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This is sadly not a new thing. If we define terrorism as "threatened or actual violence by a non-state actor to achieve political ends", there is no close second to the KKK & their descendants when it comes to domestic terrorism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/domestic-terrorism-data/
That definition by the way comes from University of Maryland who maintains a database of all domestic terror events that proves out that point. https://start.umd.edu/gtd/
One of the challenges crafting anti-domestic terrorism statutes is that to do so requires that we address our original sin and confront the too-close ties between government officials and racist vigilantes from reconstruction to today.
That's not to say that there is no room for forgiveness. But the fact that stories like the one at the start of this thread are presented as surprising recent "surges" means that we haven't yet really had that conversation. It's overdue. /fin
