Stern Drafts Legislation To Prevent Domestic Terrorism

CALABASAS, CA — California State Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles), who represents Calabasas and much of the Conejo and western San Fernando valleys, announced Monday that he is drafting legislation to help the state detect and combat domestic terrorism. The full legislation is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks, and will likely be set for a hearing at some point in March.

After rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Stern joined Senator Tom Umberg (D-Orange County) in crafting legislation that would require the Attorney General and the California Office of Emergency Services to create units focused on domestic terrorism. The units in both departments would investigate and thwart criminal and terroristic activities by white nationalist, neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate, anti-government militia, and other similar groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and Ku Klux Klan.

"What it would do is that law enforcement agencies and other agencies would combine to create a fusion cell where that intelligence is collected and analyzed so that everyone in the state can - not everyone - but law enforcement agencies can identify conspiratorial groups before they act on those conspiracies," Umberg said in an interview with NBCLA News. Umberg, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and retired army colonel who prosecuted and secured numerous convictions of white supremacists who terrorized African Americans in Southern California when he was a federal prosecutor., pointed out that while California already has a Department of Justice unit prosecuting hate crimes and an office of emergency management, he feels the departments need units specifically focusing on white nationalist domestic terror to coordinate information.

“The most effective way to combat domestic terrorism is with actionable intelligence gathered from all reliable investigative agencies,” Umberg said.

According to an Oct. 2020 report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies, white supremacist and other like-minded extremists were responsible two-thirds of the terrorist plots in the United States in the first eight months of 2020.

“Let’s be very clear. What happened last week wasn’t Antifa. It was effectively sponsored by a president and his loyalists in local, state and federal office who have been encouraging and supporting the white nationalist movement, helping it get bigger and stronger to try and normalize the types of atrocious activities we witnessed in Washington,” Stern said in a news release. “We have to respond not just with blustery condemnation, but with a concrete answer to this threat to domestic security.”