\nRelated News…<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<\/section>\n
\u201cPeople in this movement allow for confronting, jostling, committing low-level types of offenses, but there has been for some time a core that have tipped the movement to confrontational violence,\u201d he told Fox News on Friday. \u201cThe hardest edge in the Antifa spectrum comes under that category…not all Antifa are busting heads\u201d<\/p>\n
He added the same could be said for members of the alt-right, some of whom tolerate and justify the use of violence.<\/p>\n
In recent decades, authorities have focused almost exclusively on right-wing groups as the most likely instigators of domestic terrorist violence, especially after Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.<\/p>\n
But groups such as Antifa, which is short for anti-fascist, have been growing in numbers and becoming more tolerant about using violence.<\/p>\n
The violent clashes in Charlottesville on Aug. 12 that left one woman dead was only one recent event that drew dozens — and in some cases hundreds — of people on both sides, many of whom were armed and looking for a fight.<\/p>\n
Some DHS and FBI intelligence reports began flagging protesters before the election, POLITICO reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe socio-political landscape has changed,\u201d Levin said. \u201cThe same way white nationalists used Obama as a figure to rally about…now Antifa and anarchists see in Trump a broad-base [enemy] that has united them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThere is a sense that we are getting divided.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some law enforcement officials told POLITICO Trump\u2019s election in November also gave Antifa activists a new target, separate from white nationalist groups: Trump supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was in that period [as the Trump campaign emerged] that we really became aware of them,\u201d a senior law enforcement official tracking domestic extremists told POLITICO. \u201cThese Antifa guys were showing up with weapons, shields and bike helmets and just beating the s— out of people…They\u2019re using Molotov cocktails, they\u2019re starting fires, they\u2019re throwing bombs and smashing windows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Specifically, the target became those from white supremacist and nationalist groups who came out in droves hailing Trump\u2019s win and calling for further crackdowns on illegal immigrants and other groups. Those forces — along with more traditional and less controversial demonstrators — have also turned out to protest the removal of Confederate statues, which is what spurred the rally in Virginia.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement officials said Trump\u2019s rhetoric and policies further fueled motivations on both sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time they have one of these protests where both sides are bringing guns, there are sphincters tightening in my world. Emotions get high, and fingers get twitchy on the trigger,\u201d one official told POLITICO.<\/p>\n
Levin called it \u201can escalating arms race\u201d that spill onto social media and then back onto the streets with more people.<\/p>\n
POLITICO reported recent FBI and DHS reports confirm they are actively monitoring \u201cconduct deemed potentially suspicious and indicative of terrorist activity\u201d by Antifa groups.<\/p>\n
But one report acknowledged several significant \u201cintelligence gaps,\u201d including an inability to penetrate the groups\u2019 \u201cdiffuse and decentralized organizational structure.\u201d They said this makes it harder for law enforcement to identify violent groups and individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more we don\u2019t know about these groups than what we do know about them,\u201d one New Jersey law enforcement official told POLITICO.<\/p>\n
Levin said it\u2019s hard to forecast what will happen in the future, calling it a \u201cfluid situation,\u201d but to expect clashes to continue — and grow larger and more frequent.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Antifa\u2019s] list of what is fascist has grown far beyond the loathsome, Swastika-carrying white nationalists, to controversial conservatives, speakers, the police, journalists and random people who get in their way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Lucia I. Suarez Sang is a Reporter for FoxNews.com.<\/i><\/p>\n
Follow her on Twitter @luciasuarezsang<\/a><\/i><\/p>\nArticle source: http:\/\/feeds.foxnews.com\/~r\/foxnews\/politics\/~3\/DB3A7f06TXI\/fbi-dhs-warned-increasingly-violent-antifa-clashes-in-2016-documents-show.html<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well before the deadly Aug. 12 rally in Charlottesville and the ongoing violent clashes with white supremacists and other groups, federal authorities warned local officials the actions of left-wing extremists were becoming increasingly confrontational and dangerous. Federal agencies warned of the growing likelihood of lethal violence between left-wing anarchists and right-wing white supremacists. Some even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-89252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}