Understanding Terrorism in America by Christopher Hewitt

Author:Christopher Hewitt [Hewitt, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General, History & Theory
ISBN: 9781134472253
Google: nGSBAgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 17490159
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2002-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

Becoming a militant

How then do people become terrorists? Although, as noted in the previous chapter, most extremists do not engage in violence, most people who engage in political violence have been involved in extremist movements. More than half the individuals in the sample have a history of such involvement, and this is the case for all ideological categories. Contacts between extremists are likely to reinforce and increase their militancy, and also provide them with opportunities to organize. As Dees (1996: 200) argues, “militia groups attract those with a propensity for violence and act as a springboard for their activities. … They bring together like-minded people who may embolden one another and go on to form their own secret cell.”

Involvement in an extremist movement is an example of a more general process that explains why some people become terrorists. Stark (1996) in a study of how people became Moonies concluded that converts were drawn into the group by social networks. Becoming a Moonie and becoming a terrorist are both examples of deviant behavior, and, like the Moonies, terrorists are recruited through social contacts. Aho (1990) found that among right-wing extremists “people first affiliate with right-wing activists and only then begin altering their intellectual outlooks to sustain and strengthen these ties. The original ties may develop from their jobs, among neighbors, among prison acquaintances, or through romantic relations.” In their history of the Silent Brotherhood, Flynn and Gerhardt (1989) describe how several individuals joined the group because they knew and trusted Robert Mathews. For example, “Ken Loff began to take Bob Mathews’ counsel on many things. It started slowly and grew steadily from the day Bob called him in California about purchasing the gasoline station. Loff trusted Mathews implicitly, so in casual conversation, when Bob started to talk more and more about race, Ken didn’t question it.” Another member, David Lane, “was contacted by his sister…. She was engaged to Carl Franklin, the Pennsylvania state leader of Aryan Nations. Lane’s association with Franklin and his sister deepened his commitment to the white supremacist philosophy” (1989: 83, 215). Family connections underlie the recruitment of several Puerto Rican terrorists, with their biographies often noting that they came from a “family with a rich history of resistance to colonialism” or had “married into an independista family.” Similarly, Klan involvement often seems to be inherited. Those arrested are frequently described as brothers, cousins, or even fathers and sons. One observer of a Klan rally remarked: “My attention was drawn to the number of children there, and I suddenly began to understand the staying power of the KKK and how it was transmitted from one generation to another, like some hereditary disease” (Stanton 1991: 36). Table 5.5 shows that a high proportion of terrorists were linked through marriage and family connections, or other social relationships before engaging in terrorism. In a few cases, individuals became terrorists because of anger at perceived mistreatment or injustice. One black terrorist, Ben Chaney, was the younger brother of a murdered civil rights worker.

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