Radicalization Nation

In the early hours of the morning of Oct. 28, just before 2:30 a.m., a man entered the San Francisco residence of Paul and Nancy Pelosi. He was armed with a hammer and carrying zip ties. The man encountered Paul Pelosi and physically detained, questioned, and beat him, repeatedly yelling, “where’s Nancy!?” She was not home. Nancy Pelosi, the senior house representative and U.S. Speaker of the House, was in Washington D.C. where she spends much of her time when not in her home district. Luckily, Mr. Pelosi had managed to call 911, leading the San Francisco Police Department to perform a welfare check on the residence. When law enforcement arrived, they found Mr. Pelosi and the intruder, David DePape, struggling over control of the assailant’s hammer. DePape then gained the upper hand and struck Mr. Pelosi in the head before he could be tackled by the arresting officer. DePape was taken into custody, and Mr. Pelosi was taken to a local hospital to undergo brain surgery. DePape later informed the police that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage.

“I think we definitely are living in a time of potential political violence and danger,” says UFV’s assistant professor of history, Dr. Ian Rocksborough-Smith. “There’s no question about that. There is something animating the current moment, given the sort of extreme divisions that we can see both politically, but also just in terms of … the material conditions that people face.” The Pelosi attack is not an aberration, but a product of increasing levels of economic inequality, mistrust, disinformation, and discord. The uptick of extremist groups, right-wing nationalism, populist rhetoric, and the justification of violence are not simply a problem for other nations. DePape was born and raised right here in British Columbia...

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