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In an interview with "60 Minutes" Sunday evening, Oath Keepers leader Jim Arroyo revealed that active-duty law enforcement is part of their movement and helping with militia training.
"Our guys are very experienced. We have active-duty law enforcement in our organization that are helping to train us. We can blend in with our law enforcement," he said.
Javed Ali, Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, formerly served as a former NSC senior director and was a counterterrorism official at the FBI under the Trump administration. Speaking to CBS News, he explained that the Oath Keepers is "unique."
"Beyond the fact that they are a formal group with chapters all over the country, is that a large percentage have tactical training and operational experience in either the military or law enforcement," the domestic terrorism expert said. "That at least gives them a capability that a lot of other people in this far-right space don't have."
In August 2020, Michael German is a former FBI special agent who penned several reports on U.S. law enforcement failing to control the right-wing terrorists in their ranks. According to his findings, law enforcement officials are increasingly tied to racist militant activities in more than a dozen states since 2000. Updated research has revealed things are much worse.
His report explained that over the years, police had grown increasingly linked to militias and white supremacist groups in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
As Americans are growing increasingly concerned about police brutality and police shootings of unarmed people of color, the conversation about the white supremacists flocking to law enforcement are an even greater concern.
PBS reported in 2016 that ten years prior, the FBI warned of the problem. Since the, little has changed.
In Feb. the New Yorker reported on associate professor Vida B. Johnson, at Georgetown Law, who "authored a paper in 2019 that included a list of more than a hundred police departments in forty-nine states that have faced scandals over racist texts, e-mails, or public social-media posts by officers just since 2009. Johnson proposes that, if police officers have a history of racist speech or behavior, or are known to belong to hate groups, this information should, in cases that involve the testimony of those officers, be disclosed to the defense, under the Brady doctrine, which requires prosecutors to share information that might be exculpatory or show witness bias. The credibility of a known racist cop can, in some cases, be attacked on those grounds, as O. J. Simpson's defense team memorably showed."
Given police and sheriff's departments are governed largely by state, county and local communities, implementing national standards would likely be seen as a federal overreach. So, it leaves it up to local entities to police their police.
See the segment on "60 Minutes" below:
The Oath Keepers militia group's path to breaching the Capitol www.youtube.com
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Former President Donald Trump has been falling in interest in the past several weeks as the press turns to report on the current administration and ignore the golf-playing ex-president. Now it appears Trump is deploying a whole different strategy: joining President Joe Biden's team.
In a release Sunday, Trump announced that he firmly supports Biden's withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, a policy that Trump attempted to implement but wasn't able to do before leaving office.
Calling it "a wonderful and positive thing to do," Trump's only complaint was the timeline. Trump said the U.S. "should get out earlier."
It flies in the face of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Trump pal, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), both of whom attacked Biden for saying he'd withdraw troops. Graham even called it a "disaster in the making."
Trump encouraged Biden to make the exit by May 1, a heavy lift for troops given the immense amount of equipment and supplies that must be packed up.
While still president, Trump told his supporters that he was already bringing troops home.
"A rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight the people who wish us harm. Violence affecting Afghans is still rampant. The Taliban is not abiding by the conditions of the so-called peace deal," McConnell said of Trump's draw-down. "The consequences of a premature American exit would likely be even worse than President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, which fueled the rise of ISIS and a new round of global terrorism. It would be reminiscent of the humiliating American departure from Saigon in 1975."
Graham claimed that he was "for the idea of coming down" and found it acceptable if some troops would remain on the ground, noting that "2,500 may be the residual force that protects us from a collapse" in the war-torn country.
Even Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) blessed the Trump plan, saying in a 2020 statement, "Americans have been fighting in Afghanistan for more than 19 years … Sons and daughters are now patrolling their parents' old routes, and many of the U.S. service members in Afghanistan were not even born when the 9/11 attacks occurred."
Hawley, who never served in the military, agreed with Trump that Biden should pull out by May 1.
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Austin gunman was a police detective accused of child sexual assault ahead of shooting deemed 'domestic incident'
April 18, 2021
More information is coming forward about the Austin, Texas shooter who killed three people on Sunday in what is being described as a "domestic incident," CBS Austin reported.
At this time the Great Hills Trail scene is still active. We are still asking residents to shelter in place and rep… https://t.co/vII1I29lC1— Austin Police Department (@Austin Police Department)1618770453.0
According to local news reports, Stephen Nicholas Broderick previously worked as a Sheriff's detective for Travis County and was charged with first-degree felony sexual assault of a child last year. According to KVUE, before working for Travis County, Broderick worked as an investigator with the Bastrop County Sheriff's Office.
The American-Statesman, reported, "Authorities allege in court documents that Broderick sexually assaulted the teen at a residence in Elgin on June 3. The girl reported the incident to her mother the same day, court documents say. The teen was evaluated at Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin and went through a forensic interview at the Bastrop County Child Advocacy Center, court documents say."
"He was released on a $50,000 bond in June of 2020. Sunday, the Travis County District Attorney's Office announced they have now filed a motion to revoke the bond," the report said.
Heavy.com reported that while police believe that he was targeting specific victims, it's possible he could take hostages.
Austin Police Chief Chacon provided an on scene brief today, regarding the incident at Great Hills Trail and Rain C… https://t.co/LkmCBgu8lS— Austin Police Department (@Austin Police Department)1618776090.0
After he was arrested, his wife filed for a protective order and for divorce. The manhunt is still underway.
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