Anti-government extremist groups reach record levels, say experts
The number of American "patriot" extremist
groups has reached a record level, according to a new study, and experts are
warning of a wave of anti-government violence.
A report released Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law
Center counted 1,360 "patriot" extremist groups in 2012 -- up by 7%
from 2011. The study defines patriot groups as anti-government militias driven
by their fear that authorities will strip them of their guns and liberties.
"They believe the Constitution is being raped. With
hate groups, things are going to get worse because they feel like they're in
battle," said David Gletty a former FBI informant who spent time
undercover with various militia and extremist groups. "It's not surprising
with their hatred of President (Barack) Obama that there are even more hate
groups out there."
The study said California has the most patriot extremist
groups, with 81.
The SPLC report also offers a bit of good news: The
number of "immigrant-bashing" extremist groups -- so-called nativism
organizations -- is way down from 2011, falling by 88%.
The new statistics come after a string of crimes linked
to extremist groups. A year ago, a Michigan militia leader and his son pleaded
guilty to federal gun charges. Last August, a 40-year-old ex-soldier-turned
singer for a white supremacist rock band shot up a Sikh temple in Oak Creek,
Wisconsin, killing six people, before taking his own life. A few weeks later, a
group of Georgia men was linked to an anti-government militia plot to
assassinate Obama.
Obama's election as the first African-American president
and his pro-gun control stance have fueled the increase in anti-government
groups, according to the report.
"We are seeing a huge reaction to the potential for
gun control, and that reaction is so angry that it's hard not to be afraid of
what's coming down the road," said Mark Potok of the SPLC.
The rise in such groups echoes a period almost 20 years
ago, around the time when Congress passed the 1993 Brady Bill and the 1994 ban
on assault weapons, the SPLC said. That legislation came near a period of
infamous and deadly anti-government violence in Waco, Texas; Ruby Ridge, Idaho;
and Oklahoma City, "and led to the first wave of the patriot
movement," the report said.
Extremists, Gletty warned, "are in a battle in their
minds. Their backs are against the wall."
Skeptics
But Jesse Walker, of the Reason Foundation and author of
an upcoming book, "The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy
Theory," said counting groups isn't a good way to measure the threat.
"It's dubious to assume growth in numbers is related to violence."
Also, the center's definition of hate groups has changed
in the past year, kicking up a controversy. Critics accused the group of
unfairly bundling together organizations with vastly different points of view
-- and painting them all as potentially violent.
For example a North Carolina-based group calling itself
"Granny Warriors" appears on the SPLC list of active
"patriots."
But founder Linda Hunnicutt says her organization is
harmless.
"I am deadly!" she joked. "I'm 74 years
old. I have COPD. I have congestive heart failure. I'm sewing a quilt."
Hunnicutt acknowledges she's no friend of the federal
government, but, she wishes no harm on anyone.
"All these people that want to bomb places and kill
children, come on," she said. "Who would be in sympathy with
them?"
Hunnicutt said she and her group just want Uncle Sam to
leave them alone. When Granny Warriors showed up on the SPLC list, Hunnicutt
said she wasn't surprised. But it made her wonder, "Is this all they have
to do?"
Nonetheless, Hunnicutt's thankful to be on the list
because she said it increases her group's notoriety.
Fringe elements
Gletty said most of the fringe elements characterized in
the report hate the government more than they do specific races. They hate
everyone, Gletty said.
Now a private investigator, Gletty spent years undercover
as an FBI informant watching the internal workings of white supremacist groups.
The groups named in the SPLC study came from information
compiled from "field reports, Patriot publications, the Internet, law
enforcement sources and news reports."
Other highlights of the report include:
-- The state with the most neo-Nazi groups: California,
with 9.
-- The state with the most Ku Klux Klan groups: Texas,
with 26.
-- The report breaks out a group it calls "Christian
Identity," which the SLPC defines as "a religion that is
fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic." Texas has the most, with five.
-- Another category in the report, called "General
Hate," is defined as groups that are anti-gay, Holocaust deniers, racist
musicians or radical traditionalist Catholics. California has the most such
groups, with 37.
"The country needs to do better," Potok wrote
in an editorial. The Department of Homeland Security, he said, needs to act to
avoid a repeat of the kind of hate-based violence the nation saw in the 1990s.
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