 Part of what made the Kyle Renhouse story so outrageous aside from the fact that he literally murdered people is The fact that he was walking alongside police officers. This was a 17 year old child with a gun Who showed up to maintain order and police officers gave him water police officers? thanked him and the other vigilantes for being there rather than saying no you don't have the training We're the ones with the training. You shouldn't be carrying a weapon. You can hurt someone They embraced this individual who went on to commit a terrorist attack This is why communities of color don't trust police departments now There's been other stories of police officers working with the Proud Boys I mean we learned that police in Kenosha notified the vigilantes and let them know that they were pushing protesters Towards them, which is when Kyle ran house ended up shooting two of them But this phenomenon of police officers getting cozy with the far right It's way more prevalent than people want to admit and there's a report from the Guardian that talks about this and how it's a Little bit alarming that nobody's sounding the alarms about this and talking about this in the mainstream media So in an op-ed for the Guardian Mike German writes for decades the Federal Bureau of Investigation has routinely warned its agents that the white supremacist and far-right militant groups and Investigates often have links to law enforcement Yet the Justice Department has no national strategy designated to protect the communities policed by these dangerously compromised law enforcers as Our nation grapples with how to reimagine public safety in the wake of the protests following the police killing of George Floyd It is time to confront and resolve the persistent problem of explicit racism and law enforcement I know about these routine warnings because I received them as a young FBI agent preparing to accept Recover assignment against neo-nazi groups in Los Angeles, California in 1992 But you don't have to take my word for it a redacted version of a 2006 FBI intelligence assessment white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement Alerted agents to both strategic infiltration by organized groups and self-initiated infiltration by law enforcement personnel Sympathetic to white supremacist causes a leaked 2015 counterterrorism policy guide made the case more directly warning agents that FBI Domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists white supremacist extremists and sovereign citizen extremists often have Identified active links to law enforcement officers if the government knew that al-Qaeda or ISIS had infiltrated American law enforcement agencies It would undoubtedly Initiate a nationwide effort to investigate them and neutralize the threat they posed yet white supremacists and Far-right militants have committed far more attacks and killed more people in the US over the last 10 years than any foreign terrorist movement The FBI regards them as the most lethal domestic terror threat The need for national action is even more critical in recent years white supremacists have engaged in deadly rampages in Charleston, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and El Paso, Texas more ominously neo-nazis obtained Radiological materials to manufacture dirty bombs in separate cases in Maine in 2009 and Florida in 2017 Which were only avoided through chance But in June 2019 when congressman William Lacey clay asked the FBI counterterrorism chief Michael McGarady whether the bureau remained concerned about white supremacist's infiltration of law enforcement since the publication of its 2006 assessment McGarady indicated he had not read it asked more generally about this infiltration McGarady said he would be suspect of white supremacist police officers But that their ideology was a first amendment protected right more importantly the FBI's 2015 counterterrorism policy Which McGarady was responsible for executing indicates not just that members of law enforcement might hold white supremacist views But that FBI domestic terrorism Investigations have often identified quote-unquote Active links between the subjects of these investigations and law enforcement officials So this is disturbing to any sane person Of course, we don't want white supremacists infiltrating police forces They already are biased enough. They already exist in this culture Where they dehumanized people and feel as if they're always under attack And even if you want to be a good cop and do the right thing and report police misconduct You're dissuaded from doing that. You'll be outcasted. You'll lose your job possibly. So, you know, they are complicit because they are bullied into silence and that's if you have the intent to do good It's a culture that needs to change We need systemic reform and this story proves it because it's such an issue that the FBI is Pointing it out saying hey, are we gonna do anything about this? You have white supremacists with active links to law enforcement. This is not okay But when we see police officers Coordinating with or working with proud boys. We kind of just like chalk that up to being an isolated incident and We, you know, rightfully call it out for being the scandal that it is But the news just moves on when they don't talk about this being a systemic issue that really needs to be looked into further It needs to be investigated with urgency because if there are white supremacists in law enforcement That's not just them like exercising their first amendment, right? In fact, McGearty was wrong to say that because you know to hold a belief isn't exercising your first amendment, right? But you should not have Those beliefs is if you're in law enforcement those types of individuals who are white supremacists and aligned with right wing Militant groups should be rooted out of law enforcement, of course But the fact that we even have to say that even have to talk about this as an issue shows How deep the problem goes? With policing in this country, which is why people are saying we have to defund the police because police can't respond to all of these issues They just can't like throwing more police at the scene isn't going to reduce crime So this is terrifying The issue is more widespread than we thought and the fact that there's no action surrounding this is It's frustrating