate takes on a personal agenda.
That appears to be true when it comes to suspect Grafton Thomas in the New York attack, said Jason Blazakis, director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism for the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
“The Thomas attack should be considered both a hate crime and an act of terrorism – these two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” he said.
Terrorism, along with hate, is changing. Instead of being organized in groups, many terrorists are loners.
“Today’s terrorist is oftentimes the lone person who feels a connection to others who have committed violence in the past,” often from readings culled on the internet, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
That could make it harder for prosecutors. “A lot of times we don’t know when an act of mass violence is ideologically driven even though it may have a terroristic effect,” Levin said.