CRABBY: Former US Attorney Andy Luger says there is a new pattern of violent extremism that anyone with kids needs to hear

Garage Logic

Former US Attorney Andy Luger says there is a new pattern of violent extremism that anyone with kids needs to hear.

After months of mass and school shootings and targeted murders in Minnesota and our country, many of us are asking two related questions: Why is this happening now, and what can we do about it? The number and pace of these murders seems to be increasing, and we need to know what has changed in the last few years.

Many mass murders, school shootings and targeted assassinations are committed by violent extremists, people who believe in violent means to achieve an ideological end. Whether they are white supremacists or al-Qaida style terrorists, they employ violence to further a societal goal.

As horrific as these violent ideologues are, there is something more concerning gathering steam in the extremist world that has law enforcement and private analysts deeply concerned — loosely based nonideological online subcultures that glorify mass murder and self-harm for its own sake, not for some larger goal. As civic, community and political leaders look for solutions to the current wave of violence, this new development requires close scrutiny and creative solutions.

I first learned about the radicalization of violent extremists in 2014. As U.S. attorney, I learned from experts how ISIS recruited young men in Minneapolis to become terrorists. I then learned about how domestic extremist groups used similar recruitment techniques to persuade the disillusioned to hate Jews, African Americans, Muslims and others.

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