More Terrorism Laws Won’t Stop White Supremacists

National Guard members deploy on U.S. Capitol grounds [Brandon Bell/Reuters]

By Alexia Underwood

After last week’s deadly riot at the Capitol, DC feels very much on edge. I went for a walk last night to see the much-touted increased security presence for myself.

While pacing the perimeter with two friends, I encountered police, countless members of the National Guard, and yards and yards of new fencing. One man in fatigues had lit a red flare in the street and was directing cars to turn around, the white dome of the Capitol building just visible over the hood of his military truck.

There have been threats of further violence at the inauguration next week, and many people, including President-elect Joe Biden, have called for new laws targeting domestic terrorism. But as the Daily Beast’s Spencer Ackerman points out, the problem is not a lack of laws, but rather a lack of will to apply the many existing laws to counter Radical White Terror. In fact, he continues, “many of the very people who expanded domestic terror authorities would empower were complicit in the insurrection.”

Ackerman cautions against letting Jan. 6 become the new Sept. 11 (which, of course, gave us the Patriot Act, used extensively to surveil and spuriously charge Muslims and people of color). Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has seen the extent to which such laws can affect marginalized communities in the U.S., expressed similar sentiments.

“We should not lose sight of our disgust at the double standards employed against white protesters and Black ones, or against Muslims and non-Muslims,” Omar said, “but at the same time, we must resist the very human desire for revenge — to simply see the tools that have oppressed Black and brown people expanded.” The answer is not a broader security structure or a deeper police state, she continued, but rather to “stay rooted in our love of justice and of human rights and of civil liberties as we respond.”

As fear over armed protests increases in the lead up to the inauguration, we would do well to keep these words in mind.

Now Watch: Trump Supporters vs. BLM Activists: This Is How Capitol Police Reacted In DC

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