Extremism: Cults, Gangs, and Terrorists
Author: Edward J. Tully, August 1995
In considering the large number of people who pose a threat to a law enforcement officer, there are three groups that bear an officer's or police executive's special consideration: cults, youth gangs and terrorists.
These groups have been brought to special attention in light of the bombing of the World Trade Center, the riots of Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the sustaining role of youth gangs in each; the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and the matter with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. All of these events received a tremendous amount of publicity, however, less publicized and less serious variations of these events occur almost on a daily basis in the United States and Canada. Some of these daily acts are caused by members of cults, youth gangs or terrorist groups.
The common thread that runs through these groups and all hate groups is members who have abnormal psychological needs or serious psychological problems. Membership in these groups apparently addresses an individual's personal needs and provides them with much needed peer support -- vital to sustaining their interest. It is also the reason some members will go to great lengths in proving, to other members, their worthiness. Their greatest fear is that the group will reject them, therefore, they become intensely loyal, provide as much financial support to the group as possible, fervently accept the beliefs of the group and follow orders and rituals that they might otherwise reject.
Each of these groups contains a number of individuals, who by any measure, would be called extremists. Extremists are individuals who hold beliefs that would lie on the extreme edges of the bell curve. They act upon their beliefs with complete disdain for the law or other consequences. The number of these individuals in any group are not great, however, with access to explosives and weapons of war, a few extremists can cause a great deal of damage to a highly technical society.
Holding an extreme view on an issue is common to all of us at one time or another. However, when an individual's extreme opinions lead them to violate the law, or the basic rights of others, then they have exceeded the bounds of civilized behavior. Excellent examples of extremist actions are the murder of a doctor in Pensacola, Florida by an anti abortionist and the bombings of the Unabomer.
An individual's unwillingness to hear the other sides of an issue or to compromise their basic beliefs, despite evidence to the contrary, is the key to holding extremist views. Although some are blessed with above average intelligence, the extremist has a mind set that is closed. Most extremists have deep-seated psychiatric problems, an antisocial personality, and -- to make matters worse -- are intellectually lazy. The extremist merely accepts a set of beliefs on a subject -- most likely from another individual -- and then disregards additional information on the subject should it tend to undermine the basic set of beliefs.
In the mind of the extremist there is no time or place for intuition, inquisitiveness, discussion, debate, or research. The closed mind of the extremist is content with the status quo. They only hear information that reinforces the original beliefs. The set of beliefs becomes the psychological balm that eases his/her mental problems. The most dangerous extremist is one who decides to act upon his beliefs to influence or intimidate others into accepting their viewpoints. At this point the extremist becomes a terrorist and an extreme danger to the public and law enforcement officers!
Cults
A cult is a close-knit community with a membership ranging from a few dozen to thousands of people. Currently there are several thousand cults active in the United States and Canada. We have cults of zealous believers in God, cults that worship Satan, and cults that strive to understand the universe. It seems as if any offbeat idea can become the central core of belief for some people who believe in nothing and, thus, will believe in anything.
Members of a cult share a strongly held belief system and have a very high level of social cohesiveness. Behavioral norms of the group deeply influence members. They often believe the leader of the cult has divine powers and/or influence. Cults recruit their members from a segment of society that is unhappy with their lives, under some form of psychological distress, or alienated from their family and friends. Cults offer the individual an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance and support. In addition, the beliefs of the cults and the direction offered by the charismatic leader offer a solution to both personal and world problems. Upon acceptance of these beliefs and the authority of the cult leader, members feel a profound change in their lives, relief of neurotic stress and a sense of well-being.
This relief produces an intense loyalty to the group. In turn, the group uses this emotion to control the new member. If the new member does not comply with group norms then the other cult members withdraw their support, leaving the new member in a state of acute distress. As you can imagine, peer support is an extremely powerful force on the new member and is often beneficial to the new member's behavior. For the most part, membership in a cult is psychologically more beneficial than damaging to members provided, of course, that you consider the mental state of the new member at the time of recruitment.
The most serious problem with a few cults lies in the behavior of the leader and his/her closest advisors. Unfortunately, many cult leaders begin to believe they have the divine powers ascribed to them by their followers. As the British historian Lord Acton once said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely." So it is with some cult leaders! They become corrupted by their power which is derived from the devotion of the cult and the acceptance of their divine status. As the neurosis of some cult leaders deepens, they develop acute paranoia and use their imagined fears as a means to increase group cohesion.
They convince their followers that all outsiders, particularly law enforcement officers, are their enemies. This leads to measures to isolate the group from society and to make unusual and abusive demands on the members. In its most zealous state, the cult will come into conflict with the surrounding community. This conflict is usually generated by the cult's strange beliefs and practices, or by their open hostility to non members and the families of new members.
Time moderates or dissipates most cults. This is, primarily, due to ineffective leadership or, perhaps, the members tire of the rigid, closed society and desire a return to a more normal life. However, recent history suggests that certain events within a cult, primarily the deepening insanity of the leader, can lead to mass suicide of the cult members. We observed this type of tragedy in Jonestown, Guyana and Waco, Texas. Most recently, 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple committed suicide near Geneva, Switzerland and Montreal, Canada.
From a law enforcement perspective only a few of the thousands of cults pose a serious and difficult problem. The problem rests with the behavior of the leader toward cult members and their combined behavior toward the surrounding communities. Obviously, in the early stage of development most cults do not pose a serious threat to its members or the community. However, should the cult leader begin to demonstrate behavior that suggests deepening mental instability, then the entire criminal justice system is faced with a serious and potentially dangerous problem. A recent example of this was the release of poison gas in the Tokyo subway system by Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth) cult members.
In recent times confrontation with a cult as a tactic of law enforcement has not produced the desired or expected effects. On the contrary, confrontation sometimes furnishes the leader with an additional reason to lead the cult into the ultimate rejection of earthly authority: mass suicide. We observed this result with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. In this case, law enforcement officers were merely members of an audience at a play written, directed and produced by David Koresch. It was a play in which he was the main actor. He had written the script of insanity long before the audience arrived. What was strange about the Branch Davidian case is that some critics blamed the audience for the eventual outcome, rather than the playwright. What this says about cults is that most people, including law enforcement, do not know much about their innerworkings or psychology. This needs to change!
Knowing a cult's innerworkings will go a long way toward developing an understanding of the cult's leadership and their mental condition. If you develop information that suggests the cult is engaged in criminal activities, then you design measures to neutralize their violent and criminal actions. In this regard, legitimate legal questions may be raised if law enforcement uses informants, undercover operatives, and electronic intercepts to gain knowledge about the cult's activities or to spread dissent among cult members in an effort to neutralize the influence of the cult leader. However, if care is exercised in getting reliable information for the issuance of an appropriate search warrant, then this additional oversight of the court should be sufficient to rebut criticism regarding illegal search and seizure and/or the separation of church and state issues.
Should an arrest of cult members be planned, it goes without saying that the arrest plan be carefully crafted with particular emphasis given to staging the arrest outside of the cult's headquarters. This shifts the tactical advantage to law enforcement and away from the cultists.
Gangs
Much has been written recently on the nature and composition of youth gangs and need not be reviewed. Youth gangs have flourished in our large cities -- usually in the poor, ethnic neighborhoods -- for well over 100 years. The fundamental purpose of gangs is to provide structure and social cohesion to a group of youths who have little family influence in their lives. They view the gangs as a substitute for a family.
It is easy to understand this part of gang culture. What is more difficult to comprehend is why gang members engage in incredibly adolescent behavior in claiming and defending their turf. If cults and militia groups have to invent enemies to obtain group cohesion, then it is reasonable to conclude that gangs use turf for the same purpose. In recent years, the decline in the quality of public education in the inner cities and the spread of handguns throughout this population has resulted in a significant increase in the murder rate among gang members. Drive-by shootings are the favorite form of recreation of youth gang members. The death toll from this activity far exceeds that of the killings resulting from drug trafficking by gang members.
It is also quite possible that membership in a youth gang provides the young member with a form of excitement. This is a powerful force with a mind that is undeveloped, lacking in self-discipline, absent of normal cultural values and bored with a normal lifestyle. To this youthful mind the gang offers the allure of sex, drugs and the exercise of power through the possession of a weapon. Youth gangs will be with us until we can substitute activities that are just as appealing to young people. This will be a difficult but not impossible challenge for community and law enforcement leaders.
From a metropolitan law enforcement perspective, the continued decline of the inner city -- in terms of basic infrastructure -- the quality of life and, most importantly, the quality of public education can only be viewed as a social disaster. Why are we surprised when children of the inner city begin to have trouble living in society? Single parents incapable of transmitting cultural values, incapable of providing early education and supervision, and devoid of most usual parenting skills raise most of these children.
If one also considers the inferior quality of education received at inner city schools, the lack of religious education and the negative peer pressure from children living in a similar situation; it becomes more clear why many of these children have little chance to succeed in life. Finally, grinding poverty, a lack of hope and positive role models, and a life overly influenced by a disgraceful mass media (driven by enormous greed and total lack of social responsibility) erases any doubts that these children are at risk!
Is it any wonder that many youths in our poorer neighborhoods join gangs, distribute and consume narcotics, and grow into dysfunctional human beings incapable of rational judgment? Their own lives and the lives of those around them have little meaning. Violence is a way of life. Death -- many of them proclaim -- will come to them in a short time.
There are at least three fundamental reasons for the creation of such a hapless group of young people in our metropolitan areas in the United States during the past 40 years. First, all levels of government have been unable to solve the basic problems that caused the rapid deterioration of the inner city. In fact, it could be argued that a variety of government welfare programs have harmed the poor far more than they have helped. Second, the erosion of the cities industrial base has created a situation in our inner cities, which we have not seen in metropolitan areas for over a century. Finally, the lack of jobs and the fear of crime drove the middleclass into the suburbs. The combination of the above three factors, plus our unwillingness to place most of the blame on the individual has created an environment in the inner cities that can only be described as miserable.
So, as a result of 40 years of bumbling government, we now have a deteriorated urban infrastructure, a population increasingly unemployable, a lack of quality jobs, an insufficient tax base and incredible levels of violence. In simple terms we have a complex problem that we will not solve overnight. In fact, it may take 50 years to reconstruct our most troubled cities.
Should we decide to reconstruct the inner cities, the police will be expected to keep the public order. We should note that reconstruction will never be successful unless the fear of crime in the city is reduced! This task of keeping order will test metropolitan police as nothing before in their history. It will be necessary to find a policing method that makes a difference. The answer may be community based policing. However, if this method does not work, a more draconian method will have to be employed.
Our primary enemy in maintaining some semblance of order during the long period of reconstruction will be the youth gangs. They are filled with rage and self-hatred. They harbor a hatred of the system and lack the emotional ability to move from adolescence to adult maturity. They will continue to roam the streets victimizing the weak, the elderly, and all persons with whom they come into contact. Drive-by shootings, drug dealing, carjackings, extortion and a host of other criminal acts, will continue to be their way of life and death! One way, or another, members of youth gangs must learn that acts have their consequences!
The future of our inner cities is not particularly pleasant! Currently, there is no known trend or politically acceptable solution to the problems on the horizon. Consequently, the problems of our inner cities will only become worse in the next 10 or 20 years. Most of the people who are forced to live in the inner cities are good people. However, in an atmosphere of fear, violence, and high drug usage they are virtually powerless against the influence of the criminal element. To make a difference these good people need an ally. The police, schools, and churches are their only hope. To date, few of their hopes for strong allies have been realized! The problem is not completely intractable -- the cities can be saved. If we have the will to do so, and if we use our famous ingenuity, we can improve the quality of life. It will not be an easy task, but when considering the alternatives, what other choices do we have?
Terrorists
A terrorist is an individual, or group of individuals, who use terror to achieve political ends. A terrorist might be a member of a cult, or a youth gang. They could also be the military arm of a political party, exponents of a fundamentalist religion, or employed by a sovereign state to achieve objectives that the state cannot be achieved overtly.
Whatever the case may be, the terrorist in our time has been clever, reasonably intelligent, extremely destructive and very difficult for law enforcement to neutralize or apprehend. The terrorist is also a cold-blooded, cynical killer whose concern for innocent victims is nil. Although terrorist acts pose a complex, resource-taxing, and difficult investigation for a law enforcement agency, the success of these investigations in North America over the last 35 years has been excellent. Many unseen victories have also been achieved in preventing terrorist acts, although as one would expect, there has been little publicity surrounding these cases. The key to a successful law enforcement effort against the terrorist is collaboration between law enforcement agencies. Notwithstanding some brilliant police work against terrorists in North America, the day of the terrorist is not over.
Please consider the recent report by James Brooke in The New York Times, July 3, 1995, concerning the narco-terrorists of Colombia. In the last three months the Colombian terrorist groups have: killed 157 persons; blown up oil pipelines; kidnapped 35 people; exploded a bomb in Colombia's Congress building; and murdered two American missionaries that they had held hostage for 17 months. Brooke stated that terrorists killed at least 3,000 people in Colombia each year.
Terrorists earn millions of dollars each year through kidnaping and extortion as well as protecting drug traffickers. Their incentive is money, not social justice. Terrorism has become a job -- an occupation -- a means for many Colombians as well as many Irish, Palestinians and fundamental Muslims all over the world to earn a living and in some cases get rich.
In Ireland the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has killed more than 200 law enforcement officers assigned to the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Belfast, Ireland over the past 15 years. Thousands of innocent civilians have also died during the same period. Many experts consider the IRA to be the most cold-blooded and efficient terrorist group in the world. The sophistication of their bombs and organizational structure make the IRA a most formidable enemy of law enforcement. Much like the Colombian terrorists, the IRA has lost its ideological base and now finds terrorism to be a profitable occupation.
The world is also plagued by dozens of Muslim fundamentalist groups involved in terrorist activities. A few groups represent sides in the continuing theological battle between the Sunni and Shia sects of the Muslim religion. Most view the culture and civilization of the Western world as destructive to their core beliefs. Other groups adamantly oppose the presence of the Israeli state in the Middle East and any friend of Israel in the world community. Libya, Palestine, Iraq and Syria sponsor some better known groups. Other groups, which may not be state-sponsored, can be found in Iran, Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan, Philippines, Afghanistan, Lebanon, or wherever the Muslim religion is found. To determine the potentiality of religious-based terrorism, look at what has happened to Lebanon, Bosnia, and the entire Middle Eastern region. You are forced to reach the conclusion that terrorism has the ability to paralyze any society and, in the process, turn the landscape into ashes.
Few law enforcement authorities underestimate the destructive power of dedicated terrorist groups. Armed with sophisticated weaponry, skilled in bomb making, and highly motivated -- either through money, ideology, or theology -- a modern terrorist group has used terror as a means to bring their various causes to the attention of the world. Whether they are successful in having their grievances settled by the political process is immaterial. The purpose of the terrorist is to get the cause of the agenda of discussion by political and other leaders! This is a mind-set that we have a hard time comprehending. Nonetheless, it is a technique that has worked in the past and will be used in the future by people who believe their situation is desperate!
Most law enforcement agencies in the United States are not equipped or structured to conduct an ongoing investigation of a terrorist group. This is particularly so if the group is foreign-based. In fact, no single law enforcement agency could handle this task. It takes the cooperation and collaboration of many agencies at the federal, state, and local level to effectively blunt the effects of either local or foreign-based terrorist groups. The investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing is an excellent modern example of how law enforcement agencies working together can achieve significant results.
Currently, neither international nor domestic terrorism plague the United States or Canada. Although both countries have experienced isolated terrorist acts in the recent past, there does not seem to be a developing trend of terrorism nor is there any group that is suspected of being involved in terrorist activities. Unfortunately, it is most likely that the virus of terrorism will spread to North America sooner, rather than later. It is reasonably apparent that the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York was a motivating factor in the Oklahoma City case. Still these bombings do not constitute a cause for alarm that terrorism will become more widespread in the United States or Canada in the near-term future. However, these two cases have alerted us to the enormous dangers of terrorism.
Most Americans and Canadians think terrorism could never happen, or take root, in our respective societies. At best, this is wishful thinking as it ignores the fact that both societies contain a variety of conditions, or political, reasons for homegrown or foreign based terrorists to strike against the government.
In Canada, the political struggle between Quebec and the other provinces may devolve into terrorism. Here in the United States it is possible, but perhaps not probable, that a cult, or youth gang might also resort to a planned program of terrorism to achieve their thoughtless objectives. One group perhaps likely to resort to terrorism in the near future in the United States is the Pro-Life group involved in the movement against legalized abortion.
The only prudent course of action for law enforcement is to continue to be watchful and proactive in trying to control terrorist activities. In this regard, the establishment of a better intelligence network capable of gathering, analyzing, and sharing information is essential. Our present system is too parochial to be effective. In all too many cases Lady Luck was the most important factor in preventing or solving cases involving terrorists!
Conclusion
North America, which includes the United States, Canada and Mexico, is undergoing radical change in virtually every aspect of our society, workplace and culture. A technical revolution in the workplace is spawning these changes. Thus, our most serious problem is that present and future job markets will reward only those who have high educational or technical skills. Those workers not afforded an appropriate education will not find good jobs. This is happening in our present job market and soon this trend will affect millions of additional workers.
As technology impacts on every aspect of our lives, most people have been -- consciously or not -- seriously affected by the changes. Our basic core values are being gradually destroyed by individuals not having values or having a different interpretation of what is to be valued. The religious underpinning of the old value system has weakened considerably. Unless the religious aspect of our lives is restored, then those values that best represent our culture will dissipate. Efforts to restore or maintain our old value system will not happen without a considerable political struggle. Should economic conditions significantly worsen I expect this struggle will involve considerable violence.
In an atmosphere of extensive, fundamental change, it is quite natural for many to seek stability in their lives. They tend to reject those things they find troubling in their lives or jobs. It is during times of radical change that many people develop an anti-government, anti-society, or an anti-change attitude. It is why some individuals turn to fundamental religions and/or to a conservative political philosophy. It is also why any anti-establishment cause has some appeal, why certain persons reject religion by joining causes that are anti-religion, why employees in organizations resist and sabotage change, and why so many people just want to be left alone.
None of what has been discussed in this article is particularly good news to the law enforcement officer. In simple terms our job is to nudge the radical fringes of all the competing groups into the middle of the road, in terms of using an acceptable political process to settle differences or to effect change. Our job is not to take sides. An excellent example of this is the current struggle between those who defend abortion and those who oppose the practice. As we have seen, our role in the abortion conflict has not been easy, although, most critics would admit we have performed our duties evenhandedly. Our role is to prevent violence from being used as a tactic by either side of the abortion argument. I think this example is instructive about how we must handle this aspect of our basic mission in the future. This will require that officers have a great understanding of social issues, a strong determination to preserve law and order, and the solid investigative skills so they can determine those individuals, or factions, whose only purpose in life is to wantonly destroy what it has taken good people over two hundred years to build!
The National Executive Institute Associates Leadership Bulletin editor is Edward J. Tully. He served with the FBI as a Special Agent from 1962 to 1993. He is presently the Executive Director of the National Executive Institute Associates and the Major City Chiefs. You can reach him via e-mail at tullye@aol.com or by writing to 308 Altoona Drive, Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401