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This is a running list of select offline events in the United States related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The list focuses on: (1) Attacks, such as street assaults targeting Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, or Palestinian individuals; or car rammings; (2) Vandalism and propaganda, such as hate-filled flyering or banner drops; (3) Violent counter-demonstrations, such as fights or attacks that occur at protests; (4) Direct threats, such as security incidents at non-profit offices, threats to target specific populations or neighborhoods, or bomb threats of synagogues; and (5) Other offline violence, such as harassment at local councils.

This is a running list of select offline events in the United States related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The list focuses on: (1) Attacks, such as street assaults targeting Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, or Palestinian individuals; or car rammings; (2) Vandalism and propaganda, such as hate-filled flyering or banner drops; (3) Violent counter-demonstrations, such as fights or attacks that occur at protests; (4) Direct threats, such as security incidents at non-profit offices, threats to target specific populations or neighborhoods, or bomb threats of synagogues; and (5) Other offline violence, such as harassment at local councils.

This is a running list of select offline events in the United States related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The list focuses on: (1) Attacks, such as street assaults targeting Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, or Palestinian individuals; or car rammings; (2) Vandalism and propaganda, such as hate-filled flyering or banner drops; (3) Violent counter-demonstrations, such as fights or attacks that occur at protests; (4) Direct threats, such as security incidents at non-profit offices, threats to target specific populations or neighborhoods, or bomb threats of synagogues; and (5) Other offline violence, such as harassment at local councils.

The sixth quarterly survey provides updated findings from the Q4 2023 nationally representative BDI-CivicPulse survey of more than 400 local elected officials on threats and harassment, putting the total number of participants across all six surveys at 2,315. This research is produced as part of an ongoing joint project launched by BDI and CivicPulse in August 2022 to conduct quarterly national surveys of local officials on their experiences facing threats and harassment. These quarterly updates allow us to identify spikes or shifts in hostility and monitor important trends in threats and harassment as we enter the 2024 election cycle. Over the last 16 months, experiences of threats and harassment remained widespread -- more than half of surveyed officials reported being insulted, over a third reported harassment, and nearly one in six reported threats in any given three-month window.

The seventh quarterly survey provides updated findings from the Q1 2024 nationally representative BDI-CivicPulse survey of local elected officials and school board members on their experiences of hostility. This wave surveyed over 400 local elected officials and over 200 school board officials, putting the total number of participants across all seven surveys at more than 2,900. In order to address a persistent research gap, this survey wave has added school board officials to the sampled population for the first time. While other types of local officials (e.g. state legislators, election officials) have been the focus of multiple research efforts, school board officials have remained under-examined. At a time when school board meetings have increasingly become flashpoints for backlash against local government, and as part of our effort to better understand the broader threat and harassment landscape, this expansion of the survey allows us to further investigate how hostility faced by school board officials compares with experiences reported by other local elected officials, such as mayors, council members, and county commissioners, in order to support tailored policy responses. This research is produced as part of an ongoing joint project launched by BDI and CivicPulse in August 2022 to conduct quarterly national surveys of local officials on their experiences facing threats and harassment. These quarterly updates allow us to identify spikes or shifts in hostility and monitor important trends in threats and harassment as we enter the 2024 election cycle.

Students at colleges and universities across the United States have established protest encampments over an array of issues related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, prompting a wide range of responses from school officials, law enforcement, counter-protesters, and local communities. This Issue Brief analyzes the latest data on the campus protests to map key trends in demonstration activity and responses to the encampments as of May 12, with a specific focus on incidents of physical violence and destructive activity, such as assaults, clashes, substantial property damage, and use of force by police.1 The Brief also reviews ongoing dialogue and de-escalation efforts to manage tensions among campus communities, as well as the protest movement’s trajectory going into the summer.

The eighth quarterly survey provides updated findings from the Q2 2024 nationally representative BDI-CivicPulse survey of local elected officials and school board members on their experiences of hostility. This wave surveyed over 400 local elected officials and 200 school board officials, putting the total number of participants across all eight survey waves at more than 3,500. This round of respondents was the first to be surveyed in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at former President Trump’s campaign rally in July. While levels of hostility faced by local elected officials remained consistently high from Q1 to Q2 ahead of the assassination attempt, there was a statistically significant increase in the proportion of local elected officials that said they were worried about future threats, harassment, and physical attacks following the shooting and moving into the election period. This research is produced as part of an ongoing joint project launched by BDI and CivicPulse in August 2022 to conduct quarterly national surveys of local officials on their experiences facing threats and harassment. These quarterly updates allow us to identify spikes or shifts in hostility and monitor important trends in threats and harassment as we enter the 2024 election cycle.

Drop boxes are a secure and accessible means for voters to drop off ballots instead of voting in person or by mail. Yet since 2020, political contention over drop boxes has been on the rise due to a combination of factors, including increased use of the drop box voting process amid the pandemic, false fraud narratives around the presidential election, and varied jurisdictional frameworks. Concerns over drop boxes spiked during the 2022 midterm elections, with candidates and media outlets flagging the threat of “armed vigilantes staking out drop box locations.” But did online discourse transfer to offline activity? And, if so, how prevalent was this activity? Using BDI’s new Drop Box Monitoring Dataset, this Issue Brief provides an assessment of in-person, offline mobilization at drop box sites through analysis of known, reported activity nationwide, alongside case studies of two states that saw a high concentration of incidents in 2022: Arizona and Pennsylvania. It finds that only limited offline monitoring activity was reported at drop box locations during the 2022 midterms, as well as during off-year elections in 2023. The analysis exposes a gap between online rhetoric and offline action and provides new insights into approaches that can help prepare communities for contentious activity around the 2024 election.

The ninth quarterly survey provides updated findings from the Q3 2024 nationally representative BDI-CivicPulse survey of local elected officials and school board members on their experiences of hostility. This wave surveyed over 400 local elected officials and 200 school board officials, putting the total number of participants across all nine survey waves at more than 4,100. This round of respondents was surveyed in the run-up to the 2024 election, covering their experiences between July and October. Compared to Q2, significantly more officials reported experiencing insults and harassment in Q3, while reports of threats continued at consistent levels. There was a decrease in respondents who reported worry about hostility following the previous survey round, which was conducted in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at President-elect Trump’s campaign rally, though the findings indicate that levels of concern remained at a high baseline going into the election period. This research is produced as part of an ongoing joint project launched by BDI and CivicPulse in August 2022 to conduct quarterly national surveys of local officials on their experiences facing threats and harassment. These quarterly updates allow us to identify spikes or shifts in hostility and monitor important trends in threats and harassment as we enter the 2024 election cycle.

Over the past two years, BDI has conducted interviews with more than 150 local elected officials to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of threats and harassment on local government. These conversations have painted a concerning picture of hostility at the local level, but they have also revealed the wide array of tools officials are leveraging to respond to threats and harassment. Analyzing the variety of risk mitigation strategies surfaced throughout the interview research, this report breaks down five key response types that were consistently highlighted by officials at the frontlines of local government: (1) Individual strategies, (2) Peer support, (3) Connections with town administrators and service providers, (4) Official procedures and community outreach approaches, and (5) Legal and security options.