As the 2024 election campaign ramps up, so do the concerns over political rhetoric, possibly leading to threats against candidates, lawmakers, and other public figures.
The number of threats has surged 400 percent over the last six years, and Capitol Police maintain, in order to fulfill their duty of keeping Congress safe, it’s going to require an updated model of law enforcement.
“The old approach to member security has been replaced by the need to protect a members environment as well as the members family both in Washington D.C. and at their home,” said Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger.
The need for such a shift became evident last year. First, with a violent attack on the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in their home, and more recently against staff members at the district headquarters of U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia.
Donell Harvin, former chief of D.C. Homeland Security, and Intelligence, told CBN News that both left and right-wing extremists use comments from high-profile lawmakers as a call to mobilize.
“There are lawmakers who put things out there. They make statements. They send tweets. And to them, it may be benign right there. They may feel like they’re appealing to their base or reach, or giving the people that vote for them or their constituents exactly what they want to hear from their perspective. Meanwhile, those words can easily convert to violence amongst individuals who don’t take them just as words,” Harvin explained.
As an example, he points to comments like those made by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) ahead of the ruling that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade.
“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price,” Schumer said in front of the Supreme Court back in 2020.
“That demonization can lead to what we call stochastic terrorism. And that’s when there is a specific threat of violence or actual violence against an individual because they’ve been demonized by a group or an individual that is prominent,” Harvin noted.
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Months later, authorities stopped an assassination attempt near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Harvin, like Chief Manger, believes these violent threats will only increase now that the 2024 campaign is underway, and predicts the overall lack of trust in the federal government will only make things worse.
“We’re living in a time in which there is great degradation of public trust in public institutions, and so anything that the federal government would tell them to make them safer or protect them is going to be seen with skepticism,” Harvin warned.
Chief Manger is asking Congress for a $106.3 million budget increase, something he says is necessary in order for his department to continue growing, transforming, and keeping ahead of the threats.
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN