By John Shiffman, Ned Parker and Linda So
(Reuters) -The murder of right -wing influencer Charlie Kirk marks a turning point in an increase in American political violence, one that some experts fear will cause a already broken country and inspire more unrest.
“This event is horrible, alarming, but not necessarily surprising,” said Mike Jensen, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has followed such violence in a terrorism database since 1970.
In the first six months of the year, the US experienced about 150 politically motivated attacks twice as much as in the same period last year, Jensen said. “I think we are currently in a very, very dangerous place that can easily escalate in more widespread civil unrest if we don't get hold of it,” Jensen said. “This could absolutely serve as a kind of flashpoint that inspires more of it.”
Experts in domestic terrorism call a convergence of factors for increased violence in the US: economic uncertainty, fear of shifting racial and ethnic demography and the increasing ignition of political discourse. Traditional ideological divorces – once focused on disagreements of policy sizes – have been turned into a deeper, more personal hostility. That anger is reinforced by a mix of social media, conspiracy theories and personal complaints.
Reuters identified at least 300 cases of political violence in the US between 6 January 2021, attack on the Capitol and the presidential elections of 2024, which marked the most significant and persistent increase in such violence since the 1970s.
“Extreme political violence is increasingly becoming the norm in our country, and the shooting on Charlie Kirk is an indication of a much larger and more penetrating issue: violence of violence is increasingly common, even without any clear ideology or motif,” said Jon Lewis, a researcher at extremism to George Washington University.
“There is really a concern about what the return to something like that will look like.”
Other experts who study political violence had agreed. “People are reluctant to first take violence, but they are much more willing to enter into force as retribution,” said Lilliana Mason, professor of political sciences at Johns Hopkins University. “Nobody wants to be the one who starts with it, but many people want to be able to finish it.”
Kirk, a narrow ally of US President Donald Trump and founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, spoke to an extraordinary about 3000 at Utah Valley University when a shot went, causing him to panic.
Authorities had not yet publicly identified a suspect on Wednesday evening, almost six hours after the shooting. FBI director Kash Patel said that a public “subject” was held before interrogation and was then released.
Kirk, 31, was a pioneer in the conservative movement and brought the power of social media to lure millions of young Americans to the Maga basis of Trump.
“Nobody understood or had the heart of youth in the United States better than Charlie,” Trump said in a social media post that announced Kirk's death.
“Vicious Spiral”
Trump himself was the subject of two murder attempts last year. The shooter was killed in one by the authorities after he was fired. In the other, a man was arrested with a gun and scope near a golf club in Palm Beach where Trump played. His process started this week.
In addition to those, two recent controversial attacks shake by right -wing conspiracy theorists this year legislators and government workers throughout the country. In June, a Christian nationalist killed a senior democratic state legislator and her husband in Minnesota and injured a second democrat. In August, a shooter obsessed with COVID-19 Sprinkled conspiracies rifle fire in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer.
Since January, at least 21 people have been killed in incidents with political violence, 14 of them in a car fever in New Orleans by a jihadist who claims loyalty to the Islamic state group early on New Year's Day.
In May, a Pro-Palestinian activist killed two Israeli embassy staff in Washington and the police told after his arrest: “I did it for Gaza,” said judicial documents.
In July a group of at least 11 militants in black military clothing attacked an immigration removal center in Texas, the Ministry of Justice said. The group left fireworks, sprayed painted “traitor” and “ice pig” on vehicles and shot a reacting police officer in the neck, injury him, while another gunfire was sprayed in detention offenses, the FBI said.
Since the return to the office, Trump has reduced the efforts to combat domestic extremism, to destroy resources to the enforcement of immigration and quote the southern border as the top protection threat.
Jensen, the researcher of the University of Maryland who follows violence for the National Consortium for the study of terrorism and reactions to terrorism, said that the future seems grim.
“This is an administration that, whether you agree with it or not, in -depth changes in this country made in the eight months that it has been in office,” he said. “Some people love it, some people hate it. The people who hate to act. People who love it will act against those people who hate it, and it will be a mean spiral that can lead us in something real, very bad.”
(Additional reporting by Peter Eisler. Processing by Jason Szep)
