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The Rise of Civil Terrorism in the U.S.

(City Journal) Tal Fortgang - Masked criminals attacked several Citibank locations in New York City last September. They squeezed epoxy on debit-card readers, damaged door locks, and vandalized windows with profanities and threats of future violence. The marauders filmed their work and posted it to their Instagram page - Unity of Fields - the recently rebranded group formerly known as Palestine Action US. Since Hamas massacred Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, this type of organized criminal mayhem has increasingly become part of American life. Today's agitators deploy random acts of lawlessness designed to inconvenience and disrupt as many civilians as possible, hoping to pressure them to get the government to change course - engaging in civil terrorism. Anti-Israel demonstrators have blocked several of the busiest highways in Illinois, California, and Washington, D.C., and have shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. All those actions are crimes. In a democracy, political movements aim to win support through argument, not by disrupting fellow citizens' lives. The 1960s civil rights movement remained within democratic norms, persuading officials to amend laws by winning citizens to the side of reform. What today's organizations do is not civil disobedience. The current civil-terror movement includes groups that openly support foreign terror organizations and hostile regimes. This is indisputable - they regularly say so. Hamas, Hizbullah, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) flags, headbands, symbols, and keffiyehs bearing particular colors linked with the groups feature prominently in actions meant to intimidate Americans - especially Jews. Anti-American radicals seek to terrorize the American people into doing what foreign terror groups want, starting with reversing our long-standing support for Israel. The practitioners of civil terrorism are trying to destroy the West, not fix it. But we have a cure for anti-American and antisemitic criminal behavior: put the criminals who act unlawfully in prison, confiscate their funds, uproot their criminal networks, deter their would-be imitators, and give public spaces back to the American people. The writer is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
2025-03-27 00:00:00
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