NCJ Number
163013
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 14 Issue: 3/4 Dated: (1995) Pages: 71-91
Date Published
1995
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on the findings of a survey of police chiefs in a majority of American cities with a population of more than 100,000 persons to determine their views of the greatest potential for domestic terrorist violence within the next 2 years.
Abstract
The questionnaire was sent on October 13, 1993. Eighty-six out of 140 chiefs of police responded (a 61-percent response rate). The following list of potential domestic terrorist groups is presented in descending order of their potential for violence as rated by the chiefs of police: anti-abortionists, white supremacists, Middle-East terrorists, black militants, Latin American Terrorists, European terrorists, Puerto Rican separatists, South American terrorist groups, anti-Castro Cubans, and Jewish extremists. Each of the geographical areas represented viewed their own likelihood of being hit by terrorists to be less than that of Washington, D.C., and New York City; however, almost all chiefs indicated they had significant political targets within their own communities. Further, the manner in which the FBI has chosen not to report certain terrorist incidents is troubling and subject to serious question. Currently, the FBI has reported all of the 86 bombings of abortion clinics and the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993 as criminal acts rather than terrorist acts. The FBI's reasoning is that there was not a single group of anti-abortionists that claimed credit for organizing these events. The police chiefs, however, view anti- abortionists as an organized group that promotes the concept of violence as a means of achieving its ends. 2 tables, 4 figures, and 16 references