Former FBI agent Michael German on Thursday said that white supremacist groups and militia had infiltrated police departments for over two decades.
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“The harms that armed law enforcement officers affiliated with violent white supremacist and anti-government militia groups can inflict on American society could hardly be overstated,” German said.
According to the report, militia members and white supremacists infiltrated the law enforcement of several states. The list includes Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia, which are southern or predominantly black states.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has called attention to police relations with far-right groups.
“Obviously, only a tiny percentage of law enforcement officials are likely to be active members of white supremacist groups. But one doesn’t need access to secretive intelligence gathered in FBI terrorism investigations to find evidence of overt and explicit racism within law enforcement,” German added.
In 2018, an officer in Sacramento, California, collaborated with neo-nazis against the anti-racism activists. This summer, an Orange County sheriff’s deputy and a Chicago policeman were exposed after wearing militia emblems. Images show a police officer in Washington with a militia group, and others remained inactive during an armed attack against BLM demonstrators in Philadelphia.
Defund the Police campaigners allege these biases and racist fundamentals in law enforcement personnel prevents endangered minorities from resorting to police and jeopardizes non-white offenders in all kind of encounters with the officers.