An expanded aerial exclusion list. New crimes recorded in the books. Greater use of the death penalty.
These are some of the ways in which politicians, analysts and law enforcement officials wish to prevent a repeat of the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. But renewed national security pressure aimed at addressing domestic terrorism has strengthened civil liberties groups, concerned that actions to combat extreme right-wing extremism would instead result in communities of color and left-wing activists. .
The protests against racial justice last summer started a national conversation about the resistance of racism in law enforcement and the security apparatus of the United States. But despite campaigning about the need to reform these institutions, some traditional Democrats are now taking the lead in calls to expand them.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer called for Capitol rebels to be placed on the no-fly list. President Joe Biden, whose campaign website promises that his administration “will work for a law against domestic terrorism”, has ordered a comprehensive assessment of domestic violent extremism. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a new “9/11 type commission”. And the first domestic terrorism legislation following the Capitol attack was introduced in the House last week by Illinois Democrat Brad Schneider.
The Democratic Party, however, is not entirely united on the issue.
Ten progressive members of Congress, led by Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, sent a letter to Congressional leadership expressing opposition to the expansion of national security powers.
“The success of the Trump mob in violating the Capitol was not due to the lack of resources available to federal authorities,” says the letter. “We firmly believe that the national security and surveillance powers of the US government are already very broad, indefinite and irresponsible to the people.”
“Our history is replete with examples of initiatives sold as necessary to fight extremism that quickly become tools used for the mass violation of the human and civil rights of the American people,” the letter continues.
He cites as examples the McCarthy-era Non-American Activities Committee, the surveillance of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and the invention of a category in 2017 called “Black Identity Extremism” that the FBI claimed to represent a domestic terrorism risk .
More than 100 human and civil rights organizations have also joined in a declaration of opposition to any new domestic legislation against terrorism.
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