Hateland

by Daryl Johnson

  The bill also freed the limited resources used to track domestic terrorism from political interference. Instead, resources would be focused on the most significant threats, based on the number of domestic terrorism-related incidents.

  Among other measures, the bill also encouraged better information sharing by requiring the Department of Justice and FBI to train and assist state and local law enforcement and help them develop plans to combat domestic terrorism activities in their jurisdictions.

  Unfortunately, even in the wake of the Charlottesville tragedy, the bill had no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate. Even more discouragingly, the Trump administration has no interest in cracking down on right-wing extremists. In fact, it appears quite the opposite.

  The current political climate is having a dramatic impact on right-wing extremism in America. When I wrote my 2009 DHS assessment about the rise of right-wing extremism, I never envisioned it would last ten years and beyond. I believe several factors have contributed to right-wing extremism thriving and growing under a Republican administration.

  First, under Trump's administration, federal domestic terrorism training for state and local law enforcement, called SLATT, was canceled in October 2017 and is no longer funded. No other program has replaced it.

  Second, soon after taking office, Trump's administration also abruptly canceled federal grant funding to two organizations that were working on countering violent extremism (CVE) by white nationalists. One of the award recipients, Life After Hate, was a nonprofit group devoted to helping people leave white supremacist groups. The other grant was supposed to be awarded to the University of North Carolina, which was developing media campaigns for young people directed at dissuading their peers from embracing white supremacy and other violent extremist ideologies. Trump's administration essentially narrowed the federal CVE grant funding to focus exclusively on Muslim radicalization threats.

  Third, and more disturbing, Trump has mainstreamed right-wing extremist themes from the dark recesses of the internet into the general public. For example, building a southern border wall, banning travel from Muslim countries, and mass deportation of immigrants were ideas once discussed on white supremacist computer message boards merely ten years ago. Now, they are put forth as presidential policy recommendations. This sends a subtle signal to the far-right fringes that the president tacitly supports their radical political and social platforms.

  Fourth, Trump often takes to social media to demonize his opposition with negative labels, which has the potential to push radicalized extremists over the edge into violence against such opponents. He's even forwarded false information on his Twitter account that originated with racist and conspiracy theory websites.

  Finally, when the president uses terms such as “nationalist” to describe patriotism or refers to a Central American immigrant caravan migrating toward the US as “invaders,” it resonates with right-wing extremists and has the potential to embolden them. When extremists hear the president say “nationalist,” they hear “white nationalist.” When he says “invaders,” they equate that to a national-security threat. When Trump says “globalization,” right-wing extremists hear “New World Order” or the Jewish conspiracy to control the world.

  For these reasons, the lunatic fringe of the far right will continue to operate at a heightened level of activity for the next few years. Unfortunately, some will radicalize to the point of taking violent action. Even if Trump completely stopped his dog whistles and dehumanizing talk today, it will still take months, perhaps even years, to have a decelerating impact on right-wing extremist recruitment and radicalization activities.

  Of course, even a really motivated government response to domestic extremism wouldn't squelch it out immediately. The conditions that gave rise to the current mainstreaming of radical ideologies have much to do with private media companies, the intricacies of the internet, and longstanding biases and paranoia. That said, even providing an accurate and consistent definition for domestic terrorism, reporting basic information on extremist activity to law enforcement, and providing a modicum of funding for expert subject matter analysis can make a very real difference. To look at what this could mean in the real world, let's revisit the investigation following the October 1, 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.

  The shooter, Stephen Paddock, targeted a crowd of roughly 22,000 country music fans at the Highway 91 festival. In just ten minutes, he shot 1,100 rounds out of his room on the thirty-second floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. It was the deadliest mass shooting perpetrated by a single gunman in US history, with 58 people killed and 546 injured. An hour later, Paddock was found dead in his hotel room.

  In January 2018, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department issued their definitive report on the incident. Based on 1,965 investigated leads, 21,560 hours of video, 251,099 images, and 746 legal notices filed, the reported stated that “nothing was found to indicate motive on the part of Paddock or that he acted with anyone else.” The report also stated that “there was no evidence of radicalization or ideology to support any theory that Paddock supported or followed any hate groups or any domestic or foreign terrorist organizations.”

  This analysis fit into the general consensus about Paddock: a disgruntled middle-aged guy who snapped. But, to anyone with subject-matter expertise, the official report and some media coverage suggested a very different conclusion about Paddock's motives.

  Paddock primarily grew up in Sun Valley, an underprivileged, economically depressed suburb of Los Angeles. He was the eldest of four sons. His father was a bank robber who was arrested when Paddock was seven.

  A former middle school and high school classmate of his, Greg Palast, described Paddock as extremely smart, yet angry and resentful at his core.7 Palast, a well-known investigative journalist, characterized Paddock as being closed-in, self-absorbed, and narcissistic, as well as having “a God complex.” Palast suspected that Paddock was frustrated because his increased intellect did not immediately translate into opportunity, a conviction that possibly contributed to a lifetime of suppressed rage.

  Richard Alarcon, a classmate, described Paddock as exhibiting anti-authority behavior early in life. “The thing that set Paddock apart,” said Alarcon, “was his ‘irreverence’ toward authority.”8 Another credible witness corroborated Alarcon's recollection of Paddock's disrespect for authority, blaming it on his growing anger, resentment, and frustration.

  Nonetheless, Paddock went on to graduate from high school and then Cal State, Northridge in 1977 with a degree in business administration. That same year, he got married, but was divorced by 1979. From a cone of radicalization standpoint, by the time Paddock was twenty-six, he likely had several weakened inhibitors, including family estrangement, an absent father, and a divorce. He also had several active destabilizers, including anger and resentment. But for the next thirty years, there was—as the Las Vegas police report stated—no evidence he was engaged in any extremist activities.

  Paddock did, however, exhibit strong political leanings during that time. A real estate broker who helped Paddock sell multiple properties in California said he expressed a “dislike for taxes and the government—even selling off a series of buildings in California to move his money to the low-tax havens of Texas and Nevada.” Bruce Paddock, Stephen's brother, recalled “how his brother used to do the family's tax returns and juice them so they would get back thousands of dollars in refunds.”

  Likewise, Adam Le Fevre, Paddock's brother-in-law, described Paddock as “animated about the government and the tax system.” Paddock “was outspoken about the inadequacies and waste of the government,” and “frustrated with the policy of government, in general.”9

  Le Fevre also recalled Paddock giving him a tour of his Nevada home, during which he made sure to point out his “gun room.” Le Fevre said Paddock had an “obsession with guns.” Paddock, Le Fevre claimed, also became very defensive when asked about the Second Amendment right to bear arms. “He was very stri
ct and very firm on the fact that it's a right. It's the freedom of every American to participate, to own a gun and use it…when need be.” Paddock, who had acquired dozens of guns by 2016, “made it very clear he would have no part of gun ownership restrictions,” said Le Fevre.

  These three credible witnesses claim Paddock had espoused anti-government beliefs, including disrespect for tax law and contempt for government regulation and firearms laws, all of which correlate to right-wing ideologies. Further, right-wing extremists are the most likely to commit tax fraud. Militia members and other right-wing anti-government extremists are also much more likely to stockpile firearms and ammunition—and to loathe firearms regulation, restrictions, and laws. Neither far-left extremists, nor even homegrown violent extremists, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda supporters, are as likely to hoard weapons.

  Of course, the fact that Paddock owned lots of guns and complained angrily about the government does not in any way mean he subscribed to a violent extremist ideology. However, the testimony of several other witnesses about Paddock's enthusiasm for conspiracy theories makes it more plausible. While these statements need vetting and additional confirmation, the claims—made by three unrelated witnesses—at very least tend to support one another.

  One witness, a Las Vegas prostitute who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she “would spend hours drinking and gambling in Las Vegas” with Stephen Paddock, who she described as “paranoid” and “obsessive.”10 The twenty-seven-year-old female escort added that Paddock would “often rant about conspiracy theories including how 9/11 was orchestrated by the US government.” A second witness reported to police that she saw a man resembling Stephen Paddock with another white male at a Las Vegas restaurant three days before the shooting. Both were reportedly overheard ranting about the 1992 standoff at Ruby Ridge and the 1993 Waco siege.

  While these topics are fairly common in right-wing extremist circles, a third conspiracy theory may have direct relevance to the Las Vegas shooting. Another witness says he met Paddock in September 2017 at a Bass Pro Shop in Las Vegas, Nevada, to arrange the purchase of engineering schematics for an auto-sear, which is a gun part used to convert an assault rifle from semi-automatic to fully automatic. Paddock attempted to bribe the seller to manufacture the auto-sear for him. When the seller refused, Paddock reportedly became upset and made references to Federal Emergency Management Agency—or FEMA—detention “camps,” Hurricane Katrina, gun confiscations, and other anti-government conspiracy theories as part of his rationale for needing the auto-sears.11

  Another witness verified Paddock's conspiratorial interest in hurricanes. “He asked me if I remembered Katrina,” the witness told Las Vegas police. Paddock reportedly stated “that [Hurricane Katrina] was just a dry run for law enforcement and the military to start kicking down doors and confiscating guns.”12

  A closely related theory, and one also pushed by Alex Jones's InfoWars, claims the government can create severe weather, like tornados and hurricanes, using technology at the High Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP) at the University of Alaska. The rumors regarding HAARP, formerly a US Air Force facility, became so commonplace that, in August 2016, the university decided to hold an open house to show it couldn't control weather or human minds.13

  With or without the weather control theory, the basics of the FEMA camp conspiracy theory are the same: FEMA is part of the New World Order, which is planning to declare martial law, will place Americans in designated concentration camps, and confiscate all guns. In addition, it will impose an adult curfew, and suspend constitutional rights during a government-created or “false flag” state of emergency. Such beliefs are widespread in conspiratorial Patriot and militia groups. In fact, they are very similar to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes's prediction about the future of America under President “Hitlery” Clinton.

  If these witness testimonies are true, and they do need further confirmation, it's clear that Paddock had aligned himself with extremely far-right extremist conspiracy theories. That, in turn, is insightful and potentially critical for determining Paddock's possible motivation for the Las Vegas shooting attack.

  Paddock's history of gun purchases provides other clues. From 1982 through September of 2016, he purchased twenty-nine firearms. These purchases consisted of handguns, shotguns, and one rifle. However, from October 2016 through September 2017, Paddock purchased over fifty-five firearms. What's more, most of these weapons were assault rifles of varying calibers, along with over a hundred firearm-related accessories like scopes, cases, bump stocks, and ammunition.14

  The apparent disparity in his gun purchasing suggests that, instead of just snapping relatively soon before the mass shooting, something in October 2016 may have triggered Paddock to begin preparing for some sort of attack. Authorities have acknowledged that their investigation also uncovered an intriguing turning point in Paddock's life around this time, although they haven't revealed it.15

  Based on Paddock's reported obsession with hurricanes and his gun purchasing history, it's significant that the month of October coincides with the peak of the Atlantic hurricane seasonal cycle. What's more, the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season was the first above-average hurricane season since 2012, producing fifteen named storms, including seven hurricanes and four major hurricanes. Of these storms, Hurricane Matthew, which occurred in late September and October 2016, was the strongest, costliest, and deadliest with 603 deaths—47 in the United States—and $15.1 billion in property damage.

  The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was even worse. Characterized as “hyperactive” and “catastrophic,” it was the costliest hurricane season on record. It is one of only six years on record to feature multiple Category 5 hurricanes making landfall.

  In other words, Paddock's massive hoarding of assault weapons began following the worst hurricane season in four years and his shooting took place immediately following an even stronger season. The connection between intense hurricane activity and the shooting occurred to one witness, who described Paddock as “fanatical.” It “struck me odd was when he did the shooting it was right after those hurricanes…You know, I mean first it was Irma, then Maria, and I believe that's when he did the shooting. He was just saying the government's gonna crack down on everybody who owns weapons.”16

  Despite not having known associations with far-right extremist groups, Paddock's behavior—conspiratorial thinking, hoarding guns and other materials like bulletproof vests and tracer rounds—closely aligns him with survivalists and conspiratorial militia groups. In fact, following the shooting, Paddock received public approval of a survivalist online, who described Paddock as the perfect “Gray Man.”17

  A Gray Man, or Gray Neighbor, is a term used within the survivalist/prepper community to describe someone who blends into society, avoids attention, conducts their weapons stockpiling and other operational activities in secret, and, most importantly, remains elusive from detection by government authorities. Survivalist Kevin Felts notes that Paddock had no criminal record, political affiliations, no record of mental illness, and no incidents of violence. What's more, his friends and family never realized he was massing a huge cache of firearms.18 So, while law enforcement found no evidence of extremist motivations, a known survivalist said Paddock possessed and practiced many of the skills and tradecraft of a true prepper.

  There is one other reported similarity between Paddock and other extremists across the political spectrum: the conviction that they are the only one who can wake up the American people to what is happening, in an attempt to start another revolution or civil war. This belief is prominent in the comments and written testimony of violent extremists, including Timothy McVeigh, Dylann Roof, Micah Johnson, and, according to one witness, Stephen Paddock. “Somebody has to wake up the American public and get them to arm themselves,” Paddock reportedly said. “Some sacrifices have to be made.”19

  It's also notable that when violent extremists and terrorists target groups, they aren't necessarily try
ing to kill all their presumed enemies at once, but to set off a larger chain of events. McVeigh, for example, wanted to start a race war. So, while the Oklahoma City bombing killed primarily white people, his larger goal was to provoke a violent government overreach, which would lead to a Turner Diaries-type apocalyptic race war in which the federal government would be destroyed. It's possible that, by perpetrating a mass shooting on a primarily white crowd, the conspiratorial Paddock wanted to provoke the government into a similar overreach.

  There are multiple potential motivations for a shooting attack—just a few of them include sociopathy, mental illness, racial hatred, revenge, and a quest for fame. Despite the official claims about Paddock having no motivation for the shootings, his known behavior, activities, and life's events suggest three possibilities: violent anti-government extremism, sociopathy, or other mental illness. Of those, the most likely is anti-government extremism with the other motivations probably contributing.

  After careful consideration of all the available facts, circumstances, and allegations publicly available surrounding the October 2017 Las Vegas shooting attack, the most plausible scenario supports the notion that Stephen Paddock embraced right-wing anti-government extremism and conspiracy beliefs. These beliefs, combined with his firearms stockpiling, likely contributed to his motivation and mobilization for the mass shooting. Further, the 2016 and 2017 Atlantic hurricane seasons, along with the Georgia arrests, may have served as the “catalyst” for Paddock's mobilization toward violence and expedited the timeline leading up to the attack. If law enforcement can substantiate the veracity of the aforementioned witness claims, especially those related to Paddock's anti-government and conspiracy-minded views, then Paddock likely had an ideological motive for his shooting attack, thus meeting the definition of domestic terrorism.