Topics Covered:

Non-Terrorist Acts

Terrorist Acts

Hate Crimes

Hate Crimes Legislation

Terrorism

Difference Between a Hate Crime and Terrorism

International Terrorism

Domestic Terrorism

 Non-Terrorist Acts

The public at large may think some acts are terrorism that are not deemed as such. For example, the Austin bombings were not labeled as acts of terror. Nor were the shootings by Stephen Paddock at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, where he killed 58 people. Even though this was the worst mass shooting in modern American history, the acts were not labeled terrorism.

 In 2015, Dylann Roof killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. Roof, a white supremacist, stated he wanted to kill the attendees of a Bible study at the church because he wanted to start a race war. Even though Roof was convicted sentenced to death for hate crimes, he was not charged with terrorism.

 Numerous school and related shootings have occurred, but few have been labeled as terrorist acts.

 Terrorist Acts

The above crimes are contrasted with a number of acts labeled as acts of terrorism:

·The 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting at a gay nightclub, killing 49 people and injuring 58, by Omar Mateen, an American-born citizen with Afghan immigrant parents. In the 911 calls the date of the shootings, he identified himself as an Islamic soldier. Although the investigation is still ongoing, in an address to the nation from the White House, then-President Obama stated this was an act of terror and act of hate. The FBI has asserted Mateen's possible link to radical Islam.

·The 2016 attack at the Nazareth Restaurant in Columbus, OH, where Mohamed Barry attacked customers with a machete, injuring four people. For four years, the FBI had investigated Barry for making radical statements. The attack was determined to be an instance of lone-wolf terrorism.

·The 2015 stabbing attack at the UC, Merced, CA campus by Faisal Mohammad, where four people were injured. At the time of the stabbings, Mohammad was carrying a backpack that contained a two-page, hand-written plan detailing his intentions to include taking hostages and killing students and police officers. Investigators also found a photocopy of an ISIL flag and a list of items he thought he would need for an attack. FBI investigators developed information that he may have self-radicalized and drawn inspiration from terrorist propaganda. His laptop contained pro-ISIL propaganda, and he had visited ISIL and other extremist websites in the weeks prior to his attack.

·The 2014 shootings killing three people at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom, a Jewish retirement community in Overland Park, KS, by a gunman identified as Frazier Glenn Cross, Jr., also known as F. Glenn Miller, a neo-Nazi neo-Pagan. The FBI stated that it was "determined" that the motivation for the shootings was antisemitism.

·The Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 killing three people and injuring at least 264. The Tsarnaev brothers who planned and carried out the bombings were motivated by extremist Islamic beliefs but acted on their own and not connected to any terrorist groups. However, the FBI, then-President Obama, and other political figures treated the acts as terrorism; and the media in general described the bombings as the worst terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001. The brothers received convictions of federal crimes of terrorism.

·The shootings targeting police officers and their families in 2013 by former LAPD officer Chris Dorner, who stated he committed the shootings in response to police brutality. The FBI described Dorner's actions as acts of domestic terrorism.

·The 2012 shooting, killing seven (including the shooter) and wounding three, at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI by a gunman, Wade Michael Page, who had been active in white supremacist groups. The FBI investigated the rampage as a domestic terrorist-type incident.

·The 2010 killing of two police officers at a traffic stop in West Memphis, AR by a father and son who were deeply immersed in the anti-government movement known as Sovereign Citizens. The FBI lists sovereign citizens as a domestic terror threat, stating they have been responsible for such crimes as murder, threatening judges, using fake currency and engaging in scams to convince people that they don't have to pay taxes or mortgages.

 Hate Crimes

A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity." Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.

 Hate crimes are not separate charges, but an 'enhancement' to an existing charge, like assault or murder. Prosecutors use this option to increase the severity of the punishment for those crimes— a potential sentence for a hate crime assault would be higher than an assault with no hate crime enhancement. In the U.S., a hate crime is generally defined as "motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation".

 Hate Crimes Legislation

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) crafted model hate crimes legislation drafted to cover all hate crimes, and in 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Wisconsin's penalty-enhancement hate crime statute, based on the ADL model. According to the ADL, as of the fall, 2017 there were 45 states plus the District of Columbia (DC) with hate crime laws similar to, or based on, the ADL model, and almost every state has some form of legislation for bias-motivated crimes (exceptions are AR, GA, IN, SC and WY). The Anti-Defamation League State Hate Crime Statutory Provision chart identifies each of the state statutes that address bias based on race, religion, and ethnicity:

 ·32 states have statutes that cover sexual orientation;

·32 states have statutes that cover disability;

·28 states have statutes that cover gender;

·13 states have statutes that cover age;

·11 states have statutes that cover transgender/gender-identity; and

·5 states have statutes that cover political affiliation

 Additional causes of action are included in the chart that address civil causes of action, data collection, police training, institutional vandalism and cross burning.

 ·31 states plus DC have statutes creating a civil cause of action for injury or damage to persons or property, in addition to the criminal penalty.

·27 states plus DC have statutes requiring the state to collect hate crime statistics; 16 of these cover sexual orientation.

·38 states plus DC have statutes for institutional vandalism, which increase the criminal penalties for vandalism aimed at houses of worship, cemeteries, schools, and community centers.

·14 states have statutes respective to law enforcement requirements and training with respect to bias-motivated crimes.

 Terrorism

Terrorism charges are discrete offenses, including charges like material support for terrorist groups and the use of weapons of mass destruction.  The Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) states that an act of "international terrorism" includes activities that:

 A. involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;

B. appear to be intended:

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and

C. occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce.

 However, different parts of the U.S. government tend to have different definitions, according to Gary LaFree, director of National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Dr. LaFree says that terrorism prosecutions are harder to prove than regular crimes, in part because the crucial parts of the charges rely on motive and other psychological factors.

The decision to bring terrorism-related charges or add a hate crimes charge rests with the prosecutor. If prosecutors feel there is solid evidence against a suspect, then adding hate crime charges may be unnecessary to the case, particularly in capital murder cases where there is no higher penalty to give. Many of the most successful U.S. terrorism prosecutions have been against suspects prosecuted for support or actions for overseas groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

A study of cases reveal that charges against domestic organizations and individuals, especially neo-Nazi and white supremacists, tend to be for conspiracy, organized crime and weapons violations.

 While there are a lot of similarities between hate crimes and acts of terrorism, the distinction comes in that acts of terror are planned attacks that are done to draw attention to some cause, rather than to inflict harm or suffering on a particular identity group.

 Difference Between a Hate Crime and Terrorism

Some differences between a hate crime and an act of terrorism include:

 Hate crime:

·Additional charge that adds severity of punishment

·Used to send a message to perpetrators, victims and other community members who share the identity

·Often spontaneous and fueled by drugs/alcohol

 Terrorism:

·Orchestrated and often part of a series of events

·Often associated with formal organization or group

·May mobilize an entire response force (FBI, U.S. Army)

 There are two types of terrorism as defined by the FBI:

 International Terrorism

This type of terrorism is perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored). For example, the December 2, 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, CA, that killed 14 people and wounded 22, which involved a married couple who radicalized for some time prior to the attack and were inspired by multiple extremist ideologies and foreign terrorist organizations.

Domestic Terrorism

Domestic terrorism is perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with primarily U.S. based movements that espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature. The FBI defines domestic terrorism as the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. For example, the June 8, 2014 Las Vegas shooting, during which two police officers inside a restaurant were killed in an ambush-style attack, which was committed by a married couple who held anti-government views and who intended to use the shooting to start a revolution.

 The difference in domestic terrorism is they are located within the boundaries of the U.S. and are often trying to bring about change in smaller areas, as opposed to international terrorism where they are trying to bring about global change.

 A lone wolf terrorism can be committed as an international terrorism act or a domestic terrorism act. As used by U.S. law enforcement agencies and the media, a "lone wolf" terrorist act is when one person, or perhaps two, prepare and commit violent acts alone, outside of any command structure and without material assistance from any group. The lone wolf may be motivated by or influenced by the ideology and beliefs of an external group and may act in support of such a group. However, the lone wolf acts alone; and conceives and directs their tactics and methods solely on their own.

 A form of domestic terrorism that is one of the biggest problems in the U.S., according to the FBI, is Ecco Terrorism. This includes things like fire bombings using homemade firebombs or explosives — they burn down buildings, destroy crops, or bomb things such as SUVs or trucks (mining trucks, cement trucks, logging trucks, etc.). The fire bombings take place during the night and they tend to happen in places where the perpetrators do not think anyone is living or staying. Another act of Ecco Terrorism is releasing animals to create destruction.

 Ecco Terrorism often involves arson. Improvised devices are used a lot in arsons, including things such as empty milk cartons containing flammables—typically some sort of simple and inexpensive device.

 Certified Acts of Terrorism

Interestingly, even though many terrorist acts may be labeled as terrorism by the FBI, a President or the media, and a person may be charged with a terrorist act, there are many such acts that do not meet the definition of certified "acts of terrorism" to be covered by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (TRIPRA) of 2015.

 In the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) of 2002, an act of terrorism is defined as "i) a violent act that is dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; ii) to have resulted in damage within the United States, or damage to an air carrier or U.S. flagged vessel or a United States mission; and iii) to have been committed by an individual or individuals acting on behalf of any foreign person or foreign interest, as part of an effort to coerce the civilian population of the United States or to influence the policy or affect the conduct of the United States government through coercion". The Act states that terrorism does not include an act in the course of a war as declared by Congress or an act resulting in losses that do not exceed $5,000,000.  

 The 2015 TRIPRA extension requires meeting a specific set of criteria before an act of terror can be "certified". "Terrorism" however, can be defined to include acts not covered under TRIPRA.

The term "act of terrorism" refers only to an act that is certified by the Treasury Secretary, in consultation the Attorney General of the United States, and (new with TRIPRA 2015), the Department of Homeland Security:

 ·To be an act of terrorism;

·To be a violent act or an act that is dangerous to human life, property or infrastructure;

·To have resulted in damage within the United States, or outside of the United States in the case of U.S. air carriers, vessels and/or missions;

·To have been committed by an individual or individuals as part of an effort to coerce the civilian population of the United States or to influence the policy or affect the conduct of the U.S. government by coercion.

 Terrorism Insurance

TRIPRA 2015 requires certain criteria be met before federal coverage under the program begins. First, P&C insurance losses resulting from a terrorism-linked attack must meet the minimum damage certification level of $5 million. If expectations are that losses will meet this minimum threshold, then the event must also be officially certified as an "act of terrorism", as determined by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in concurrence with the Attorney General of the United States and the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.

 As an example, insured losses resulting from the Boston Marathon bombing did not meet the $5 million minimum threshold. The event was not certified as an act of terrorism—even though President Obama referred to it as an act of terrorism during a speech he gave soon afterward, and the Justice Department's indictment of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev charged him with federal crimes of terrorism.

 The certification requirement can be frustrating for policyholders, who have to wait and wonder when or if they will have coverage for their claims. Therefore, it is important for carriers, agents and brokers to make sure their policyholders understand the differences between what might be labeled as a terrorist act, and the coverage provided by terrorism insurance under TRIPRA. From its onset, TRIA was designed to cover the types of terrorist events such as occurred on September 11, 2001—those that could put insureds out of business.