How many violent white supremacist attacks happened last year in the United States? 50? 500? 1,000? Recent news stories have reported a rise in such crimes across the country.
Yet the truth is that no one knows the scope of far-right violence in the United States because the FBI and Department of Justice deprioritize the investigation and prosecution of these crimes and fail to collect accurate national data regarding such attacks, despite a congressional mandate to do so (see here for a list of state hate crimes).
These deficiencies arise as a result of Justice Department policies, not a lack of legal authority. Congress has already done its part to equip federal agents and prosecutors with ample tools to investigate and prosecute far-right violence. It passed 52 federal crimes of terrorism that apply to purely domestic attacks, as well as five hate crimes statutes that punish the specific types of violence far-right militants often commit. Organized crime statutes provide additional authority to dismantle the violent groups that instigate and perpetuate these crimes.
Read more at the Brennan Center for Justice
