The suspect is a former government informant with long-standing ties to racist organizations
Yesterday’s shootings at a Jewish community center and assisted living facility are alarming acts of domestic terrorism by a longtime white supremacist leader. This is an unimaginable tragedy for the families of those slain in the attack and members of the Kansas City Jewish community, who were the presumable targets. That the attack came on the eve of Passover is a chilling reminder to Jewish communities preparing for the holiday that anti-Semitism in its deadliest form persists today.
The alleged shooter, Frazier Glenn Miller — who has also gone by Frazier Glenn Cross and Glenn Miller — has been well-known to law enforcement and civil rights groups as an active member of neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan groups for over 30 years. Miller has repeatedly threatened violence against Jewish and Black communities and has threatened to overthrow the U.S. government.
In 1986, when his organization, the White Patriot Party was investigated for illegal paramilitary and conspiracy activities, he testified against his former colleagues in exchange for leniency and went on to serve as a government witness for more than ten years. This did not, however, indicate a change in his racist ideology.
This latest act of terror is a terrible blow to the security of the Jewish American people and other vulnerable communities. While it is true that reported acts of anti-Semitic harassment have decreased, the reality is that white nationalism and racism are stubbornly entrenched in American culture.
Miller is part of a movement of individuals who are convinced that racial violence is the only solution to deter a multiracial democracy. Miller said as much during an interview with The New York Times in 1986, “We’re drowning in a sea of color and the white race won’t survive.”
Jews, Muslims, African Americans, and immigrants of color will continue to be targeted by violence unless all Americans establish measures to swiftly counter organized racism in their communities.