After a quiet few weeks, the last seven days saw a flurry of activity on several different fronts in the extremist landscape in America. The man who shot 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 was sentenced to death. A man wanted in a notorious case of white supremacist riots was extradited to the United States after years on the run. And six white former law enforcement officers pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of two Black men. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been employing a white nationalist sympathizer for the last two years, a new report claims.
(And none of that is even about the Jan. 6 insurrection − though of course, there was some news related to that story this week, too.)
It’s the week in extremism.
Pittsburgh shooter sentenced to death
In 2018, Robert Bowers attacked worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 people and injuring seven more in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. On Wednesday, a jury officially sentenced Bowers to death.
More:Tree of Life shooter sentenced to death for Pittsburgh synagogue massacre
- Bowers, 50, was found guilty on 63 criminal counts in June, including 11 counts each of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death.
- Bowers was one of the early adopters of the extremist-friendly social media site Gab. He posted on his Gab account just before attacking the synagogue.
The federal death sentence is the first to be handed down since the election of Joe Biden as president.
White supremacist Robert Rundo extradited to USA
Robert Rundo, the lead defendant in a federal indictment charging three members of a white supremacist group from Southern California with planning and engaging in riots, was extradited to Los Angeles this week from Romania, where he had been avoiding prosecution.
- Rundo is a founding member of the Rise Above Movement, a white supremacist group based in Southern California that focused on training members in martial arts and attacking opponents at rallies and protests, prosecutors say.
- He is charged with conspiracy to violate the Anti-Riot Act in activities tied to riots in Northern and Southern California in 2017. He will stand trial in December.
- Rundo has been in Romania. He was recently tracked down by the news site Bellingcat, which geo-located him using photos Rundo placed on the internet to promote his far-right clothing brand.
Six Mississippi ex-cops plead guilty to racist attack
Six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi pleaded guilty Thursday to violating the civil rights of two Black men who suffered a vicious and humiliating attack in January. The officers, who were part of a group that called themselves the “Goon Squad,” had a history of abusing Black victims that was uncovered by an Associated Press investigation.
- The former officers allegedly beat and sexually abused the two men for hours, before shooting one of them in the mouth. They also attempted to cover up their crimes, prosecutors claimed.
- According to the federal indictment in the case, one of the officers received complaint from one of his white neighbors about Black men who were being “suspicious.” That officer then called members of the “Goon Squad,” a name federal prosecutors said they adopted “because of their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it.”
- “Today’s guilty pleas are historic for justice against rogue police torture and police brutality in Rankin County, the state of Mississippi and all over America,” Malik Shabazz, lead attorney for the victims, told USA TODAY. “Significant time behind bars is ahead for all defendants. Today is truly historic for Mississippi and for civil and human rights in America.”
Report: MTG employs white nationalist sympathizer
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has for the last two years employed a web and graphics designer who collaborated with white supremacist and Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes, according to a new report from researchers at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
- According to the report: “Lance W. Smith, 23, of Melissa, Texas, purchased or managed multiple web domains associated with Fuentes and his ‘America First’ movement,” as well as running video streams and gaming servers for Fuentes fans.
- While he was working with Fuentes, Smith was also paid more than $55,000 by Greene’s congressional campaign, the SPLC researchers found.
- Greene has not responded publicly to the report. Neither Greene nor Smith responded to requests for comment from the SPLC.
Statistic of the week: Four
That’s how many days overdue Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is, as of Friday, in responding to members of Congress who wrote him a letter last month requesting responses to questions about extremism in the Department of Homeland Security.
The members gave Mayorkas a deadline of July 31 to respond to their questions. The secretary has not yet responded.
