FBI Failing to Tackle White Supremacist Violence: Ex-Agent
The bureau has yet to produce statistics revealing the scale of white supremacist crimes, leaving communities of color fatally exposed, claims Michael German, a former FBI special agent who infiltrated white supremacist groups in the 1990s.
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Michael German, a former FBI special agent who infiltrated white supremacist groups in the 1990s, has accused the agency of continuing to underplay the scope of the threat of white supremacist violence in the United States, reports The Guardian. Despite a clear mandate from Congress, the bureau has yet to produce statistics revealing the scale of white supremacist crimes, leaving communities of color fatally exposed.
“White supremacists kill far more Americans than anybody else the FBI designates as domestic terrorists, yet the bureau still doesn’t document the crimes and fatalities that occur,” said German. “I think that’s a reflection of lack of concern for the victims of that violence.” Most acts that are deemed to be hate crimes are deferred by the DoJ to state and local police for investigation, though 85 percent of those agencies do not recognize hate crimes as a phenomenon. In recent years, surveys based on the experiences of crime victims themselves have recorded more than 200,000 hate crime incidents each year, while the DOJ, on average, only prosecutes 21. Meanwhile, organized criminal groups dedicated to upholding white power fly largely beneath the radar.
