Extremists Are Coming Out of the Woodwork
ADL PNW's Miri Cypers on the ADL's lawsuit against the insurrectionists, local threats, and social media.
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Extremists Are Coming Out of the Woodwork
Given the upcoming anniversary of January 6, I wanted to sit down with PNW ADL director Miri Cypers about the ADL’s lawsuit against the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers for their involvement with the attacks on the Capitol, as well as the state of anti-Semitism here in Washington.
Earlier this year you were the target of an anti-Semitic hate crime. Can you talk about that and how it's getting resolved?
Yeah, as part of my role with the ADL, part of our work in terms of addressing and fighting hate is exposing and tracking extremism, which is something that the ADL has done for decades. And as part of my role here as the director in our Pacific Northwest region, we do continue to actively track and investigate hate groups, which can often leave our staff targeted. Which was unfortunately what happened to me and few other victims in the Seattle area. And also nationwide. I got a call from the FBI in late 2019 telling me about a plot that was going to unfold in Seattle in which they were aware that I would be targeted along with another journalist in the area, Chris Ingalls from King 5. Being that we're talking about this now, it's been a long process.
I was reading about this, and you were talking about how it affected your life in a way that you were afraid to take the trash out at night. How are you feeling now?
I think that I've had time to process and definitely feel farther away from what happened. I think that going through the entire judicial process was interesting, but it also feels like a sense of closure. I definitely had periods over the past two years where I was concerned about my safety and the safety of my family, just based on the fact that the group that targeted us is known to be really violent. Their name is Atomwaffen and they're a neo-Nazi group. I do think at this point I have a sense of closure. I feel like it was pretty fresh after the last trial, because there were four defendants going through the criminal justice system, because the FBI arrested a ring of people who had committed these threatening acts. I do think even though it was really emotional, it did bring a sense of closure, and I'll be speaking at the final sentencing hearing in the new year. So, you know, I look forward to having this chapter behind me.
No kidding. And what do we know about the person who targeted you?
You know, I think it's kind of interesting learning more about the people. The membership in this extremist group, out of the four there's one who's a really hardened white supremacist who was arrested with a lot firearms and who's known to be especially violent in Washington state, but I would say it was an interesting experience being behind the scenes and learning more about how these particular individuals who came from, you know, I think underprivileged backgrounds, had really been struggling at different points in their life lives, that were attracted to this kind of ideology and this sense of belonging. That's all I'll say, but it is kind of a mix of a couple of different people who have come to this kind of life from different places. Some more hardened and others who are more repentant for what happened.
I'm sorry that you had to go through that, but I do hope it's all over and behind you very soon. I really wanted to talk as well today about the ADL on the national level, the role that the ADL is playing with the January 6th insurrectionists. And with that anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks, I was wondering if you would be able to talk a little bit about that effort. What does the ADL nationally and locally, too, hope to accomplish with the lawsuit that they're bringing?
Right. So as a little background, as I was mentioning before, the ADL has tracked and exposed extremist groups for decades, and that's been a really integral part of our work. And we have a national center on extremism, which is a national center within ADL, full of incredible investigators and researchers and analysts who dedicate their life and their days to understanding extremist ideologies across the political spectrum and actually tracking them in real life, whether that's online or on the ground. So we can both inform the public about trends that we're seeing and help explain activities that are going on, but we can also liaise and closely share potential threats with law enforcement in as we do. So it's a really close collaboration between national experts and local and regional staff like myself. And we're actually really fortunate to have a new colleague in our office, because we've been definitely adding to our ranks to have someone from this national center who's embedded in Seattle, who's a real expert on the Proud Boys and other Pacific Northwest trends and activities that we see.
So I would say nationally, over the past couple of years, we've seen a huge increase in white supremacist and activity. Long before Charlottesville happened, we were sounding the alarm bell on the increase in activity, in these kinds of groups. And we've seen extremists just really come out of the woodwork and be very unapologetic about their beliefs and actually try to carry out violence against various groups. So I would say over the past couple of years, we've been really tracking propaganda increase in just a general sense that extremists are completely emboldened to do more. And I can give some examples about what that actually looks like in a local community, but through our reporting, we've seen propaganda surge on college campuses and in neighborhoods — leafleting, flyers, all sorts of hateful kinds of messages being spewed in society, and certainly more and more people it seems being attracted this kind of ideology, both in the real world and online.
So that's a little bit of context about what we've been doing to kind of lead up to today. I will say one of the interesting efforts our office was involved in prior to January 6th was setting up a lot of very high-level briefings with elected officials, like governors and AG’s office and law enforcement, to really talk about some of the potential threats that could transpire prior to the election happening. So I think on our part, there's both a deep understanding of how these groups are stronger and more emboldened and how they've changed over the years, but also a deep understanding and foresight about what could potentially happen if their power is unchecked.
And why do you think that people are more emboldened or are more attracted this ideology? Do you think that there's a difference between the people who are actually going to act on what they say they're going to do or actually become violent versus the people who are sort of like in it for the trolling? How do you differentiate that?
I think that these are dark and disturbing trends that we've seen throughout American history. I mean, if you really look at American history and the roots of white supremacy in our country, I think you can understand how these kinds of groups and individuals have really had a place in American society, but they really existed on the fringes for a long time. I do think it's a combination of the political climate offering more acceptance to intolerance. And I also think the fact that the internet online world has become a, a safe haven for a lot of extremism. I think a lot of various trends have collided together to make this a real moment of resurgence for white nationalism. And certainly here in the Pacific Northwest, this is always been a pretty dark underbelly of our history, where people have been trying to think about the Pacific Northwest as this white ethnostate because of the demographics that used to be. So I think these have always been issues that have really plagued our society, but I do really think an increased sense of acceptance and also the ability of anybody to really go on the internet and find a sense of belonging and community in extremism and hate is something that we haven't really seen before.
Right. And the other part of the question is how do we know what's a real threat and what is just trying to get a reaction out of people?
It is a good question. We, as extremism experts, but also people that care deeply about civil rights and the law, look at continued patterns of behavior and actual direct threat before flagging an individual. So there is a lot of thought into going to not only, “is someone a hateful person and might hate a specific marginalized groups,” but “have they made specific threats and do they have the means to actually make those threats materialize?” So the ADL was really involved in several cases in Washington state over the past couple of years where we saw people becoming increasingly threatening in their online, behavior who were attracted to extremism. But we also were seeing that we felt like they had the means to actually weaponize that hate, whether it's access to firearms or other means. So I think that's a big piece of it, and part of why the issue of gun-violence prevention and hate crimes have been mixed together in a lot of policy efforts that we've been focusing on.
There's something I'm seeing coming from even the moderate right, sort of an accusation that the focus on the January 6th insurrectionists is a distraction and a diversion from a lot of stuff going on with the left, which is what they would argue is equally as threatening to civil rights. How did you respond to that?
I mean, I think you have to look at data. You have to look at numbers and information to inform the work, and we're a deeply data-driven organization. And we have always been. What we see through the patterns of behavior and the activities that we document in track is that white nationalism, domestic extremism, however you want to call it, white supremacy is far more violent than left-wing extremism. It doesn't excuse either. And we as an organization really try to call balls and strikes. We try to be fair and balanced, and we try to call out hate across a political spectrum. But at the end of the day, the facts are the facts. And when you look at the number of extremism murderers in the country, for example, I think all but one come from right wing groups. So I do think that's a really big guiding force for us: What does the data say, and what do we see, and how does that align with the kind of action that we're taking.
And going to examples in the Pacific Northwest, what should we be aware of? What are people generally not aware of?
I think something unfortunate but interesting about Washington state in particular — and every state in the Pacific Northwest is a little different — but Washington actually has one of continuously, according to the FBI's annual data, the highest per-capita rate of hate crimes in the United States and the largest number of hate crimes in the United States surpassing only New York, New Jersey, California — states with really huge populations. So I think people might have a picture of the Puget sound or Washington state as being a place that tends to champion inclusion and equity. But in reality, I think what we're seeing is a surge and hate directed toward different communities. We've certainly seen this with the Jewish community. We've recently seen hate target targeting other religious minorities, like the Sikh community and the Muslim community in Puget Sound. So, I think that is a big, growing, and disturbing trend. I think part of it, when you dig a little deeper and look at the numbers, you see that it not only reflects disturbing activity, but it also shows that people are reporting and people care and people are speaking out, which is important. But I do think that's something that people might not necessarily know about what's going on here in our own backyards.
What kind of hate crimes are most reported?
When it comes to the ADL and the specifics that we track, we see it does vary from year to year, and every year we release an anti-Semitism audit in about February that looks back at the past year. And it does change. Sometimes assault is greater. Sometimes it's more, you know, vandalism of buildings. So it does really kind of change year over year and the composition of what hate looks like changes every year. But I think what hasn't changed in the past four or five years since I've been in this role is the fact that the numbers just keep increasing, and people keep reporting.
Yeah. I was looking at a Facebook page, and someone posted a photo of spray-painted swastika on a sidewalk in like Redmond. I was thinking, like, how do we assess threats? You know, is that something that we should report? Is someone just spraying a swastika on the side of a building the same level of a threat, and how does this impact and influence hate crime statistics? That versus being targeted with a flyer threatening you, or actually having a legitimate FBI threat. There's a range of threats. What should we, as average Jews in Seattle walking around, be the most aware of?
I think the two trends that I am seeing is anti-Semitic vandalism. I would say a lot of hateful incidents in K through 12 settings. That might just be what people report to us the most, but we've been dealing with a lot of different antisemitic K through 12 incidents lately. I would say the difference between what ADL tracks and the FBI and the federal government tracks is that we track incident and crimes. So we say not everything that happens is going to rise to a level of a crime, but when you look at a hateful incident, it shows and it exposes what's actually going on in a community, and it gives you the full picture. So I would say if you're ever questioning what to report, just report it to the ADL, and we can be the ones to assess what we think is really serious, and what would maybe qualify as an anti-Semitic incident versus a crime. And I know that what Seattle PD would say is that even if you don't feel like something maybe rises to the level of a crime, those incidents are important to them.
So I think there are a lot of different reasons why a swastika that's just spray painted on a building that has no affiliation with the Jewish community is not necessarily considered a hate crime, versus something targeting maybe a synagogue or community center or a home or something like that. So there are a lot of different reasons why something would qualify as a hateful act and why it doesn't. But I think reporting really helps us get a picture of what's going on in the community and allows us to adapt and really more proactively address.
What's going on in the K-12 schools?
It's a similar pattern to what we've been seeing over the past couple of years. Schools are a microcosm for society when society is divided and full of bigotry. We hear a lot of xenophobic rhetoric or anti-Semitism or racism that all trickles down to the school system, and students might target one another. There might it be, you know, graffiti or just personal threats that are made. And unfortunately, that's an area where we have seen a couple of serious incidents lately. But I think it's also a strength of the ADL to be able to walk parents and families and administrators and educators through how to respond to hate and to also give some proactive frameworks and programs and trainings for how to actually create a more inclusive space. We have important conversations at your dinner table with your kids and with your family bias and antisemitism and racism. And we have some excellent resources on our website to have those how to have those conversations in a respectful and age appropriate way, but to also be able to speak up, because these kinds of things are unfortunately happening in our schools and not just in adult settings.
But how is this even possible? Because it seems like been so much emphasis on diversity and inclusion. The incidents that we're seeing, are they kind of exemplary or modeled after sort of typical white supremacist hate toward Jews or coming from a different perspective, like around Israel?
No, it's really some of a very classical anti-Semitic tropes and stereotypes, vilification of young people, just because they're Jewish. A lot of times I would say it’s the minimization of the Holocaust, which is a polite way to call out what's happening. That's not a super sophisticated form of anti-Semitism, but it happens all the time. And I think maybe as adults, we feel so awash in conversations around anti-racism and equity that we forget that there's just so much progress still to be made at the higher levels, but also just in very basic school settings as well. And I think also a challenge for school is you're constantly having to refresh and reeducate students, because you're always having a new class come in and a new group come in. So the work is just completely ongoing.
I wonder how much of this really even belongs in schools. There's a cynical part of me that says, this is part of being a Jew in America, and we have it pretty good here, but most of us have dealt with some level of anti-Semitism. I have a pretty charmed life, but I can certainly recall incidences in the ’90s and public school of people saying various things and making comments that were supposed to be funny. And they really weren't funny. I don't think it's necessarily the school's job.
I don't think it can be in either-or; it has to be both. Let's say you are in a workplace and someone made a racist comment. Would you kind of absolve the workplace of dealing with that issue, because maybe it was too sensitive or too politicized? At a certain point, I do think that institutions need to take responsibility for creating a safe place for people. And if students are directly being targeted because of who they are and feel uncomfortable, being able to learn, for me that just kind of undermines the concept of a safe school climate. So I do think it's both, but everything starts in the home. There's a reason why students are spewing hate and whether that's something they've gotten from social media or their peers or their parents. Especially with the advent of social media, it's an area that K through 12 schools are really struggling with. What does responsibility look like from a school perspective when something happens online or maybe off campus, but it does impact the school?
Can you get into social media for a second? I know this is a huge topic, and I know you have people that you work with here. What is going on there? Is it even possible to fight the tidal wave of hate that's out there?
It's such a great question and such a complex topic. A couple of years ago, ADL established an office in Silicon Valley called our Center for Technology in Society. The idea is like our center on extremism. We need to bring together an interdisciplinary group of amazing people to really think about the issue. And I think at first it started more as a theory of pushing and collaborating with social media companies to make changes on their platform, having relationships with the right people that do trust and safety, convening them to really talk about the issues and concerns that we're seeing in communities. Over time as it's evolved, it's become a much more sophisticated type of effort.
But the challenge is huge, not just in terms of hateful content and extremism, but the fact that there is virtually no accountability or transparency when it comes to actually understanding the source of the problem. So I think over time, we've really pivoted our strategy to less of a collaboration and more of a call in-call out. Like we still definitely have relationships with companies and issues transpire all the time. But the kind of call-out strategy has gotten a lot stronger, where we launched a campaign called Stop Pay for Profit, where we basically worked with a coalition of other civil rights organizations, like the NAACP and Color for Change to pressure major companies to do an ad pause on Facebook for one month, just to see how that would diminish their profits and make a statement that you can't have hate and extremism online and expect people to still patronize.
We've been experimenting with some more powerful tools, and we're also doing a lot more to develop our own kind of unique way to understand the patterns of hate speech online, especially anti-Semitism. We have some really cool products that we've been releasing around an online hate index and actual tools that use AI and machine learning to basically decode anti-Semitism online. But the problem seems to be growing. We continue to try to be creative. I think frankly we need more support to be able to really grow the centers that are working to make them teams of hundreds of people doing this kind of work, if not thousands. So there's still a long way to go, but there is some innovative work being done.
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