A CEO gunned down on an early morning Manhattan street. A young couple shot dead outside an event in the nation’s capital.
Separated by a few hundred miles and a few months, these two events perfectly encapsulate the era of ideological violence we are living in.
A crazed man attacking Jews with a makeshift flamethrower while yelling “Free Palestine” in Colorado is just the latest example in a trend that feels ominously like it is picking up pace.
For years, we have managed threats to executives, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals. The threats against these groups have increased exponentially. It mirrors the zeitgeist in the country, which feels like it is on a razor’s edge.
Threats and who could become a target are evolving quickly beyond people with high profiles.
Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, who was murdered in December, had a security detail and knew that he worked in a sector of the economy that many feel is deeply unjust. But he surely had no sense that he would become the personification of those grievances, and that his killer would become a folk hero to those who harbor similar grievances.
Last month, when Israeli embassy employees Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were leaving an event focused on humanitarian approaches to foreign policy, they were also surely aware of the vitriol directed at Israel for the war in Gaza and at Jews in general as a result. But this young couple was to face a similar fate as Thompson — becoming the personification of a grievance by a deluded individual, catalyzed towards violence by a society that no longer provides guardrails to curtail it.
Social media has brought some good things into our lives. It allows us to keep in touch with old friends, share details of our lives broadly with our networks and get beyond traditional gatekeepers of media to broaden perspectives and quickly find out what’s going on in the world.
But in many ways, it is a scourge of our time. Algorithms consumed with driving engagement have become outrage machines and lesser minds fall prey to their catastrophic cacophony.
Monitoring threats on social media and in other dark corners of the web has become a big part of the corporate security business. We use the same AI that powers the algorithms used by social media companies to drive us mad with anger to gauge who is potentially serious about committing violence by evaluating negative sentiment.
We combine analytically driven approaches to language and frequency of posting with tools like background investigations into someone who might pose a threat to our protectee or company. It works, and we frequently take actions that mitigate threats, but it is a game of whack-a-mole.
While these types of threats and the realization of the violence that they can bring are chilling and grab the headlines, disgruntled former employees and marginalized individuals with mental illness who have fixated on a celebrity or executive are the more traditional threats that remain the focus of our work.
But something is at work in America that is deeply disturbing and changing the threat landscape.
Professional athletes have always been under an intense spotlight and have faced the wrath of disappointed fans. But Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendricks described a new reality last month as the latest player to come forward about the many death threats that he has received.
Many of these threats have arisen out of the miasma of legalized gambling, with a fan enraged when a pitcher like Hendricks gives up a lead and the gambler’s bet is blown. With money on the line and the easy anonymity of social media available, it isn’t hard for these gamblers to make vicious threats.
And with a wealth of personal identifiable information about any of our lives out there (one threat against Hendricks alluded to the sliding door in his home) it is frightening how real these dangers can be. Hendricks is a cancer survivor and some of these individuals have messaged him that they wish he succumbed to the disease.
He is not an outlier — Jarren Duran, an outfielder also with the Boston Red Sox, has bravely discussed suicidal ideations and recently had a fan in Cleveland scream at him that he wished he killed himself.
While the trend of ideological violence has complex roots, it is further empowered and manifested by President Trump, who seems to revel in malice and cruelty, especially against anyone he feels may be against him.
The examples are manifold, but the gleeful and dishonest purging of many innocent immigrants who have done nothing wrong and have, in many cases, fled violence in their home countries is but one example. The current administration is also awash in conspiracy theorists who have amplified the darkest and most vile rumors online.
In many ways, the president of the United States sets the tone for the country. Previous presidents have tried to calm anger and violence in the country — this administration fuels it. Other presidents have tried to unite the country — this one seeks to further divide it.
The fault of this crisis of ideological violence doesn’t reside with the president, but he is making it worse. Indeed, Trump nearly lost his life to the trend during two assassination attempts last year.
We are in the business of forecasting threats and protecting our clients. Doing the work we do, monitoring social media and the dark web for percolating threats and evaluating the fault lines of foreign affairs for other drivers of risk, we are predicting a continued rise in ideological violence.
Unfortunately, it is the average American citizen who is likely to bear the continued burden of the violence of this unfortunate era.
Don Aviv CPP, PSP, PCI, is CEO of Interfor International. Jeremy Hurewitz is Head of Interfor Academy and the author of “Sell Like a Spy.“
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( We’re in an era of ideological violence, and it’s only getting worse )
Also on site :