The ‘profits’ of hate march on.
The number of American anti-government militia and “patriot” groups,largely dormant since their heyday in the mid-1990s, mushroomed at an”astonishing” rate last year, raising “grave concern” about thepotential for future domestic terrorism, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Thenonprofit (!!) civil rights organization, which tracks the hate movement andanti-government groups, counted 512 militias and related groups in2009, up from 149 groups the year before. And, it said, the movementhas added a layer of racism largely absent a decade ago.At the same time, the organization has observed a spike in what itcalls “nativist extremist groups,” defined as those that “confront orharass suspected immigrants,” to 309 groups last year, up from 173 theyear before.
The right of the people to strongly dissent at the actions of their government is now considered not only equitable with what a handful of criminals do, but, amazingly enough, with ‘Nazism.’ — Ed.
Membersof the National Socialist Movement, a white supremacist group, march ata rally against illegal immigration on Oct. 24 in Riverside, Calif. Thenumber of groups that “confront or harass suspected immigrants” hassurged from 173 in 2008 to 309 last year, the Southern Poverty LawCenter said.
Hate groups also grew slightly, from 926to 932, continuing what the SPLC said was a trend that began around2000, and rising 54 percent in the decade. The growth was “drivenlargely by an angry backlash against nonwhite immigration and, startingin the last year of that period, the economic meltdown and the climb topower of an African-American president.”
Fear and frustration were the fuel, the report said.