The Weather Underground: Domestic Terrorists

There have been many domestic terrorists and domestic terrorist groups over the years. Many of the recent domestic terrorists and homegrown violent extremists have been influenced by many international beliefs or ideals that came from international groups and did not originate in the United States. Many other domestic terror groups did not start their own set of belief systems from scratch but adopted a set of beliefs. Many leftist militant groups or left wing domestic terrorism groups adopted a socialist and Marxist set of beliefs that originated in Europe. The Weather Underground, while originating in U.S., was heavily influenced by the ideals of socialism and Marxism. The Weather Underground originated in 1969 and was a branch of the Students for a Democratic Society. The Students for a Democratic Society has ties to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society and the Socialist Party of America. The Weather Underground started as university students who believed in a more violent and radical approach to the …show more content…
The members of the Weather Underground were U.S. citizens, planned their terrorist acts in the U.S., and carried out their acts in the United States. As such, the Weather Underground is classified as domestic terrorists. The Weather Underground bombed a police substation in San Francisco, where San Francisco Police Sergeant John Young was killed by the blast (Kincaid, 2009). There were also Weather Underground members involved with an armed robbery of an armored truck where three police officers were killed by the Weather Underground (Kincaid, 2009). Also, three members of the Weather Underground were killed while attempting to make a bomb that was meant for a dance on an Army Base (Kincaid, 2009). The Weather Underground made a “declaration of war” against the U.S. government and law enforcement. Many of the Weather Underground attacks were bombings of U.S. government