(The Center Square) – As the Washington State Attorney General’s Office Domestic Extremism and Mass Violence Task Force prepares a charter, debate continues over whether the task force can define what constitutes DVE or not, if it includes legally protected speech and activities.
“I think the premise of trying to fix a domestic extremism problem in the state is problematic,” task force member Walla Walla County Sheriff Mark Crider told colleagues at the organization’s Sept. 26 meeting. “The problem that we’re trying fix is violence created by these things. I think that all the attorneys have shown us is that you can’t be the thought police and police people’s ideas and thoughts on what is and is not extremism. But, you can police their actions.”
He added that it “sets us up for failure because there’s no, in my opinion, there is no way that we can define domestic extremism and come to a resolution on what is the extremism.’”
Earlier this year, the task force released its preliminary report on how to treat the issue from a public health perspective, yet failed to include a definition, though it lists various definitions used by the FBI as well as private organizations like the Anti-Defamation League.
Although the task force’s purpose is to focus on DVE, discussions at its Sept. 26 meeting veered into restrictions on law enforcement officials and whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should be allowed to wear masks to protect their identities for fear of doxxing or retaliatory violence.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss with Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab told the task force “we’ve been emphasizing … that vigilantism is dangerous and that releasing people’s personal information, whether it’s the 20,000 list of people who supposedly celebrated Charlie Kirk [murder] or the release of information about ICE agents or whatever it is, is risk. It puts children at risk, it puts family members at risk – sometimes it’s the wrong address.”
Mary McCord with the Institution for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection told the task force “it’s a terrible practice for public officials, when we’re not talking about a COVID situation, to mask themselves in order to make sure there are identities unknown. I do think there are some good constitutional arguments that public officials should not be masked.”
California recently passed a bill set to take effect in January that would prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks, though the Trump administration argues it violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
The same day as the task force meeting, Blaze Media video footage of an anti-ICE protest in Illinois recorded protesters screaming, “Shoot ICE!” and “Shoot the F—–s!” Protesters in the area later attempted to stop a federal vehicle from entering an ICE facility, according to the Post Millennial.
At the task force meeting, McCord acknowledged prior anti-ICE protests occurring in cities like Dallas, noting that there has been a 1,000% increase in threats against ICE agents.
However, she added that “my own view is when you become a law enforcement officer, this is part of what you accept that, that you should comport your behavior in a way that the public finds confidence in, and then you will not have a need to mask yourself.”
When The Center Square reached out to Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, for comment on McCord’s statement regarding masks, he wrote “the incoherent stupidity of the comments made as part of the Ferguson-Brown ‘Domestic Violent Extremism’ scam is depressing. It’s an embarrassment to Washington and every taxpayer in this state who’s footing the bill. I’d say it’s a joke but it’s not funny enough to qualify. If Ferguson and Brown had any sense of shame, they would cancel this travesty and return the money to the Operating Budget, where they could waste it on other less hideous grifts.”
The task force’s final report and recommendations are due to the governor and the state Legislature by Dec. 1, 2026, while its next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 9.
