Homeland Security Experts say the January 6 attacks were an example of the tangled web of far-right and white racially motivated extremists in the country in fact analysis of domestic Terror incidents show attacks by white racially motivated extremists have become more lethal and pose a greater threat to society since Donald Trump became president New Jersey's office of Homeland Security says their threat matches that of homegrown violent extremists these are individuals who are inspired by Foreign terrorist organizations in becoming radicalized and data from the office identified nearly a quarter of arrests for those extremists between 2019 and 2022 happened in New Jersey for more I'm joined by Laurie Duran director of New Jersey's office of Homeland Security and preparedness director it's good to get a chance to talk to you I'm interested to know about the factors contributing to the these homegrown violent extremists and who specifically they're targeting sure thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about this today homegrown vinyl extremists first of all I need to differentiate for them is that they are people who are self-radicalized by Foreign terrorist organizations um they are basically they're not when we're talking about other extremists these and these are individuals who see things online for the most part and have decided for themselves that what this particular ideology works for them they generally are very committed to their cause whether that's Isis or Al Qaeda or some of the other groups and with that they are you know able to organize uh you know and tactical training and things like that online but they are they are very different from some of the other extremists that we deal with and a lot of times the people that they are interested in targeting are law enforcement religious communities and just places where there's Mass Gatherings but uh they are um you know they are here to stay uh though we have seen a decrease in in the last you know few years give us some examples because your office has been putting out these you call them snapshots sort of a small synopsis of what you're really up against um as you remember in November Mr akatul from Sayreville he is what we would consider a homegrown violent extremist he pledged his allegiance to Isis um he had put on a Manifesto basically wanting to harm and kill Jews and and put this online and he also he's a little bit different in the sense that he also did Blended ideology which we do see a lot in the domestic extremist realm in addition to a pledging his Allegiance so Isis he also very much um supported it that's the right word just how difficult is it though for you all to track um I would say you know we we continue to use a lot of the same investigatory in the same type of of tools that we do along with our federal and state Partners to track people uh during covet as you know as we all know unfortunately have all experienced that a lot of things have gone online and with that has been the radicalization piece um so with that that's why it's important for people to you know again the whole Mantra to see something say something what's the Tipping Point I guess for someone who's having a peaked interest and when they actually become radicalized you know we're in this instance you know there are people with the first amendment can say pretty much anything that they want Even if we as you know at various individuals might find it hateful or just really you know very disturbing and again while you don't want to hear people saying things like that as long as they don't take any action to to actually commit violence then uh that's where we step in is we are trying to prevent people from actually taking violence but they have to they have to show an action as if they're getting ready to commit violence such as you know actually starting to purchase weapons I mean we're you know I'm I there's a variety of different ways a lot of times what happens with people who are trying to get prepared to commit an attack whether it's domestic or facilitate you know with barn is something called leakage um a lot of times these people and they anybody who does these things has is not just they wake up in the morning and decide that they're going to commit this act they have had you know a time and plan this out so a lot of times with that you know that people only call it leakage they are you know uh put out like a Manifesto or perhaps they've talked to their friends or send something else on social media that you know that's somebody's season could be just you know is disturbing and that if someone found you know see something that looks like violence that's when they need to contact their local law enforcement Lori Duran is the director of New Jersey's office of Homeland Security and preparedness thank you so much well thank you very much I appreciate the opportunity to speak and take care [Music] [Music]