2019-08-13 11:59:24
GUEST: Chip Gibbons, a journalist whose work has been featured in Jacobin, In These Times, and The Nation. He is also the policy and legislative counsel for Defending Rights and Dissent, an organization founded by victims of the House Un-American Activities Committee that works to protect the right to engage in political expression. He just wrote the piece: "Expanding the Powers of the FBI Is Not the Solution to White Supremacist Violence."
BACKGROUND: In the wake of the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, the nation has woken to the dangers of white supremacist violence as a form of domestic terrorism. Among the many calls for action - such as asking President Donald Trump to stop broadcasting his own white supremacist views - are suggestions for the FBI to begin treating domestic terrorism with the same seriousness as international terrorism. Indeed media pundits are calling on Congress to pass a domestic terrorism statute.
But those who study the FBI's long history of abusing power are urging caution.
Human Rights and Equality
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