Lone wolf terrorism
Lone wolf terrorism is on the rise both domestically within the United States and abroad. Local, state, federal, and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies are working diligently to prevent future attacks.
In a two-page reflection paper, complete the following:
Locate one recent lone wolf terrorist attack that occurred in the United States and abroad (two events).
Provide a synopsis on the events and the lessons learned by local, state, federal, and global law enforcement and intelligence agencies. How are law enforcement and intelligence agencies using the lessons learned to create new resiliency-based strategies to prevent similar attacks from re-occurring?
Explain the psychological and sociological impacts that each of these attacks had on society.
Reflect on three recommendations that could be used to reduce lone wolf terrorism globally.
Sample Solution
One recent lone wolf terrorist attack that occurred in the United States is the 2018 Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. On October 27, a gunman opened fire at the synagogue killing eleven people and injuring seven more (U.S. Department of Justice 2019). The shooter was later identified as Robert Bowers, an avowed white supremacist who reportedly shouted anti-Semitic slogans during and after his attack (Haberman & Apuzzo 2018). This event served as a stark reminder to law enforcement of the dangers posed by lone wolf actors acting on their own without outside influences or assistance from larger terror networks.
In response to this incident local, state and federal law enforcement agencies reevaluated their approach towards combatting violent extremism. They realized that intelligence gathering techniques used against traditional terror organizations may be ineffective when it comes to identifying possible “lone wolf” attacks since they often do not share affiliations with any particular group or ideology and consequently leave no digital footprint for authorities to track (Rabasa & McMahon 2020). Thus surveillance methods must shift from monitoring known individuals associated with possible extremist groups towards a more proactive approach focused on detecting potential signs of radicalization before an attack occurs (Koger et al., 2019). These efforts can include increased scrutiny at social media platforms where individuals may exhibit signs such as posting content promoting hate speech or violence and making inquiries about weapons training or bomb building instructions among other activities.
Aside from domestic threats, another recent lone wolf terrorist attack happened abroad in Vienna in November 2020 when nine civilians were killed due to gunfire near various landmarks in Austria’s capital city (BBC News 2020). Investigations revealed that this attacker had also posted numerous pro-ISIS messages online prior to committing his crime indicating he likely acted alone while receiving some form of ideological inspiration or direction from external sources though still unconfirmed by authorities.
Overall, these two events highlight the need for both international cooperation between governments as well as better coordination between security forces within each nation so that information related to potential threats can be shared across borders quickly allowing preventive measures against future attacks which are increasingly difficult to detect.