Other
forms of political violence have also emerged in the past couple of
years. Black nationalist terrorists have killed 8 people in the United
States since 2016, while in June a …
National
security adviser H.R. McMaster refused to say whether an attack where a
car plowed into throngs of people protesting a white supremacist event
in Charlottesville, …
Charlottesville killing was an act of domestic terrorism
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the "alt-right" clash with counterprotesters.
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Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A white nationalist is seen with a cut below his eye suffered during clashes with counterprotesters at Emancipation Park .
Hide Caption
10 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White
nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the "alt-right" movement
exchange volleys of pepper spray with counterprotesters as they enter
Emancipation Park.
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11 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A
woman is treated for exposure to pepper spray during clashes between
white nationalists and counterprotesters at Emancipation Park.
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Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White nationalists use shields as they guard the entrance to Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
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Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Counterprotesters
line the route taken by white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of
the "alt-right" during the "Unite the Right" rally. After clashes with
anti-fascist protesters and police, the rally was declared an unlawful
gathering and people were forced out of Emancipation Park, formerly
called Lee Park and home to a controversial statue of Confederate Gen.
Robert E. Lee.
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Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White nationalist Richard Spencer and his supporters clash with Virginia State Police in Emancipation Park.
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Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Riot
police form a line of defense in front of the statue of Confederate
Gen. Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park, recently renamed from Lee Park.
Hide Caption
16 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A
vehicle drives into a group of people demonstrating against a white
nationalist rally after police cleared Emancipation Park on Saturday,
August 12, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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1 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A
woman receives first aid after a speeding car slammed into this silver
convertible as it navigated through a crowd of counterprotesters.
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Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A man embraces an injured woman after a car rammed into the crowd.
Hide Caption
3 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Right-wing
rally members clash with counterprotesters in Emancipation Park, where
white nationalist groups gathered for a rally.
Hide Caption
4 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A
counterprotester strikes a white nationalist with a baton during
clashes at Emancipation Park, where white nationalists are protesting
the removal of the Gen. Robert E. Lee monument.
Hide Caption
5 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A counterprotester throws a newspaper box at a right-wing rally member at the entrance to Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
6 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A counterprotester uses a lighted spray can against a white nationalist at the entrance to Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
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Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Counterprotesters
try to burn a Confederate battle flag taken from white nationalist
protesters during clashes at Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
8 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the "alt-right" clash with counterprotesters.
Hide Caption
9 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A white nationalist is seen with a cut below his eye suffered during clashes with counterprotesters at Emancipation Park .
Hide Caption
10 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White
nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the "alt-right" movement
exchange volleys of pepper spray with counterprotesters as they enter
Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
11 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A
woman is treated for exposure to pepper spray during clashes between
white nationalists and counterprotesters at Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
12 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White nationalists use shields as they guard the entrance to Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
13 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Counterprotesters
line the route taken by white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of
the "alt-right" during the "Unite the Right" rally. After clashes with
anti-fascist protesters and police, the rally was declared an unlawful
gathering and people were forced out of Emancipation Park, formerly
called Lee Park and home to a controversial statue of Confederate Gen.
Robert E. Lee.
Hide Caption
14 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White nationalist Richard Spencer and his supporters clash with Virginia State Police in Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
15 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Riot
police form a line of defense in front of the statue of Confederate
Gen. Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park, recently renamed from Lee Park.
Hide Caption
16 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A
vehicle drives into a group of people demonstrating against a white
nationalist rally after police cleared Emancipation Park on Saturday,
August 12, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hide Caption
1 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A
woman receives first aid after a speeding car slammed into this silver
convertible as it navigated through a crowd of counterprotesters.
Hide Caption
2 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A man embraces an injured woman after a car rammed into the crowd.
Hide Caption
3 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Right-wing
rally members clash with counterprotesters in Emancipation Park, where
white nationalist groups gathered for a rally.
Hide Caption
4 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A
counterprotester strikes a white nationalist with a baton during
clashes at Emancipation Park, where white nationalists are protesting
the removal of the Gen. Robert E. Lee monument.
Hide Caption
5 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A counterprotester throws a newspaper box at a right-wing rally member at the entrance to Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
6 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
A counterprotester uses a lighted spray can against a white nationalist at the entrance to Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
7 of 16
Photos: Violence erupts at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Counterprotesters
try to burn a Confederate battle flag taken from white nationalist
protesters during clashes at Emancipation Park.
Hide Caption
8 of 16
Story highlights
- Peter Bergen: Incident shows that political violence in the US takes many forms
- That includes right-wing terrorism -- which should be condemned as such
Peter Bergen is a CNN National Security Analyst, a vice president at New America and the author of "United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists and How Do We Stop Them?" The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
(CNN)On Saturday, a 20-year-old man from Ohio allegedly rammed his car
into a group of people gathered to protest a white nationalist rally,
killing a 32-year old woman and injuring 19 others. If James Alex Fields
Jr., of Maumee, Ohio, indeed intended to harm the counter-protesters,
then his act deserves to be branded domestic terrorism.
Political
violence in the United States takes all shapes and forms and on
Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, we saw one of its manifestations,
militant right-wing terrorism.
New America, a non-partisan think tank that tracks political violence, finds
that jihadist terrorists have killed 95 people in the United States
since al Qaeda's attacks on 9/11, while the attack in Charlottesville
brings the number to 68 people that have been killed by far-right
terrorists in the States during the same time period.
Other
forms of political violence have also emerged in the past couple of
years. Black nationalist terrorists have killed 8 people in the United
States since 2016, while in June a terrorist motivated by extremist
anti-Trump views shot at
a Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia,
critically wounding Rep. Steve Scalise who is recovering.
Suspect in car crash identified 01:39
In December a man shot a weapon inside
a pizzeria in Washington because he believed a conspiracy theory that
the pizza joint was in fact a secret front for a child sex ring run by
senior Democratic Party officials. Luckily, nobody was hurt in that
attack.
And jihadist terrorists continue to kill Americans. In January a security guard was killed in Denver by a terrorist who appears to have been motivated by jihadist beliefs.
These
terrorist attacks by right-wing, left-wing and black nationalist
terrorists remind us that terrorism is not only the preserve of those
who are motivated by the ideology of Osama bin Laden and ISIS.
The attack in Charlottesville deploying a car as a weapon
is a new twist for right-wing terrorists in the United States. Jihadist
terrorists have used vehicles as weapons frequently, for instance, in
recent months in London killing 13 in two separate incidents and in 2016
in Nice, France, killing 84, and in Berlin killing 12.
On
Saturday President Donald Trump condemned the attack in Charlottesville
in general terms, but didn't specifically call out the white
nationalists who had convened the rally and who are responsible for the
death and injuries that occurred there.
Trump said,
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of
hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides."
In 2016 Trump opined on
CNN "I think Islam hates us" and he has repeatedly condemned "radical
Islamic terrorism," but he has been noticeably silent about the actions
and beliefs of the white nationalists and alt-right militants of the
kind that rallied in Charlottesville on Saturday.
Indeed,
since Trump took office -- and before the Charlottesville incident --
far-right militants have killed three people in two separate incidents
in New York City and Portland, Oregon; a black nationalist terrorist also killed three and a jihadist militant killed one person, according to New America research.
The lack of acknowledgement and condemnation of militant right-wing terrorism echoes another area of silence by Trump. He has not condemned those
behind the bomb that detonated at a Minneapolis suburban mosque a week
ago. The perpetrators have not been identified in that case. Luckily the
bomb injured no one, but so far the reaction to the attack by the
usually voluble Trump has been to say nothing.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton described the mosque bombing as "an act of terrorism."
Let's see if Trump offers the same kind of condemnation of the terrorist attack in Charlottesville.
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