Former FBI special agent Erroll Southers told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that the behavior of some police officers during Wednesday’s siege of the United States Capitol evoked memories of Charlottesville and Kenosha.
“It brings back memories of 2017 and Charlottesville, when one of the people in the Unite the Right movement fired a firearm and went through the police, said Southers, who is currently the Director of Domestic Violent Extremism Studies at the University of Southern California. “He brings images of Kenosha after that individual killed two people, threw his AR-15 over his shoulder and passed the police officers who sat him down and got some water. It is very clear what is happening here. “
The police response to Wednesday’s siege of the US Capitol is under increasing fire. Critics include President-elect Joe Biden, who considered the treatment of rioters a double standard.
“No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they would not have been treated very, very differently from the crowd of thugs who invaded the Capitol,” said Biden. “We all know that this is true and it is unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.”
Former First Lady Michelle Obama I wrote that Wednesday’s Capitol rebellion “made it painfully clear that certain Americans are, in fact, allowed to denigrate our nation’s flag and symbol … they just need to look the right way.”
The FBI produced a report that warned of the infiltration of white nationalists in local law enforcement in 2006. Southers said the siege of the US Capitol illustrates that the situation has been exacerbated since then.
“He raised his ugly head again … and confirmed what we thought in 15 years is even worse,” said Southers.
A Department of Homeland Security and an FBI assessment from last year showed that racist terrorist groups are exhibiting activities unparalleled in the modern era. Southers told host Shepard Smith that the data “clearly articulates that the threat comes from the right”.
The FBI confirmed it had eliminated two explosive devices, including a “pipe bomb-like device” at RNC headquarters on Wednesday, and Southers explained the message that those devices sent.
“I think in 1995, do we have to tear down buildings like they did in Oklahoma City so we can get the message out?” Southers said. “Yesterday, thank God, the building didn’t collapse.”