New reports says hate groups more active - Political Forum

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary · #1 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 03:20 AM

Well, what is left to these groups other than terrorism?

That's one thing about the US political system. The two party thing sucks for a lot of people.....including the KKK. These guys can yell and scream all they want. At the end of they day, they have no political potential to accomplish any of their goals.

New reports says hate groups more active - Yahoo! News

Quote:

New reports says hate groups more active

By ERIN TEXEIRA, AP National Writer

NEW YORK - Huge street protests made millions of immigrants more visible and powerful last year, but they also seem to have revived a hateful counter force: white supremacists.

Groups linked to the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads and neo-Nazis grew significantly more active, holding more rallies, distributing leaflets and increasing their presence on the Internet — much of it focused on stirring anti-immigrant sentiment, a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League says. "Extremist groups are good at seizing on whatever the hot button is of the day and twisting the message to get new members," Deborah M. Lauter, ADL Civil Rights director, said Monday. "This one seems to be taking hold with more of mainstream America than we'd like to see."

Old Klan chapters have been revived and new ones started throughout the South, historically the heart of the group, and in other places such as Michigan, Iowa and New Jersey, says the report, which was scheduled for official release Tuesday. Last May in Alabama, an anti-immigration rally included slogans such as, "Let's get rid of the Mexicans!" according to the document, titled "Ku Klux Klan Rebounds."

"The Klan is increasingly cooperating with other extremist groups and Neo-Nazi groups," Lauter said. "That's a new phenomenon." Between 2000 and 2005, hate groups mushroomed 33 percent and Klan chapters by 63 percent, according to Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes.

Precise data are difficult to pin down, but Potok's group counts as many as 150 Klan chapters with up to 8,000 members nationwide. More than 800 hate groups exist around the country, Southern Poverty research shows. In the late 1990s, memberships in such groups was crumbling as they lost leaders and struggled to organize, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Many hit bottom around 2000.

"Whenever you think the Klan is down and out, they find another way to reinvent themselves," he said of the recent resurgence. Historically, the Klan's focus had been to terrorize African-Americans — through race riots, lynchings and other killings — but it reached peak membership at more than 4 million in the 1920s by focusing on immigration.

Newcomers from Ireland and Germany were portrayed as Catholic usurpers invading the United States, taking jobs from native-born Americans and undermining national fabric, Levin said. Said Potok: "It's remarkable to look back at the nativist sentiments toward Catholics — it's very similar to what we're seeing with Mexicans now."

Today, many white supremacists blame immigrants, particularly Hispanics, for crime, struggling schools or unemployment, for instance. With many Americans already divided on how to revamp laws and practices to address the nation's swelling immigrant communities, immigration "is an issue that works for hate groups," Potok said. Many Latinos are feeling the effects firsthand. Last September, a Kentucky family originally from El Salvador found a wooden cross burning on their front lawn just weeks after they moved in. Earlier last year, a Latino teenager in Houston was brutally beaten and sodomized while one attacker screamed "White Power!" The victim barely survived, and one attacker was sentenced to life in prison.

"I've been doing (Hispanic advocacy work) for a long, long time and the atmosphere has never been as poisonous as it has been in the last few years," said Lisa Navarrete, a vice president at the National Council of La Raza. "The level of vitriol is new." Increasingly, fear permeates many Hispanic communities as individuals and businesses are targeted. Last year, La Raza held a workshop at its annual convention titled "Keeping Our Institutions Safe."

"It was very well attended, unfortunately," Navarrete said.

FRYandBENDER · #2 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 08:47 AM

Jeeze, I can see this sort of thing actually helping the illegal immigrant cause. You never hear about the moderate folks who don't hate the illegals, but want them to obey our laws. This will be broken down to people who just want to work here against the crazy ass white supremists. The middle of the road folks will get shit on.

CHUQ · #3 (**permalink**) 02-07-2007, 05:57 AM

I think part of the rise is from the media, they seem to do a wealth of stories on the subject of "us against them". I agree that the moderates seldom have a place in these reports. Sometimes, to me, it seems that the media is trying to invoke a mild form of "hate", for lack of a better word.

emptypepsi · #4 (**permalink**) 02-07-2007, 06:03 AM

FRY, well said. It's just as we didn't hear from legal immigrants during the illegal immigrant marches. Most legal immigrants that I know (and I know quite a few) and have spoken with are not ready to put up with another amnesty and have little sympathy for most of them. There were even a group of them denouncing it publicly, yet it didn't get much coverage.

It's likely to be the media spinning it into one extreme group vs another.

Troianii · #5 (**permalink**) 02-07-2007, 06:47 AM

Wel ask yourselves what will come from this story and if the suspected outcome is what the media source would like. I don't doubt the story, and I don't think that the media lies often but I think that they are very selective in what they do tell.

And, for anyone paying attention, it's going to become ridicilously clear in the elections. When asked about her past (Whitewater), Hillary will be the only candidate that will be able to say "I don't want to dwell on the past, I want to look forward into the future." That is IF she is asked about it. If any other candidate said that about his/her history they'd get blasted for it.

Ygorl · #6 (**permalink**) 02-07-2007, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neorealist234

this is natural blowback from immigration and islamic terrorism...not suprised, but...

let's get real...these groups (KKK, aryanation, etc.) are weak....very weak. weaker than the back pathars people. They are a drop in the bucket. So weak I'm suprised some journalist decided to write about it.

Anyone from the south or the rural midwest during the 60's and 70'? Now that was when hate groups were on the rise...they even had political lobbying power.
This author is just trying to make a mountain out of a molehill in order to either:

a. rally support for his cause of hating hate groups
b. rally support for the minorities that these groups hate against
c. draw attention to himself and get published nationally or all over the net

I think you've perfectly pegged it man :-)

Americans have become such a media controlled herd animal ...

.. well it makes sense LOL