Earlier today, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — who is apparently unaware of what’s been going on in his city — announced that the NYPD has formed a special unit focusing on terror threats. According to the New York Times’ Ali Watkins, the unit will be chiefly concerned with threats from “far-Right and neo-Nazi organizations”:
The NYPD has created a special unit — known as “Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism” — that's dedicated to investigating terror threats from far-right and neo-Nazi organizations, including groups like the Atomwaffen Division and The Proud Boys https://t.co/Yje53QghRB
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 11, 2019
More from the New York Times:
Police officials say they have formed a new unit within the department’s intelligence division, known as “Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism,” or “R.E.M.E,” that will be primarily dedicated to investigating terror threats from far-right and neo-Nazi organizations, including groups like the Atomwaffen Division and The Proud Boys.
The unit became operational early this month, and already has dozens of open investigations, police officials said.
…
John Miller, the commissioner of the intelligence division, said the far-right extremist groups are not that different in nature from Islamic extremist groups like Al Qaeda. “There’s no different recipe except our offenders are likely to be on the ground here,” he said in an interview.
…
The R.E.M.E. unit appears to be one of the first of its kind organized in a local police department, and its creation underscores the urgency with which law enforcement views the threat of far-right inspired attacks. According to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks such incidents, 50 people were killed by extremists in the United States in 2018, and every one of the incidents was linked to far-right ideologies.
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The Anti-Defamation has also notably refrained from explicitly denouncing left-wing anti-Semitic attacks. Which notably are the sort of attacks regularly being carried out against Jews in de Blasio’s New York City.
"And to judge from the footage of many of these attacks, at least some of the perpetrators seem to be young black men or teenagers. And perhaps that's one of the reasons that so many people want to avert their eyes from what's happening…" https://t.co/poDbqDH4uO
— Marina Medvin (@MarinaMedvin) December 11, 2019
NYPD releases detailed hate crime stats every year.
For 2018: "Hate crime suspects are most frequently Black (55.0%), White (23.6%) or Hispanic (20.0%). Asian/Pacific Islanders accounted for (1.4%) of the remaining suspects."https://t.co/ukTjWRblPt
— Marina Medvin (@MarinaMedvin) December 11, 2019
Those don’t sound like the kinds of perpetrators that would fall under the R.E.M.E.’s purview. Given the violent nature of many of the anti-Semitic attacks in New York City and the fact that these attacks aren’t being carried about by neo-Nazis, you’d think the NYPD would widen the scope of their unit to include left-wing extremism. There’s quite a lot of it, after all.
How about the Black Hebrew Israelites? Seems relevant…
— Is this real? (@XavierZelf) December 11, 2019
Well, the Proud Boys aren't a threat to anyone.
But, will the Black Hebrew Israelites be investigated?
A couple of them just killed a few people in Jersey City yesterday. https://t.co/0hpYXbu74T
— RBe (@RBPundit) December 11, 2019
And we’re gonna go out on a limb and say that the people featured in this video who are blaming Jews for yesterday’s deadly anti-Semitic shooting in Jersey City don’t go to many Proud Boy events:
SHOCKING VIDEO: As Jewish bodies were still laying in cold blood after being murdered by terrorists in Jersey City, a rep of @AmericansAA captured spontaneous antisemitic tirades blaming Jews for their own murder & ppl cheering it on!
Antisemitism, a bigger problem than appears. pic.twitter.com/WHmLtxANAE
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) December 11, 2019
We do feel it’s important to point out that other reporting on the R.E.M.E. doesn’t appear to note that the R.E.M.E. is focused on “far-Right and neo-Nazi” extremism. The New York Times made that distinction, and to be fair, their track record on covering anti-Semitism is less than stellar at the moment. But given Bill de Blasio’s consistent refusal to acknowledge left-wing extremism and insistence on blaming “white supremacy” for anti-Semitic attacks, we wouldn’t be surprised if the NYPD were ignoring or at least giving less attention to left-wing extremism and anti-Semitism.
And deliberately ignoring the fact that these crimes aren’t generally “far-Right” or “neo-Nazi” in nature only ensures that the attacks will continue.
Why is only far-right and neo nazis? Antifa? The group that did the attack in jersey city? Why not all of them?
— David Mulvihill (@mulvihill_david) December 11, 2019
So the threats, assaults and slaughter of jewish people by "left wing" groups will continue to remain a non-priority.
— Ed Jackson (@Roderickoooo) December 11, 2019
GP So the NYPD won't be investigating antisemitic threats from leftists. Got it.
Nice job, @NYCMayor , you bigot. https://t.co/ohHaH7I1Tz
— The Gormogons (@Gormogons) December 11, 2019
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