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Policing White Supremacy

In Policing White Supremacy, former FBI agent Mike German, who worked undercover in white supremacist and militia groups, issues a wake-up call about law enforcement’s dangerously lax approach to far-right violence. German has been a Brennan Center fellow since 2014, and the book is coauthored by Beth Zasloff.

Despite over a hundred deadly acts by far-right militants since the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the far right’s attempts to obstruct the transfer of power to a duly elected president on January 6, 2021, the FBI continues to deprioritize investigations into white supremacist violence, instead targeting marginalized groups such as environmentalists and Black Lives Matter. In 2005, for example, the FBI labeled eco-terrorists as the top domestic threat, despite not a single fatal attack in the United States.

Noting that the FBI does not even compile accurate national data on white supremacist violence, German also exposes the continuing tolerance of overt racism in law enforcement, as well as police membership in white supremacist organizations. The threat these officers pose became clear when at least 28 current and former law enforcement officials were alleged to have participated in the 2021 Capitol breach.

With chapters including “The Rise of the Proud Boys,” “A New Approach to Policing Hate Crimes,” and “Policing the Police,” Policing White Supremacy shows how the lack of transparency and accountability in federal, state, and local law enforcement has eroded public trust and undermined democracy. The book’s conclusion, “Law Enforcement’s Role in Resisting White Supremacy,” points the way forward to a future where far-right violence is recognized and addressed as the true threat it presents to our country.

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Do the Police Care About White Supremacist Violence?

A former FBI agent examines law enforcement’s tolerance of far-right racist violence.

“Mike German’s brave undercover service informs this insightful view into the gathering danger posed by increasingly emboldened white supremacist and domestic militant groups.”

— Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse

“Mike German utilizes firsthand experience and extensive research to expose the long-standing failures of law enforcement to address the terrifying collusion between the extreme right and American policing that threatens the very foundations of our democracy.”

— Alex S. Vitale, author of The End of Policing

“Mike German’s Policing White Supremacy is a timely and compelling exploration of one of the most pressing issues in modern law enforcement. With the unique insight of a former FBI agent, German exposes the deep-rooted connections between law enforcement and white supremacist movements, offering an urgent call to action. This book is a must-read for anyone concerned with justice and the future of democracy. German’s perspective is as authoritative as it is eye-opening, making this a critical contribution to our understanding of systemic racism in America.”

— Chesa Boudin, former district attorney of San Francisco and founding executive director of Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center

“In Policing White Supremacy, Mike German unmasks the failure of the FBI to prioritize white supremacist violence. By failing to fight white domestic terrorism, and even to collect accurate data on its occurrence, German shows how the FBI has helped create an atmosphere in which law enforcement is infiltrated by and tolerates white supremacist police officers. A devastating critique, Policing White Supremacy needs to be read by policymakers and the public.”

—Caroline Fredrickson, former president of the American Constitution Society and former senior fellow at the Brennan Center