Homeland Security issues new alert warning US public gatherings could be targets of violence

The department said it would ‘expect the threat environment to become more dynamic as several high-profile events could be exploited to justify acts of violence against a range of possible targets’

The US Department of Homeland Security warned that it expects the threat environment in the country to become more dynamic and that large public gatherings could become targets for violence.

A new bulletin from the department said that the United States remains in a heightened threat environment and cited “several recent attacks” that underscore the threat.

“In the coming months, we expect the threat environment to become more dynamic as several high-profile events could be exploited to justify acts of violence against a range of possible targets,” the bulletin said on Tuesday.

“These targets could include public gatherings, faith-based institutions, schools, racial and religious minorities, government facilities and personnel, US critical infrastructure, the media, and perceived ideological opponents,” it read. “Threat actors have recently mobilized to violence due to factors such as personal grievances, reactions to current events, and adherence to violent extremist ideologies, including racially or ethnically motivated or anti-government/anti-authority violent extremism.”

The warning comes after Juneau County Circuit Court Judge John Roemer was found dead in his home in New Lisbon, Wisconsin with zipties and gunshot wounds. The suspect, Douglas Uhde, allegedly also had a hit list that included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have warned in the past that white supremacists and other domestic extremists pose as big a threat to the nation as the Islamic state.

“Covert collection may often not be necessary to capture valuable intelligence, but analysts need to be able to distinguish ... between constitutionally protected speech and threat-related”, Homeland Security intelligence official John Cohen testified to the House Intelligence Committee in November.

Last month, a white supremacist allegedly opened fire and killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo. The suspect, 18-year-old Payton S Gendron, also posted a manifesto talking about the white supremacist “Great Replacement” theory that said that Democrats sought to replace white voters with those of immigrants.

An 18-year-old gunman also unleashed a wave of devastating violence at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on 24 may, killing 19 children and two adults.