The killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk during a speech at a Utah college on Wednesday has prompted shock and condemnation across the political spectrum, and experts warn the assassination is the latest in a deeply concerning surge in political violence across the U.S. during the Trump era.
“It’s clear that we’ve had some major political violence incidents in the last few years and that it is more than we had come to expect, certainly since say the 1960s,” Wendy Via, CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told The Independent. “Political violence has been around as long as there have been politics, but I do think that the last few years are different.”
