Violent Acts by Civilians Against Civilians

Terrorist acts do not always come from radical Islamists or other individuals outside of the country. Terrorists can live and breed among us. We all have the potential to commit a terrorist act. If we did partake in some extreme acts of violence, would the act be considered a terrorist act? To answer the question, we need to understand what constitutes terrorism.

What is terrorism? Terrorism is defined as "an act or threat of violence against noncombatants, with the objective of intimidating or otherwise influencing an audience or audiences" (CTU, 2006). With that definition in mind, we can easily see why the September 11, 2001 attacks, as well as the March 8, 2002 Madrid bombings, fit the definition of terrorism. The question now becomes what about other acts of violence that have occurred throughout history that have not been labeled as terrorist acts? Well, since the media does a good job of painting the portrait of a terrorist - mainly those involved in Islamic extremist groups, such as Al - Qaeda and Hamas - there has been an absence of recognizing the threats that lie within the nation itself. Today, I will discuss three forms of violent acts that fit the given definition of terrorism, but have not been labeled an act of terrorism.

The first act of violence that fits the definition of terrorism dates back to before the birth of the United States of America. On December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts, a group of colonists boarded ships belonging to the East India Company, and dumped all the tea overboard (Encarta, 2006). The colonists' actions were a direct response to one of the Townshend Acts that was passed into law in 1773. This law was called the Tea Act, and was the beginning of the long struggle between colonists and Britain. It was from this act of violence that the famous phrase "no taxation without representation" was born and serves as one of the rights under today's United States Constitution (Encarta). This day in history will always be known as the Boston Tea Party and an important day in the history of the United States.

The next act of violence comes from the United States Civil Rights Movement, which occurred from 1954-1965. While during this time there was a lot of violent acts committed by American citizens that targeted other American citizens, one act stands out from the rest. In September of 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the African-American filled Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. There was no warning prior to this bombing and four innocent young girls were killed (AGS, n.d.). In a response to the bombing, riots and fires had erupted throughout Birmingham and two more teenagers were murdered by the end of the day. This violent act against the African-American community shocked the nation and changed the course of the civil rights movement (AGS).

The third act of violence would be violence against abortion clinics. Over the years, Pensacola, FL experienced a high volume of anti-abortion violence beginning in June of 1984, when the first clinic was bombed (Religious Tolerance, 2006). Six months later, the same clinic was bombed again. Over the course of the next ten years there would be three more acts of violence occur in Pensacola:

1. March 1986 - a clinic is broken into and vandalized; two female employees of the clinic are assaulted. This act was committed by an ex-KKK member and his daughter (Religious Tolerance).
2. March 1993 - Dr. David Gunn was killed outside of the abortion clinic from which he practiced. His assailant was Michael Griffin, an assumed member of the extremist group known as Rescue America (Religious Tolerance).
3. July 1994 - A physician and bodyguard are gunned down outside of an abortion clinic. The killer was Paul Hill, a former Presbyterian minister and the proclaimed leader of another extremist group known as Defensive Action. Paul Hill, who has been convicted and sentenced, was named to the KKK's hero of the month in August 1994 (Religious Tolerance).

All of these events fit the definition of terrorism because all of the necessary elements are present. The act or threatened act of violence in the Boston Tea Party would be the dumping of tea into the harbor as this is an act that destructed property; in the Birmingham, Alabama civil rights bombing, the act of violence was obviously the bombing as with the various bombings and murderous acts associated with abortion clinics. All of the violent attacks were targeted towards civilians and not militants, further supporting the definition of terrorism. Finally, they all had the element of attempting to influence an audience. The Boston Tea Party participants were trying to make a statement that they would not be subjected to "taxation without representation", while the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham, AL were trying to intimidate African-Americans in an order to stop the civil rights movement. The abortion clinic attacks had an objective to carry out violence in an effort to save innocent humans from violence itself (Religious Tolerance).

References

AGS. (n.d.). Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement. Retrieved May 28, 2006

from http://www.ags.uci.edu/~skaufman/teaching/win2001ch4.htm .

CTU. (2006). Phase 1: Multimedia Printable Version. Retrieved May 21, 2006 from

http://campus.ctuonline.edu/classroom/multimediacoursetext.aspx .

Encarta. (2006). Boston Tea Party. Retrieved May 28, 2006 from

http://encarta.msn.com/text_761565150__0/Boston_Tea_Party.html .

Religious Tolerance. (2006). Violence at U.S. Abortion Clinics. Retrieved May 28, 2006

from http://www.religioustolerane.org/abo_viol.htm .