Andrew M. Luger: There’s a dangerous new wave of violent extremism in Minnesota

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After months of mass and school shootings and targeted murders in Minnesota and our country, many of us are asking two related questions: Why is this happening now, and what can we do about it? The number and pace of these murders seems to be increasing, and we need to know what has changed in the last few years.

Many mass murders, school shootings and targeted assassinations are committed by violent extremists, people who believe in violent means to achieve an ideological end. Whether they are white supremacists or al-Qaida style terrorists, they employ violence to further a societal goal.

As horrific as these violent ideologues are, there is something more concerning gathering steam in the extremist world that has law enforcement and private analysts deeply concerned — loosely based nonideological online subcultures that glorify mass murder and self-harm for its own sake, not for some larger goal. As civic, community and political leaders look for solutions to the current wave of violence, this new development requires close scrutiny and creative solutions.

I first learned about the radicalization of violent extremists in 2014. As U.S. attorney, I learned from experts how ISIS recruited young men in Minneapolis to become terrorists. I then learned about how domestic extremist groups used similar recruitment techniques to persuade the disillusioned to hate Jews, African Americans, Muslims and others.

Hate and terror groups work hard at the recruitment of those seeking an answer to their disillusionment with society. Critical to the recruitment effort is blame — teaching people to hate a specific group of people as the cause for social ills.

While NVEs may have existed alone, and isolated, in one form or another in the past, they are now coming together online, encouraging each other to commit individual and mass acts of violence. If we are to stop the growth of these online networks, we must first understand who they are.

An early NVE platform was the online site 764. It teaches others to hurt vulnerable children and encourage them to engage in self-harm, including suicide. The people on 764 promote sextortion and the sexual abuse of children. They are tenacious. Once they have a young vulnerable teen in their sights, they pursue them relentlessly. As U.S. attorney, I and my colleagues prosecuted sextortion and child sexual exploitation crimes. But the defendants were isolated individuals who engaged in crimes against children alone. Now, those predators have their own online subculture that encourages their horrific acts. They have a community through 764.

Another leading NVE site is WatchPeopleDie. On this site, participants post videos of mass shootings, animal torture and other forms of violence, because that is all they believe in. Participants exalt mass murderers, their path to success to accomplish the next mass act of violence. One post, which claims to include “EVERY SINGLE mass shooting caught on film” had over 300,000 views. At least two recent school shooters in Wisconsin and Tennessee were active on WatchPeopleDie.

The name of another NVE site well reflects the mindset of its followers: “No Lives Matter.” These are not radicalized individuals fighting for a cause, they are simply people drawn to violence.

The antidote to this new strain of violent extremism must come from civil society, as well as law enforcement. We have to recognize the existence of an online subculture that attracts those filled with despair, who see no point in life as most of us know it. We need to develop the means to get to those who are disillusioned before they become addicted to these online subcultures. And we must do this together — all of us, regardless of our politics. NVEs are not aligned with any party or any ideology. Across the political spectrum we should find ways to help people stay off, or get off of, these sites.

As we grapple with solutions to extremist violence, we need to address the rise in nonideological violent subcultures. This is a public health issue, a law enforcement issue and an issue for educators and parents. The attraction of online violent extremism is a growing danger to our communities, and we need to recognize it and reverse its course as part of our effort to keep our communities, our schools and our houses of worship safe.