The Tension of Deception and Reluctance

In 2016, Nicholas Young became the first American police officer to be arrested and charged with a federal terrorism offense. At trial, jurors were shown mountains of evidence about his collection of nazi memorabilia. But what does that have to do with the gift cards he texted to an FBI informant he thought was a member of ISIS?

Sources:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4559133/united-states-v-young

Helen Taylor (2019): Domestic terrorism and hate crimes: legal definitions and media framing of mass shootings in the United States, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302275.html

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Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/human_rights_institute/44

T. Ward Frampton, Predisposition and Positivism: The Forgotten Foundations of the Entrapment Doctrine, 103 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 111 (2013).
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Dru Stevenson, Entrapment By Numbers, 16 J. LAW & PUB. POL’Y 1 (2005)
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Daveed Gartenstein-Ross & Madeleine Blackman, 2022. "Fluidity of the Fringes: Prior Extremist Involvement as a Radicalization Pathway," Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7)

German, Mike and Beth Zasloff. Policing White Supremacy. The New Press, 2025.
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A Cross‑Ideological Analysis, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation
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Marc‑André Argentino, Amarnath Amarasingam, Emmi Conley, 2022. “One Struggle”:
Examining Narrative Syncretism between Accelerationists and Salafi‑Jihadists. International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation
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Connecting the Fringes: Neo-Nazi Glorification of Salafi-Jihadi Representations Online, Julien Bellaiche
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Martin Laryš (2024) “White Jihad” and “White Sharia”: Jihadism as an Instrument of Intra-Extremist Outbidding among Right-Wing Extremists, Terrorism and Political Violence, 36:7, 853-870, DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2023.2214240

Ariel Koch, Karine Nahon & Assaf Moghadam (2024) White Jihad: How White Supremacists Adopt Jihadi Narratives, Aesthetics, and Tactics, Terrorism and Political Violence, 36:7, 919-943, DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2023.2223694

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