An increasingly divided nation: Experts warn that the spiral of political violence risks exploding after the murder of Charlie Kirk
The assassination of right -wing American influencer Charlie Kirk marks a decisive moment in the wave of political violence in the US, one that, according to experts, risks inflame an already divided country and could generate more disorders, writes Reuters on Thursday.
“This event is awful, alarming, but not necessarily surprising,” said Mike Jensen, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has followed such acts of violence in a database on terrorism since 1970.
In the first six months of the year, the US recorded about 150 attacks with political motivation – almost twice as much as in the same period last year, Jensen said. “I think we are in a very, very dangerous situation at this time, which could easily escalate into more widespread civil disorders if we don't control it,” Jensen said. “This could definitely serve as a kind of ignition point that inspires even more such events,” the researcher pointed out.
Experts in internal terrorism invoke a convergence of factors that have increased violence in the US: economic insecurity, anxiety related to racial and ethnic demographic changes and more and more inflammatory tone of political discourse. Traditional ideological divisions-which once focused on political disagreements-turned into a deeper, more personal animosity. This anger is amplified by a combination of social networks, conspiracy theories and personal dissatisfaction.
The Reuters agency notes that last year identified at least 300 cases of political violence in the US between January 6, 2021 on the Capitol and the presidential elections of 2024, marking the most significant and sustained increase of this type of violence since the 1970s.
“Extreme political violence is becoming more and more the norm in our country, and Charlie Kirk's shooting is an indicator for a much bigger and widespread problem: acts of violence are becoming more and more frequent, even without an ideology or a clear reason,” said Jon Lewis, a researcher at the extremism program at George Washington University.
“There is really a concern about how the reaction will look like to such an event,” Lewis added.
Other experts studying political violence agree with it. “People are reluctant to resort to violence, but they are much more willing to resort to violence as reprisals,” said Lilliana Mason, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins. “No one wants to be the one who starts, but many people want to be able to finish,” the teacher said.
Kirk, a close ally of US President Donald Trump and founder of the Conservative Turning Usa Student Group, addressed a crowd of approximately 3,000 outdoor people at Utah Valley University when he heard a firearm, who made his chair and participants run into panic.
The authorities had not yet arrested any suspect until Thursday afternoon. The FBI broadcast blurry images, apparently taken from the security cameras, which showed a “person of interest” wearing a black blouse, black sunglasses and a dark -colored baseball.
The 31 -year -old Kirk was a pioneer of the conservative movement and used the power of social networks to attract millions of young Americans based on Trump's Make (Make America Again).
“No one understood or had the soul of young people in the United States better than Charlie,” Trump wrote in an online environment announcing Kirk's death. The Republican President of the Chamber of Representatives, Mike Johnson, told CNN that there was a “flood” of parliamentarians who have requested stronger security measures following Kirk's killing.
“Vicious circle”
Trump himself was the target of two assassination attempts last year. In one of the cases, the shooter was killed by the authorities a few seconds after shooting. In the other, one man was arrested while wearing a rifle and a rear window near a Golf club in Palm Beach, where Trump played. His trial started this week.
In addition, two large-scale recent attacks committed by theoreticians of the right-wing conspiracy have shook the parmanetors and civil servants from all over the country. In June, a Christian nationalist killed a high -ranking democratic legislator and her husband in Minnesota and injured a second Democrat. In August, a shooter obsessed with conspiracy related to Covid-19 fired with the weapon at the headquarters and prevention of diseases in Atlanta, killing a police officer.
Since January this year, at least 21 people have been killed in incidents of political violence, 14 of them in an attack in New Orleans committed by a jihadist who declared his loyalty to the Islamic State (ISIS) in the morning of the New Year.
In May, a propalestinian activist killed two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington and, after arrest, told the police: “I did it for Gaza,” according to judicial documents.
In July, a group of at least 11 militants dressed in military -like black clothes attacked a detention center in Texas, the justice department announced. The group lit the fireworks, wrote with “traitor” and “ice pig” paint on vehicles and shot a policeman who intervened, hurting him. Another member of the group fired with the weapon on the guards of the detention center, FBI said.
Since returning to the position of president, Trump has reduced efforts to combat internal extremism, redirecting resources to applying immigration laws and invoking the southern border as the main threat to US security.
Jensen, the researcher at the University of Maryland who monitors violence in the name of the national consortium for the study of terrorism and the responses to terrorism, said that the future seems dark.
“This is an administration that, whether you agree with it or not, has brought deep changes in this country in the eight months since it is in power,” he said.
“Some people love her, others hate her. Those who hate her begin to act. Those who love her will act against those who hate her, and a vicious circle is created that could lead us to something very, very bad,” the researcher warned.
