海角大神

In Dallas, Obama asks Americans to 'reject despair'

Some experts say that despite national divides, mass violence isn鈥檛 as deeply ideological as it may seem.

[Editor's note:听This story has been updated to include comments from President Obama and additional sources.]

President Obama made an appeal for unity at a memorial ceremony held on Tuesday afternoon for the five Dallas police officers killed during protests there last week, aligning himself with the outpouring of grief and confusion that followed a difficult week for much of the nation.

The president called the shooting of the officers by gunman Micah Johnson 鈥渁n act not just of demented violence but of racial hatred鈥� and acknowledged the public鈥檚 sense that 鈥渢he deepest fault lines of our democracy have been exposed 鈥� perhaps even widened.鈥�

鈥淲e see all this and it鈥檚 hard to think sometimes that the center might not hold and things will get worse,鈥� he said.听

鈥淚鈥檓 here to say that we must reject such despair. I鈥檓 here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem.鈥�

Obama sought to balance his tribute to the slain officers with the claims of protestors inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, defending the 鈥渉ard and daily labor鈥� of police while citing the 鈥減ain of Alton Sterling鈥檚 family鈥� 鈥� a reference to one of two African-American men whose deaths at the hands of police helped spark protests after a cellphone videos of the two incidents went public.

The president鈥檚 remarks come amid a growing sense that ideological and racial strife are ascending to levels unmatched since the 1960s and 1970s.听

, national security analyst David Sterman and domestic terrorism analyst Peter Bergen drew parallels between the murders in Dallas and those carried out last year in South Carolina by Dylann Roof, a white supremacist.

鈥淭errorism is generally understood to be acts of violence conducted against civilians for political purposes,鈥� they wrote. 鈥淜illing white police officers who are guarding a peaceful demonstration certainly qualifies as terrorism, in the same way that Roof's attack on black churchgoers does.鈥�

听for prosecution under domestic terrorism codes: the actions have to seek to influence government policy 鈥渂y intimidation or coercion,鈥� affect government conduct by 鈥渕ass destruction, assassination or kidnapping,鈥� or 鈥渋ntimidate or coerce a civilian population.鈥� And the actions have to take place within US territorial jurisdiction. Typically, though, to prove intent, investigators seek to establish an individual鈥檚 link with domestic extremist groups.听

In the wake of the attacks by Roof,听听commentators听听why听his crimes weren鈥檛 prosecuted under terrorism laws,听and contended that the threat of terrorism was too readily associated in the media with Islam.听Those questions may have carried extra weight given听听warning that far-right extremism posed a growing threat in the US.听

In their CNN editorial, Mr. Sterman and Mr. Bergen wrote that Johnson鈥檚 murders should be a sign to law enforcement that they need to refocus their attention. 鈥淭here hasn't been a case of lethal terrorism emanating from the left for more than a decade and a half,鈥� they wrote. But in the wake of the attacks, authorities 鈥渕ust focus, once again, on the possibility that far-left militants may carry out lethal attacks.鈥�

David C. G贸mez, a retired FBI executive and senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University, said contemporary divisions reminded him of what he had seen growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. 鈥淚 believe that these movements are cyclical,鈥� he told the 海角大神 Science Monitor.

But he added that he did not think that the Dallas gunman should be considered a terrorist.

鈥淚鈥檓 kind of old school in that I think terrorism is about a message to be sent. Something that generally attacks non-combatants and the civilian population, as opposed to military or even police,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t was a single offender who was not part of a group, and kind of had his own ideology. It鈥檚 more on the slippery slope of a psychological problem than a political problems 鈥� acting out his anger against the police.鈥�

The Dallas shooter does not appear to have had strong ties with activist groups of any ideological stripe,听, although his Facebook page indicated that he supported the New Black Panther Party,听听against whites, Jews, and law enforcement officers (the party is not an official successor of the original Black Panthers, some of whose founders have sharply criticized the newer group's racist ideology).听The FBI is not investigating the attacks as terrorism.

Dallas authorities say that in negotiations during a long standoff with police, the gunman told them that he was angry about the killing of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police in Louisiana and Minnesota.

"The suspect said he was upset at white people,鈥澨�. 鈥淭he suspect stated that he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."

John D. Cohen, a former DHS counterterrorism coordinator and current professor at Rutgers University鈥檚 School of Criminal Justice, says attacks like those in Dallas show that the threat of mass violence in the United States is changing in nature.

Over the last five years, 鈥減eople are becoming inspired on their own鈥� through social media and the internet, and without coordination from terrorist groups, Cohen told the 海角大神 Science Monitor.

鈥淲hat we are finding in most cases is that people who carry out mass attacks in the US share common behavioral and psychological characteristics鈥� such as dysfunctional family backgrounds and underlying mental health issues.听 Ideological banners may be little more than window dressing. 鈥淭hey connect with the ideology with which they carry out their attack very late,鈥� said Cohen.

Law enforcement, he argues, need to adjust their approach from prosecution to one incorporating a 鈥渂ehavioral risk assessment鈥� long used by the Secret Service and working more with local mental health providers and community leaders to intervene before an attack.

Recent attacks might take on the appearance of terrorism in some ways. But as those in Orlando and Dallas illustrate, Cohen said, the threat may not 鈥渘eatly fit legal definitions鈥�.

Some civil liberties groups say that the definition of terrorism in US law is too broad and could allow the government to prosecute peaceful groups of a marginal political orientation. And in the years following 9/11,听, federal agencies often disagreed over what could be considered terrorism, with assistant US attorneys declining to prosecute over two-thirds of all cases recommended for charges by investigators.