How big a problem is white supremacy in US police forces?

On Wednesday, January 20 at 19:30 GMT:
White supremacist groups have been infiltrating US law enforcement agencies for at least 20 years, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice.

“The government’s response to known connections of law enforcement officers to violent racist and militant groups has been strikingly insufficient,” said Michael German, author of the report and a former FBI officer.

Despite the Department of Homeland Security declaring white supremacists as the most significant domestic terrorist threat, German says the justice department still has no “national strategy designed to identify white supremacist police officers or to protect the safety and civil rights of the communities they patrol.”

When white nationalists stormed the US Capitol building this month, many analysts were shocked by what they considered a limited police presence – a striking contrast to the robust security response to the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Rawshawn Ray, of the Brookings Institution called it: “negligence at the least and conspiracy at the most among the upper echelons of law enforcement.”

We discuss the history of this infiltration and ask why so little has been done to tackle it.

In this episode of The Stream, we speak to:
Michael German, @RethinkIntel
Fellow, Brennan Center
brennancenter.org/experts/michael-german

Shannon Foley Martinez, @_Shan_Martinez_
Reformed white supremacist
shannonmartinezspeaks.com

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, @milleridriss
Author, ‘Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right’
cynthiamilleridriss.com