Political Violence in the US
In the past we have seen political violence growing in numbers as well as supporters and instigators. Over the weekend we heard, what is being considered the most serious assassination attempt on a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Raegan was shot in 1981. The FBI are calling the crime a potential domestic terrorism act.
The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crook was 20 years old using a gun which was registered to his father. He was positioned on the top of a building nearby the rally as Donald Trump was speaking he was shot which grazed his ear leaving him bloody but mostly unharmed. The suspect was shot on the scene and unfortunately has caused the death of one man and left 2 injured.
The reaction
President Joe Biden has commented on the shooting calling it ‘sick’ and calls for a shift in language being used towards the candidate and condemns any political violence.
Global leaders have spoken out as well sending Mr Trump well wishes and thoughts to the victims of the shooting all reiterating that violence has no place in politics. This includes the Prime minister of England - Keir Starmer, Canadian President - Justin Trudeau, Ukrainian President - Volodymyr Zelensky, French President – Emanuel Macron and many more.
Moments of Political Violence
Political violence has grown especially over the past 5 years studies show. Those in politics are at a high risk of a targeted attack similar to the examples below.
- In 2011 a representative of Arizona, Gabrielle Gifford was attending a meet and greet at a grocery store where she was shot in the head. 6 people were killed from this attack, Gifford survived and now allocates her time to fighting against gun violence and promotes for new gun laws in the US.
- In 2017, members of the Republican congressional baseball team were targeted where 5 were injured.
- In 2020 there was a record high number of election administrators who received threats. This included a kidnapping scheme against the Democratic Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitner. This was uncovered along with the groups bomb making supplies and surveillance of Whitner.
- Also in 2020 an executive at Dominion Voting Systems, Eric Coomer was forced into hiding after mass amount of threats as well as his home address, phone number being released and a bounty placed on his head. Trump supporters believed the votes had been tampered with and took criminal action against those at Dominion Voting Systems.
- In 2021 Trump supporters protested the moment Joe Biden was sworn into office. This quickly led to a mob of attackers many being armed swarming the Capitol building smashing windows. This resulted in 7 deaths and 140 people injured.
Why?
- The US is facing a time of unrest leading to violence as people feel a loss of control over their country as well as growing feeling that force is the only way to get what they want as the two side compete. Both Republicans and Democrats have stated their no tolerance for political violence and their could potentially be a need for a new direction of this election steering away from the highly competitive focus.
- With conspiracy theories running over social media and large groups of people able to engage and connect this way it encourages radical ideas to turn into action. Comments online sit on the fence of threats and violence being swept under the rug as it’s just a joke online.
- Data from the Global Terrorism database and FBI statistics show that incidents from the left wing are rising in numbers however those from the right wing still overshadow and take up a large majority of political violence acts. Those committing political violence are often found to be planned moments from well established members of a community.
- Robert Pape a professor of political science at the University of Chicago specialises in International security affairs conducted a survey to find out what 270m American think about political violence. He found that 5-10% of adults were supporting political violence to restore Donald Trump to the presidency. Now, they also found that 10%, that it 26million adults support the use of force to prevent Donald Trump returning to presidency.
- The lack of gun control in the US also gives people with violent tendencies and ideologies to have access to a lethal weapon and a way to cause damage.
