By: David Mallory
Far right extremists in New Jersey are causing law enforcement to step up their efforts to find and stop them.
Looking into the phenomenon, the New York Times is reporting that “The arrests of the two men rocked law enforcement officials in Sussex County, raising fears that far-right extremism is growing in this sleepy, rural area in New Jersey. It is impossible to know if the two arrests so close together are a fluke or signal of a growing white supremacist movement in the county, law enforcement officials said. The two men appear to have no connection to one another.”
Sussex County has shown all the signs of extremism, ranging from antisemitism and racism to scrawled swastikas and other hate-filled rhetoric.
“One hundred percent certainty, the numbers of reports have increased,” New Jersey state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal told Times reporters Ali Watkins and Nick Corasaniti. “I can’t say that belief system is isolated to Sussex. We’ve seen it in all parts of the state.”
Last week, Gov. Phil Murphy, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson met in Garfield, NJ, to discuss the threat from domestic extremism. “Individuals who seek to terrorize our communities are terrorists, period, and we need to call them that,” said Pascrell.
“The forum, held at Veterans of Foreign War Post 2867, comes as civil rights groups warn about an alarming rise in domestic hate groups, fueled by a resurgence in white nationalist ideology. They say easy access to guns, heated political rhetoric and disinformation campaigns online are obstacles to fighting extremism at home,” reported northjersey.com.
“We need to impress upon leaders that they have responsibly to engage in civil dialogue, to lower the temperature,” said Johnson, according to the news site. “There are those who want to make light of the phrase ‘white nationalism’ and say, ‘What’s so bad about that term?’ Let’s not forget that veterans of foreign wars fought an entire war against white nationalism in Nazi Germany, so this is something not to be made light of.”
“Some domestic extremists are likely willing to shift to foreign terrorist ideologies as a way to justify violence due to their susceptibility to radicalization, existing violent tendencies, and willingness to support extremist groups,” noted The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) ono its web site. “An NJOHSP review found that many domestic extremist and foreign terrorist ideologies share similar viewpoints typically rooted in hatred and intolerance.”
