The assassination of the right -wing influencer Charlie Kirk marks a moment in the watershed in a wave of American political violence, that which certain experts fear will ignite an already fractured country and inspire more troubles.
“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 database on terrorism since 1970.
In the first six months of the year, the United States experienced around 150 politically motivated attacks – almost twice as much as over the same period last year, Jensen said. “I think we are in a very, very dangerous place at the moment which could very easily degenerate into more widespread civilian disorders if we do not stick,” said Jensen. “It could absolutely serve as a flash point that inspires more.”
Domestic terrorism experts cite a convergence of factors for increased violence in the United States: economic insecurity, anxiety to move racial and ethnic demography and the increasingly inflammatory tone of political discourse. Traditional ideological divisions – formerly focused on political disagreements – have turned into deeper and more personal animosity. This anger is amplified by a mixture of social media, conspiracy theories and personal grievances.
Reuters Identified at least 300 cases of political violence in the United States last year between January 6, 2021, attacking the Capitol and the 2024 presidential election, marking the most important and sustained increase in these violence since the 1970s.
“Extreme political violence is increasingly becoming the norm in our country, and Charlie Kirk’s shooting is indicative of a much greater and more omnipresent question: acts of violence become more common, even without any ideology or clear motif,” said Jon Lewis, researcher on the extremism of the University of George Washington.
“There is really a concern about what the return of something like that will look like.”
Other experts studying political violence have agreed. “People first hesitate to engage in violence, but they are much more ready to engage in violence as reprisals,” said Lilliana Mason, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. “No one wants to be the only one to start, but many people want to be able to finish it.”
Kirk, a close ally of the American president Donald Trump and founder of the group of conservative students Turning Point USA, addressed an outdoor crowd of around 3,000 at the University of Utah Valley when a shot rang, sending him falling from his chair and participants fleeing in panic.
The authorities had not yet publicly identified as suspect on Wednesday evening, almost six hours after the shooting. FBI director Kash Patel said that a nameless “subject” was detained for interrogation and then released.
Kirk, 31, was a pioneer of the conservative movement and exploited the power of social media to attract millions of young Americans to the Maga database of Trump.
“No one understood or had better at the heart of young people in the United States than Charlie,” said Trump in an article on social networks announcing Kirk’s death. Republican president of representatives, Mike Johnson, told CNN that there was a “deluge” of the legislators calling for stronger security following the murder of Kirk.
‘Vicious Spiral’
Trump himself was the subject of two assassination attempts last year. In one, the shooter was killed by the authorities a few seconds after his dismissal. In the other, a man was arrested with a rifle and a range near a Palm Beach golf club where Trump was playing. His trial began this week.
In addition to these, two recent high-level attacks of right-wing conspiracy theorists have shook legislators and government employees across the country. In June, a Christian nationalist murdered a legislator from the Democratic State and her husband in Minnesota, and injured a second democrat. In August, a shooter obsessed with COVVI-19 plots sprayed shots at the siege of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, killing a police officer.
Since January, at least 21 people have been killed in incidents of political violence, including 14 during an attack in New Orleans by an assailant who claimed loyalty to the Daesh group early on New Year.
In July, a group of at least 11 activists in black military style clothes attacked an immigration detention center in Texas, the Ministry of Justice said. The group sparked fireworks, a “traitor” painted by spraying and an “ice pig” on vehicles, and shot a police officer who responds in the neck, injuring him, while another shot has pulverized in detention guards, said the FBI.
Since his return to his duties, Trump has reduced efforts to counter domestic extremism, redirect resources towards the application of immigration and citing the southern border as a threat of higher security.
Jensen, the researcher of the University of Maryland who follows violence for the national consortium for the study of terrorism and the responses to terrorism, said that the future seems dark.
“This is an administration which, whether you agree or not, has made profound changes to this country during the eight months, it was in office,” he said. “Some people love it, some people hate it. The people who hate him are starting to play. The people who love him will play against these people who hate him, and it becomes a vicious spiral that could lead us to something really, really bad. ”
