Sunday, February 25, 2007
After almost 150 years, Virginia apologizes for slavery
• House approves apology 96-0; Senate passes with unanimous voice vote
• Sponsors say they know of no other state that has apologized for slavery
• Measure also expresses regret for "exploitation of Native Americans"
• Virginia celebrating 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where slaves arrived
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- Meeting on the grounds of the former Confederate Capitol, the Virginia General Assembly voted unanimously Saturday to express "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.
Sponsors of the resolution say they know of no other state that has apologized for slavery, although Missouri lawmakers are considering such a measure. The resolution does not carry the weight of law but sends an important symbolic message, supporters said.
"This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution," said Delegate A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored it in the House of Delegates.
The resolution passed the House 96-0 and cleared the 40-member Senate on a unanimous voice vote. It does not require Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's approval.
The measure also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans."
The resolution was introduced as Virginia begins its celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. Richmond, home to a popular boulevard lined with statues of Confederate heroes, later became another point of arrival for Africans and a slave-trade hub.
The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding."
In Virginia, black voter turnout was suppressed with a poll tax and literacy tests before those practices were struck down by federal courts, and state leaders responded to federally ordered school desegregation with a "Massive Resistance" movement in the 1950s and early '60s.
The apology is the latest in a series of strides Virginia has made in overcoming its segregationist past. Virginia was the first state to elect a black governor -- L. Douglas Wilder in 1989 -- and the Legislature took a step toward atoning for Massive Resistance in 2004 by creating a scholarship fund for blacks whose schools were shut down between 1954 and 1964.
Among those voting for the measure was Delegate Frank D. Hargrove, an 80-year-old Republican who infuriated black leaders last month by saying "black citizens should get over" slavery.
After enduring a barrage of criticism, Hargrove successfully co-sponsored a resolution calling on Virginia to celebrate "Juneteenth," a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
CNN
More Minutemen Death Threats for Arizona Legislator
posted by Duke1676
For the second time in a month an Arizona state legislator has received a threatening letter after opposing anti-immigration advocates.
"I never thought that I would fear for my safety or the safety of my family when I took a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives," said Rep. Bill Konopnicki, "None of us should fear for our safety or of those we love."
Arizona Republic
The Safford Republican recently urged his colleagues to show some restraint when imposing business regulations intended to curb illegal immigration, and believes the letter was sent in connection with the issue.
Pausing several times to maintain his composure during a floor speech to fellow representatives, Konopnicki said that there was a "poisonous atmosphere" surrounding immigration and implored House Speaker Jim Weiers "to make this stop." Despite the threats, he said he would not be intimidated, adding, "We need to vote our conscience."
But this was not the first time an Arizona state Representative was threatened over pending legislation involving immigration.
In January, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema faced threats of everything from death to rape when she sponsored House Bill 2286 that would have outlawed border vigilante groups like the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
The bill, defeated earlier this month, would have made it a felony punishable by 18 months in prison for citizens to patrol for "illegal activity" when armed with a firearm or other weapon.
The bill had little chance of passing in the Republican controlled legislature, but Sinema, a longtime immigrants rights advocate, proposed it anyway.
What followed the introduction of the bill only proved Sinema's assertions that such groups attract the fringe elements of society. After the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps issued a press release criticizing her bill, hate e-mails started pouring in. "This is the really frightening extreme part of our community," Sinema said.
This particular proposal caught the attention of Minuteman members and their supporters, however. Word immediately went out over Internet message boards and blogs.
The e-mails piled up quickly, many of them not only expressing disagreement but threatening Sinema with everything from death to rape.
"The nature of what they were saying was scary," she said, "One wanted to kick me in the uterus until I couldn't have children. Others have all kinds of really lewd and awful threats. There's not even this shared respect for another human being that you may disagree with."
The state Department of Public Safety has worked with her over the threats, and when an unidentified package turned up at her office Jan. 22, the building was evacuated. (It turned out to be nothing.)
This wasn't driven by the media," Sinema said. "This came from the Internet. And I've got to tell you, it happens very, very quickly. And it goes in all kinds of crazy directions. There is an article out there saying that I'm in cahoots with a Mexican drug cartel. Stuff like that. It's insane. And, yes, if the goal of these people was to scare me, it worked."
No one should really be surprised when deviants like this resort to threats and intimidation. It's the bread and butter of their "movement", whether it's running around the desert trying to catch "border-crossers," standing at the local home improvement center shouting at passing cars, or threatening legislators who oppose them… It's all about intimidation and threats of violence.
They honestly believe they can bully their way into power.
If only they can shout loud enough, tell enough lies, spread enough hate, and scare enough people into submission, they believe they can force the American people into eventually accepting their warped, racist worldview. Like the brownshirts before them, these modern thugs with all their media contacts and favorable right-wing press, are nothing more than street bullies with delusions of grandeur.
Ironically the bill sponsored by Rep Sinema was reference titled "Domestic Terrorism "… a title that apply describes anyone who would try to subvert the democratic process with threats of death and rape.
http://migramatters.blogspot.com/
For the second time in a month an Arizona state legislator has received a threatening letter after opposing anti-immigration advocates.
"I never thought that I would fear for my safety or the safety of my family when I took a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives," said Rep. Bill Konopnicki, "None of us should fear for our safety or of those we love."
Arizona Republic
The Safford Republican recently urged his colleagues to show some restraint when imposing business regulations intended to curb illegal immigration, and believes the letter was sent in connection with the issue.
Pausing several times to maintain his composure during a floor speech to fellow representatives, Konopnicki said that there was a "poisonous atmosphere" surrounding immigration and implored House Speaker Jim Weiers "to make this stop." Despite the threats, he said he would not be intimidated, adding, "We need to vote our conscience."
But this was not the first time an Arizona state Representative was threatened over pending legislation involving immigration.
In January, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema faced threats of everything from death to rape when she sponsored House Bill 2286 that would have outlawed border vigilante groups like the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
The bill, defeated earlier this month, would have made it a felony punishable by 18 months in prison for citizens to patrol for "illegal activity" when armed with a firearm or other weapon.
The bill had little chance of passing in the Republican controlled legislature, but Sinema, a longtime immigrants rights advocate, proposed it anyway.
What followed the introduction of the bill only proved Sinema's assertions that such groups attract the fringe elements of society. After the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps issued a press release criticizing her bill, hate e-mails started pouring in. "This is the really frightening extreme part of our community," Sinema said.
This particular proposal caught the attention of Minuteman members and their supporters, however. Word immediately went out over Internet message boards and blogs.
The e-mails piled up quickly, many of them not only expressing disagreement but threatening Sinema with everything from death to rape.
"The nature of what they were saying was scary," she said, "One wanted to kick me in the uterus until I couldn't have children. Others have all kinds of really lewd and awful threats. There's not even this shared respect for another human being that you may disagree with."
The state Department of Public Safety has worked with her over the threats, and when an unidentified package turned up at her office Jan. 22, the building was evacuated. (It turned out to be nothing.)
This wasn't driven by the media," Sinema said. "This came from the Internet. And I've got to tell you, it happens very, very quickly. And it goes in all kinds of crazy directions. There is an article out there saying that I'm in cahoots with a Mexican drug cartel. Stuff like that. It's insane. And, yes, if the goal of these people was to scare me, it worked."
No one should really be surprised when deviants like this resort to threats and intimidation. It's the bread and butter of their "movement", whether it's running around the desert trying to catch "border-crossers," standing at the local home improvement center shouting at passing cars, or threatening legislators who oppose them… It's all about intimidation and threats of violence.
They honestly believe they can bully their way into power.
If only they can shout loud enough, tell enough lies, spread enough hate, and scare enough people into submission, they believe they can force the American people into eventually accepting their warped, racist worldview. Like the brownshirts before them, these modern thugs with all their media contacts and favorable right-wing press, are nothing more than street bullies with delusions of grandeur.
Ironically the bill sponsored by Rep Sinema was reference titled "Domestic Terrorism "… a title that apply describes anyone who would try to subvert the democratic process with threats of death and rape.
http://migramatters.blogspot.com/
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Center sues Klansmen on behalf of beaten youth
Feb. 22, 2007 - The Center filed suit today against two Klansmen who savagely beat a teenage boy at a carnival in Kentucky last July.
The lawsuit defendants - Jarred Hensley, 24, of Cincinnati and Andrew Watkins, 26, of Louisville - are members of the Imperial Klans of America, the nation's largest Klan group at the time of the assault. In separate legal action, they were each sentenced today to three years after pleading guilty to second-degree assault.
Jarred Hensley (left) and Andrew Watkins
The Klansmen apparently targeted the 16-year-old boy, whose father is a Kuna Indian from Panama, because they thought he was Hispanic. They beat, kicked and spit on him during the attack, which occurred shortly after midnight at the Meade County Fairgrounds in Brandenburg, Ken. They also shouted racial epithets and threw whiskey on him.
The teenager suffered two cracked ribs, a broken left forearm, multiple cuts and bruises, and jaw injuries that required extensive dental repair. Traumatized by the beating, he is seeking mental health treatment.
The Klansmen were arrested at the scene and initially charged with disorderly conduct and alcohol intoxication in a public place. On Aug. 10, Hensley and Watkins appeared in court and were arrested on assault charges. Hensley was wearing the same black boots with red laces that he wore during the assault.
A Meade County grand jury on Sept. 11 indicted the men on second-degree assault as a hate crime, alcohol intoxication in a public place and disorderly conduct. They have remained in jail since their arrest.
The Center's lawsuit, filed in Meade County Circuit Court, seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.
SPLCenter
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Radical Propaganda
Report: Washington Times Editors Motivated by Racism
SPLCenter
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Patrick Buchanan: In His Own Words
Excerpts from State of Emergency, The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America
"Our ancestors were not paralyzed by guilt. Confident in their culture and civilization, they believed in their superiority over what Kipling had called the 'lesser breeds without the law.'"
"Was not Western civilization vastly superior to the indigenous civilizations it encountered and crushed, from the Aztecs and Incas in the Americas to the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist civilizations from Africa to the Far East?"
"Against the will of the vast majority of Americans, America is being transformed ... we are witness to one of the greatest tragedies in human history."
"Though the South remained segregated [before the Civil Rights movement], culturally, we were one."
"California is becoming -- indeed, has become -- a Third World state."
"Thus the world's finest five-star hotel, the United States of America, becomes the flophouse for the planet."
"Since Americans of European descent -- unlike Germans -- are not into sackcloth-and-ashes, but take immense pride in their ancestor's achievements and bridle at reverse discrimination, it is hard to see a happy future of peace and reconciliation [if white guilt continues]."
"This idea of America as a creedal nation bound together not by 'blood or birth or soil' but by 'ideals' that must be taught and learned ... is demonstrably false."
"America faces an existential crisis. If we do not get control of our borders, by 2050 Americans of European descent will be a minority in the nation their ancestors created and built."
"A new border war has begun with the first signs of an 'intifada' to retake control of the Southwest."
SPLCenter
"Our ancestors were not paralyzed by guilt. Confident in their culture and civilization, they believed in their superiority over what Kipling had called the 'lesser breeds without the law.'"
"Was not Western civilization vastly superior to the indigenous civilizations it encountered and crushed, from the Aztecs and Incas in the Americas to the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist civilizations from Africa to the Far East?"
"Against the will of the vast majority of Americans, America is being transformed ... we are witness to one of the greatest tragedies in human history."
"Though the South remained segregated [before the Civil Rights movement], culturally, we were one."
"California is becoming -- indeed, has become -- a Third World state."
"Thus the world's finest five-star hotel, the United States of America, becomes the flophouse for the planet."
"Since Americans of European descent -- unlike Germans -- are not into sackcloth-and-ashes, but take immense pride in their ancestor's achievements and bridle at reverse discrimination, it is hard to see a happy future of peace and reconciliation [if white guilt continues]."
"This idea of America as a creedal nation bound together not by 'blood or birth or soil' but by 'ideals' that must be taught and learned ... is demonstrably false."
"America faces an existential crisis. If we do not get control of our borders, by 2050 Americans of European descent will be a minority in the nation their ancestors created and built."
"A new border war has begun with the first signs of an 'intifada' to retake control of the Southwest."
SPLCenter
Hawking Racism
Pat Buchanan's latest book is a white nationalist screed. But that hasn't stopped it from climbing the best-seller charts.
by Alexander Zaitchik
Since the start of his latest book tour, Patrick Buchanan has appeared on just about every major television and cable network in the country, often more than once. He's been on NBC's "Today" show, the three most watched news programs on FOX, CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," and countless dozens of radio programs. Together, these appearances have made Buchanan's new book, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, a runaway bestseller.
The one-time presidential candidate is no stranger to the major media, being personally acquainted with many of those who interviewed him. A veteran columnist with the Creators Syndicate and an analyst for MSNBC, Buchanan was a founding member of three prime-time network or cable channel talk shows and has written for many of the nation's major newspapers and magazines. That might explain the kid-gloves treatment he got from virtually all his interviewers, most of whom did not seem to have read or understood the book they were helping to publicize.
In fact, the book reflects racial views that have now veered to the extreme. White America is changing color, Buchanan argues -- "one of the greatest tragedies in human history." The Mexican government is involved in a plot to take over the Southwestern United States, and parts of this country already look like the "Third World." America, despite what its founders wrote, was a nation formed not on the basis of creed but rather a homogenous ethnic culture. To put it plainly, State of Emergency is a white nationalist tract. The thesis is that America must retain a white majority to survive as a nation. It is rooted in a blood-and-soil nationalism that is more blood than soil. The echoes of Nazi ideology are clear and chilling. As Buchanan helpfully explained to John King, who was interviewing him in one of his several CNN appearances: "We gotta get into race and ethnic questions."
State of Emergency unapologetically reflects Buchanan's insistence on the centrality of race to the United States and its culture. "This idea of America as a creedal nation bound together not by 'blood or birth or soil' but by 'ideals' that must be taught and learned … is demonstrably false," Buchanan writes in the book.
Simply put, America is not a nation of ideas. It is a nation of people -- white people. Buchanan is especially overt in making this case when he endorses the view of his late mentor and editor, Sam Francis, that American and European civilizations could never have been created without the "genetic endowments" of whites. He goes on to describe discussions of race as "the Great Taboo"; to ignore the role of race, he adds, is "like not telling one's doctor of a recurring pain that could kill you."
None of this seems to bother Buchanan's cheerleaders.
"Congratulations on the response to your book," said Lou Dobbs, the CNN anchorman who has made a profession of attacking illegal immigration as he introduced his old CNN colleague. Dobbs then offered up his own view that President Bush was carrying on an "outright war" against middle-class Americans by allowing illegal immigration. Wrapping up the interview, Dobbs concluded: "The book is State of Emergency. It's No. 3 on the best-selling list. … I'm going to repeat it one more time. The book is State of Emergency. Pat Buchanan, always good to talk to you. … [Y]ou've got a lot of readers, so keep it rolling."
Dobbs isn't the only one helping Buchanan to keep his book rolling.
James Edwards, a former volunteer in Buchanan's 2000 presidential campaign and currently host of the Memphis AM radio show "The Political Cesspool," did his part, too. But this show was no mainstream broadcast. It has featured an array of past and present Klansmen and neo-Nazis, a veritable "Who's Who" of the radical right. In an exultant E-mail sent out by the radio show after Buchanan was featured, long-time white supremacist Harold Covington, writing under the alias Winston Smith, celebrated. "Don't ever let anyone tell you that this broadcast doesn't matter, my friends," he wrote, "because when the likes of Pat Buchanan agrees to be on your program, he does so only after his people have researched the program and decided it's in their interest."
State of Emergency is not the first book to reflect Buchanan's racialist philosophy. In 2002, Buchanan's The Death of the West warned white Christendom against a looming demographic tipping point . (The book's message so energized former Klan leader David Duke that Duke fantasized on his own radio show last year about winning the presidency with Buchanan as his running mate.) It was in that book -- edited by Francis, chief ideologue of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens -- that Buchanan first began using the explicit language of white nationalism. In his footnotes to The Death of the West, the former Nixon speechwriter even cited the late William Pierce, author of the race-war novel The Turner Diaries and the founder of America's then-leading neo-Nazi group, to back up his own arguments.
Once again, to make his case in State of Emergency, Buchanan relies on a trove of extreme-right sources. His urgent call for thwarting the "invasion" of non-European immigrants leans heavily on material written by hate group members or postings on hate sites, with citations to nearly every sector of the hate movement, from neo-Nazis to neo-Confederates. He cites the work of white supremacist James Lubinskas; Edward Rubinstein of a white nationalist think tank called the National Policy Institute; Clyde Wilson, a board member of the racist and secessionist League of the South; and Wayne Lutton, a veteran immigrant- and gay-hater. Buchanan also quotes Lutton's anti-immigrant hate journal The Social Contract.
Buchanan is equally schooled in hate from abroad, mentioning work of British white supremacist Derek Turner that was published in the American hate journal The Occidental Quarterly, which argues that "the civilization and free governments that whites have created" will collapse as they become a minority. And Buchanan knows the oldies-but-goodies, quoting English politician Enoch Powell approvingly at the beginning of his final chapter. Powell was dumped by the Tory leadership in 1968 for claiming that non-white immigration would cause "rivers of blood" to flow in Britain; he has been a white nationalist icon ever since.
Buchanan is especially enamored of his deceased friend Sam Francis, the white supremacist who was fired in 1995 by The Washington Times for breaking the "race taboo" and went on to a 10-year career editing the Citizens Informer, a bimonthly newsletter put out by the Council of Conservative Citizens, which grew out of the segregationist White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and '60s. Far more than Buchanan's friend and editor, Francis was his mentor. Buchanan knows Francis' racist oeuvre inside and out, citing some seven Francis pieces. Buchanan's basic argument in State of Emergency -- that America should be a white country and that dark-skinned immigrants threaten it -- was made by Francis for years.
Now, through his old friend Buchanan, Francis continues to be heard from beyond the grave.
Intelligence Report
Winter 2007
SPLCenter
by Alexander Zaitchik
Since the start of his latest book tour, Patrick Buchanan has appeared on just about every major television and cable network in the country, often more than once. He's been on NBC's "Today" show, the three most watched news programs on FOX, CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," and countless dozens of radio programs. Together, these appearances have made Buchanan's new book, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, a runaway bestseller.
The one-time presidential candidate is no stranger to the major media, being personally acquainted with many of those who interviewed him. A veteran columnist with the Creators Syndicate and an analyst for MSNBC, Buchanan was a founding member of three prime-time network or cable channel talk shows and has written for many of the nation's major newspapers and magazines. That might explain the kid-gloves treatment he got from virtually all his interviewers, most of whom did not seem to have read or understood the book they were helping to publicize.
In fact, the book reflects racial views that have now veered to the extreme. White America is changing color, Buchanan argues -- "one of the greatest tragedies in human history." The Mexican government is involved in a plot to take over the Southwestern United States, and parts of this country already look like the "Third World." America, despite what its founders wrote, was a nation formed not on the basis of creed but rather a homogenous ethnic culture. To put it plainly, State of Emergency is a white nationalist tract. The thesis is that America must retain a white majority to survive as a nation. It is rooted in a blood-and-soil nationalism that is more blood than soil. The echoes of Nazi ideology are clear and chilling. As Buchanan helpfully explained to John King, who was interviewing him in one of his several CNN appearances: "We gotta get into race and ethnic questions."
State of Emergency unapologetically reflects Buchanan's insistence on the centrality of race to the United States and its culture. "This idea of America as a creedal nation bound together not by 'blood or birth or soil' but by 'ideals' that must be taught and learned … is demonstrably false," Buchanan writes in the book.
Simply put, America is not a nation of ideas. It is a nation of people -- white people. Buchanan is especially overt in making this case when he endorses the view of his late mentor and editor, Sam Francis, that American and European civilizations could never have been created without the "genetic endowments" of whites. He goes on to describe discussions of race as "the Great Taboo"; to ignore the role of race, he adds, is "like not telling one's doctor of a recurring pain that could kill you."
None of this seems to bother Buchanan's cheerleaders.
"Congratulations on the response to your book," said Lou Dobbs, the CNN anchorman who has made a profession of attacking illegal immigration as he introduced his old CNN colleague. Dobbs then offered up his own view that President Bush was carrying on an "outright war" against middle-class Americans by allowing illegal immigration. Wrapping up the interview, Dobbs concluded: "The book is State of Emergency. It's No. 3 on the best-selling list. … I'm going to repeat it one more time. The book is State of Emergency. Pat Buchanan, always good to talk to you. … [Y]ou've got a lot of readers, so keep it rolling."
Dobbs isn't the only one helping Buchanan to keep his book rolling.
James Edwards, a former volunteer in Buchanan's 2000 presidential campaign and currently host of the Memphis AM radio show "The Political Cesspool," did his part, too. But this show was no mainstream broadcast. It has featured an array of past and present Klansmen and neo-Nazis, a veritable "Who's Who" of the radical right. In an exultant E-mail sent out by the radio show after Buchanan was featured, long-time white supremacist Harold Covington, writing under the alias Winston Smith, celebrated. "Don't ever let anyone tell you that this broadcast doesn't matter, my friends," he wrote, "because when the likes of Pat Buchanan agrees to be on your program, he does so only after his people have researched the program and decided it's in their interest."
State of Emergency is not the first book to reflect Buchanan's racialist philosophy. In 2002, Buchanan's The Death of the West warned white Christendom against a looming demographic tipping point . (The book's message so energized former Klan leader David Duke that Duke fantasized on his own radio show last year about winning the presidency with Buchanan as his running mate.) It was in that book -- edited by Francis, chief ideologue of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens -- that Buchanan first began using the explicit language of white nationalism. In his footnotes to The Death of the West, the former Nixon speechwriter even cited the late William Pierce, author of the race-war novel The Turner Diaries and the founder of America's then-leading neo-Nazi group, to back up his own arguments.
Once again, to make his case in State of Emergency, Buchanan relies on a trove of extreme-right sources. His urgent call for thwarting the "invasion" of non-European immigrants leans heavily on material written by hate group members or postings on hate sites, with citations to nearly every sector of the hate movement, from neo-Nazis to neo-Confederates. He cites the work of white supremacist James Lubinskas; Edward Rubinstein of a white nationalist think tank called the National Policy Institute; Clyde Wilson, a board member of the racist and secessionist League of the South; and Wayne Lutton, a veteran immigrant- and gay-hater. Buchanan also quotes Lutton's anti-immigrant hate journal The Social Contract.
Buchanan is equally schooled in hate from abroad, mentioning work of British white supremacist Derek Turner that was published in the American hate journal The Occidental Quarterly, which argues that "the civilization and free governments that whites have created" will collapse as they become a minority. And Buchanan knows the oldies-but-goodies, quoting English politician Enoch Powell approvingly at the beginning of his final chapter. Powell was dumped by the Tory leadership in 1968 for claiming that non-white immigration would cause "rivers of blood" to flow in Britain; he has been a white nationalist icon ever since.
Buchanan is especially enamored of his deceased friend Sam Francis, the white supremacist who was fired in 1995 by The Washington Times for breaking the "race taboo" and went on to a 10-year career editing the Citizens Informer, a bimonthly newsletter put out by the Council of Conservative Citizens, which grew out of the segregationist White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and '60s. Far more than Buchanan's friend and editor, Francis was his mentor. Buchanan knows Francis' racist oeuvre inside and out, citing some seven Francis pieces. Buchanan's basic argument in State of Emergency -- that America should be a white country and that dark-skinned immigrants threaten it -- was made by Francis for years.
Now, through his old friend Buchanan, Francis continues to be heard from beyond the grave.
Intelligence Report
Winter 2007
SPLCenter
Race may be reason for attack
Man taunted, hit by youths while on bus
By Janice Kayser
Staff Writer
Posted: Feb. 8, 2007
A Wauwatosa man who was attacked on a county bus in what police say might have been a racially motivated incident said in an interview Feb. 6 that he has no harsh feelings toward the youths who were involved.
"They were ignorant kids and it's a shame there is that ignorance in this city, but I don't hold any hard feelings against anyone," said the victim, a 20-year-old white man.
Police are seeking a battery charge with a hate-crime enhancer against a 16-year-old black youth accused of assaulting the man after he boarded the bus at Mayfair Mall last week. During the attack, the youth called the man "cracker" and other racial slurs, police said.
"I was just in complete shock that something like this can happen, it was just complete unnecessary violence," the man said.
He said he believes the attack was racially motivated because of the derogatory names used against him during the attack.
The man said that while he will think twice about boarding a bus in the future, "I don't want something like this to stop me from living my life."
Only white on bus
The incident happened Jan. 30, when the 20-year-old Wauwatosa man boarded a county bus outside Mayfair Mall about 7 p.m. As the bus traveled east on North Avenue, several teenage boys who were behind the man started pulling on his hair.
According to police:
At first, the man told police he ignored the taunting but after a few more times he turned around and told the group to "relax."
When the man turned back around, one of the teens kicked him in the back of the head. When the bus stopped in the 6700 block of W. North Avenue, the man got up to get off. As he rose, one of the teens punched him in the face and the back of the head. The man made his way to the front of the bus and the teens exited the bus from the rear, but they appeared to be waiting for the man to exit, the bus driver told police. At that point, the driver instructed the man to stay on the bus while she called police.
One of the boys got back on the bus and attacked the man, striking him with his fists. During the attack, the boy kept calling the victim derogatory names, according to the driver and the victim.
The boy then got off the bus and fled on foot with his friends. The youth was later apprehended near the 6000 block of West Garfield Avenue.
Police reviewed the security surveillance video from the bus and saw that the victim was the only white person on the bus. When asked by police and interviewed by Milwaukee County Transit System security officials, none of the estimated 50 passengers said they witnessed the attack.
The responding officer said in his report that it appears the victim was targeted solely because of his race. The videotape showed the victim enter the bus and do nothing to provoke the assault.
"From this information, the possibility exists there could have been a racial motivation to this battery, but this is now for the district attorney's office to review and decide," Wauwatosa Police Lt. Dominic Leone said.
The boy was referred to Children's Court on a charge of battery with a hate-crime enhancer. The victim did not want to be taken to the hospital.
'Sad and disturbing'
The victim's mother said her family is having a difficult time understanding why someone would attack her son, whom she describes as "gentle and non-threatening."
"He was just on his way home from a movie and they attacked him," she said. "They broke his glasses, and his eyes were so swollen he couldn't put his contacts in. I just can't believe this happened."
The mother said her son called her after police arrived on site, and he was extremely distraught.
She does not want any of her children to take the bus anymore, she said.
"I am just thankful he wasn't more seriously hurt," she said. "What if these guys had pulled out a knife or a gun?
"Apparently racial hatred goes both ways," she said. "I didn't even know what a 'cracker' was until this happened. Someone had to explain it to me. It's all just very sad and disturbing."
Wauwatosanow
By Janice Kayser
Staff Writer
Posted: Feb. 8, 2007
A Wauwatosa man who was attacked on a county bus in what police say might have been a racially motivated incident said in an interview Feb. 6 that he has no harsh feelings toward the youths who were involved.
"They were ignorant kids and it's a shame there is that ignorance in this city, but I don't hold any hard feelings against anyone," said the victim, a 20-year-old white man.
Police are seeking a battery charge with a hate-crime enhancer against a 16-year-old black youth accused of assaulting the man after he boarded the bus at Mayfair Mall last week. During the attack, the youth called the man "cracker" and other racial slurs, police said.
"I was just in complete shock that something like this can happen, it was just complete unnecessary violence," the man said.
He said he believes the attack was racially motivated because of the derogatory names used against him during the attack.
The man said that while he will think twice about boarding a bus in the future, "I don't want something like this to stop me from living my life."
Only white on bus
The incident happened Jan. 30, when the 20-year-old Wauwatosa man boarded a county bus outside Mayfair Mall about 7 p.m. As the bus traveled east on North Avenue, several teenage boys who were behind the man started pulling on his hair.
According to police:
At first, the man told police he ignored the taunting but after a few more times he turned around and told the group to "relax."
When the man turned back around, one of the teens kicked him in the back of the head. When the bus stopped in the 6700 block of W. North Avenue, the man got up to get off. As he rose, one of the teens punched him in the face and the back of the head. The man made his way to the front of the bus and the teens exited the bus from the rear, but they appeared to be waiting for the man to exit, the bus driver told police. At that point, the driver instructed the man to stay on the bus while she called police.
One of the boys got back on the bus and attacked the man, striking him with his fists. During the attack, the boy kept calling the victim derogatory names, according to the driver and the victim.
The boy then got off the bus and fled on foot with his friends. The youth was later apprehended near the 6000 block of West Garfield Avenue.
Police reviewed the security surveillance video from the bus and saw that the victim was the only white person on the bus. When asked by police and interviewed by Milwaukee County Transit System security officials, none of the estimated 50 passengers said they witnessed the attack.
The responding officer said in his report that it appears the victim was targeted solely because of his race. The videotape showed the victim enter the bus and do nothing to provoke the assault.
"From this information, the possibility exists there could have been a racial motivation to this battery, but this is now for the district attorney's office to review and decide," Wauwatosa Police Lt. Dominic Leone said.
The boy was referred to Children's Court on a charge of battery with a hate-crime enhancer. The victim did not want to be taken to the hospital.
'Sad and disturbing'
The victim's mother said her family is having a difficult time understanding why someone would attack her son, whom she describes as "gentle and non-threatening."
"He was just on his way home from a movie and they attacked him," she said. "They broke his glasses, and his eyes were so swollen he couldn't put his contacts in. I just can't believe this happened."
The mother said her son called her after police arrived on site, and he was extremely distraught.
She does not want any of her children to take the bus anymore, she said.
"I am just thankful he wasn't more seriously hurt," she said. "What if these guys had pulled out a knife or a gun?
"Apparently racial hatred goes both ways," she said. "I didn't even know what a 'cracker' was until this happened. Someone had to explain it to me. It's all just very sad and disturbing."
Wauwatosanow
Guards: Teen 'prank' crosses line
Molotov cocktail, fire, epithets not a normal attack
By Keith Reid
Record Staff Writer
February 11, 2007 6:00 AM
Security guards know their job description includes a little bit of danger. After all, if nobody was worried about the safety of their property or personal well-being, there wouldn't be much need for people to hire a security guard.
But some security guards say a Feb. 3 attack on two Securitas Security Company guards in Stockton's upscale Brookside neighborhood crosses the line.
According to the Stockton police, four teenage boys poured gasoline into two strips on the street, lured two security guards there, lit the gas on fire, threw a Molotov cocktail and hurled racial epithets at the guards. One guard was black and the other Asian American.
The teenagers told the police it was meant as a prank.
Securitas Security officials also have called the incident a prank, but professional guards from other agencies say they would not be taking the incident so lightly if it happened to them.
"I would not consider that a prank," said Troy Coleman, owner of Coleman Security, which operates in Oakland and San Francisco. "I would consider that attempted murder."
Security guards certainly face a little bit of danger in their everyday routine, Coleman said, but it usually involves trying to stop a burglar or breaking up a fight.
Being attacked, especially by fire, is not normal, Coleman said.
"I can't say that it never happens," he said, "but I've never heard of anything like a Molotov cocktail being thrown at a guard."
Securitas Northern California Division Manager Terry Brady told The Record that the incident is "nothing in our world," noting that Securitas employs 6,500 guards in Northern California and some have been shot or attacked.
Lawrence Garcia, who works for Ameriguard Security Services in Fresno, was told of the incident by The Record. He said he would consider such an attack to be criminal activity on a number of levels.
"It's definitely not a prank," Garcia said. "The first thing you have to realize is that a Molotov cocktail is illegal. Lighting a fire on a city street is illegal activity."
The teens, who were cited and released into the custody of their parents that night, already face felony charges of conspiracy and using a destructive device to terrorize or intimidate.
Stockton police have said they are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, and the San Joaquin County district attorney will decide whether to file hate-crime charges against the four teens, whose names have not been released.
Contact reporter Keith Reid at (209) 367-7428 or kreid@recordnet.com
RecordNet
By Keith Reid
Record Staff Writer
February 11, 2007 6:00 AM
Security guards know their job description includes a little bit of danger. After all, if nobody was worried about the safety of their property or personal well-being, there wouldn't be much need for people to hire a security guard.
But some security guards say a Feb. 3 attack on two Securitas Security Company guards in Stockton's upscale Brookside neighborhood crosses the line.
According to the Stockton police, four teenage boys poured gasoline into two strips on the street, lured two security guards there, lit the gas on fire, threw a Molotov cocktail and hurled racial epithets at the guards. One guard was black and the other Asian American.
The teenagers told the police it was meant as a prank.
Securitas Security officials also have called the incident a prank, but professional guards from other agencies say they would not be taking the incident so lightly if it happened to them.
"I would not consider that a prank," said Troy Coleman, owner of Coleman Security, which operates in Oakland and San Francisco. "I would consider that attempted murder."
Security guards certainly face a little bit of danger in their everyday routine, Coleman said, but it usually involves trying to stop a burglar or breaking up a fight.
Being attacked, especially by fire, is not normal, Coleman said.
"I can't say that it never happens," he said, "but I've never heard of anything like a Molotov cocktail being thrown at a guard."
Securitas Northern California Division Manager Terry Brady told The Record that the incident is "nothing in our world," noting that Securitas employs 6,500 guards in Northern California and some have been shot or attacked.
Lawrence Garcia, who works for Ameriguard Security Services in Fresno, was told of the incident by The Record. He said he would consider such an attack to be criminal activity on a number of levels.
"It's definitely not a prank," Garcia said. "The first thing you have to realize is that a Molotov cocktail is illegal. Lighting a fire on a city street is illegal activity."
The teens, who were cited and released into the custody of their parents that night, already face felony charges of conspiracy and using a destructive device to terrorize or intimidate.
Stockton police have said they are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, and the San Joaquin County district attorney will decide whether to file hate-crime charges against the four teens, whose names have not been released.
Contact reporter Keith Reid at (209) 367-7428 or kreid@recordnet.com
RecordNet
Feud among San Diego Minutemen erupts
By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY -- The San Diego Minutemen, one of the region's most conspicuous anti-illegal immigration groups, has lost at least one of its top members after a recent bitter internal feud.
The group's founder, Jeff Schwilk, ousted Christie Czajkowski, a former spokeswoman and one of the group's most active members, after an angry dispute Sunday in his Oceanside home. He also filed a temporary restraining order against her earlier this week.
The argument, which was caught on video and broadcast over the Internet, apparently stemmed from a disagreement over who owned videos the group posts on its Web sites, according to Czajkowski. She claims she owns most of the videos and asked that they be removed.
The San Diego Minutemen are a loose-knit group of activists against illegal immigration. The group frequently organizes rallies to protest against hiring day laborers in North County.
Czajkowski often films the group's rallies. Schwilk said the videos belong to the group.
"He was mad when I simply asked him if you don't like the videos, don't use them for your self-promotion," she said. "It's that simple."
In documents filed in court, Schwilk alleges Czajkowski showed up uninvited at his home during a Super Bowl party. He said he asked her to leave after she went into his office and turned on his computer without his permission.
"I found her, we argued and I told her to leave my house repeatedly," he wrote in a statement about the incident. "She refused. She began filming me and harassing. I physically removed her."
The two said they dated for a while but ended their relationship weeks ago. Czajkowski said she was invited to the party and was about to retrieve her keys when he grabbed her and pushed her down the hall.
Czajkowski said the video she took of the incident, one that she posted on the Internet but was later removed, frazzled some of the group's members and others.
"I have received numerous letters from everywhere today from people that are enraged with his action," she wrote in an e-mail to the North County Times. "Jeff has been more concerned with his own agenda and has pushed a lot of people away."
The video shows an angry argument laced with profanities. Schwilk is shown screaming at Czajkowski to get out of his house while her two young children plead with her to "go home."
Schwilk founded the San Diego Minutemen in late 2005. He has said the group has about 350 members, but some individuals identify themselves as "independent" Minutemen.
Czajkowski said the group exists only as an "email list."
Penny Magnotto, who has attended the group's rallies but considers herself an independent Minuteman activist, described Schwilk's leadership style as "pushy," but added that the movement is strong and unlikely to fall apart.
"For the most part, I feel people willÝput the goals of our movement aboveÝall the foolishness," she said.
Schwilk said Wednesday that Czajkowski's ouster from the group had nothing to do with Sunday's incident or with the group. But he said in an e-mail to his group earlier this week that she was operating outside of the group's guidelines and that she insisted on removing the videos from the group's Web site.
"She also has her own strong opinions about confronting our opposition as well as law enforcement," he wrote. "She is now an independent Minuteman and free to do her own thing as long as she does not harm the overall Minuteman movement."
The rules, posted on the group's Web site, www.sandiegominutemen.com, include "never engage in conversation" with counterprotesters, "never speak or gesture to any suspected illegal aliens" and "follow all instructions by law enforcement."
Migrant rights advocate Claudia Smith, an opponent of the Minutemen, said she has seen little difference in what members of the group, such as Czajkowski and Schwilk, do during their protests at day-labor sites.
"It's interesting that he would accuse her" of breaking the rules, Smith said. "He's the first to violate all of them."
A court hearing for the restraining order is scheduled February 22 in Vista.
-- Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.
NCTimes
NORTH COUNTY -- The San Diego Minutemen, one of the region's most conspicuous anti-illegal immigration groups, has lost at least one of its top members after a recent bitter internal feud.
The group's founder, Jeff Schwilk, ousted Christie Czajkowski, a former spokeswoman and one of the group's most active members, after an angry dispute Sunday in his Oceanside home. He also filed a temporary restraining order against her earlier this week.
The argument, which was caught on video and broadcast over the Internet, apparently stemmed from a disagreement over who owned videos the group posts on its Web sites, according to Czajkowski. She claims she owns most of the videos and asked that they be removed.
The San Diego Minutemen are a loose-knit group of activists against illegal immigration. The group frequently organizes rallies to protest against hiring day laborers in North County.
Czajkowski often films the group's rallies. Schwilk said the videos belong to the group.
"He was mad when I simply asked him if you don't like the videos, don't use them for your self-promotion," she said. "It's that simple."
In documents filed in court, Schwilk alleges Czajkowski showed up uninvited at his home during a Super Bowl party. He said he asked her to leave after she went into his office and turned on his computer without his permission.
"I found her, we argued and I told her to leave my house repeatedly," he wrote in a statement about the incident. "She refused. She began filming me and harassing. I physically removed her."
The two said they dated for a while but ended their relationship weeks ago. Czajkowski said she was invited to the party and was about to retrieve her keys when he grabbed her and pushed her down the hall.
Czajkowski said the video she took of the incident, one that she posted on the Internet but was later removed, frazzled some of the group's members and others.
"I have received numerous letters from everywhere today from people that are enraged with his action," she wrote in an e-mail to the North County Times. "Jeff has been more concerned with his own agenda and has pushed a lot of people away."
The video shows an angry argument laced with profanities. Schwilk is shown screaming at Czajkowski to get out of his house while her two young children plead with her to "go home."
Schwilk founded the San Diego Minutemen in late 2005. He has said the group has about 350 members, but some individuals identify themselves as "independent" Minutemen.
Czajkowski said the group exists only as an "email list."
Penny Magnotto, who has attended the group's rallies but considers herself an independent Minuteman activist, described Schwilk's leadership style as "pushy," but added that the movement is strong and unlikely to fall apart.
"For the most part, I feel people willÝput the goals of our movement aboveÝall the foolishness," she said.
Schwilk said Wednesday that Czajkowski's ouster from the group had nothing to do with Sunday's incident or with the group. But he said in an e-mail to his group earlier this week that she was operating outside of the group's guidelines and that she insisted on removing the videos from the group's Web site.
"She also has her own strong opinions about confronting our opposition as well as law enforcement," he wrote. "She is now an independent Minuteman and free to do her own thing as long as she does not harm the overall Minuteman movement."
The rules, posted on the group's Web site, www.sandiegominutemen.com, include "never engage in conversation" with counterprotesters, "never speak or gesture to any suspected illegal aliens" and "follow all instructions by law enforcement."
Migrant rights advocate Claudia Smith, an opponent of the Minutemen, said she has seen little difference in what members of the group, such as Czajkowski and Schwilk, do during their protests at day-labor sites.
"It's interesting that he would accuse her" of breaking the rules, Smith said. "He's the first to violate all of them."
A court hearing for the restraining order is scheduled February 22 in Vista.
-- Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.
NCTimes
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Man Stands Trial For Racially Motivated Killing
(AP) PHILADELPHIA A skinhead accused in a racially motivated murder nearly two decades ago had been cruising around looking for a black man to kill before he fatally shot a man headed for a night on the town, his friend testified.
Thomas Gibison, 35, of Newark, Del., was arrested in November and charged with murder and ethnic intimidation in the April 16, 1989, shooting death of Aaron Wood. Common Pleas Judge David Shutter on Wednesday ordered Gibison to stand trial on the charges.
Gibison, then 17, and Craig Peterson, 19 at the time, were driving around Philadelphia, looking to kill a black man, an act they viewed as a rite of passage among white supremacists, Peterson testified at the preliminary hearing.
Peterson said he borrowed his mother's car and the two drove to Wilmington, Del., but they "didn't see anybody." They then headed to Philadelphia.
"Our target was the black man," he told Assistant District Attorney Roger King during Gibison's preliminary hearing Wednesday.
When the duo got near Girard College in North Philadelphia, Gibison spotted Wood, 35, walking under a streetlight. "There's one right there!" Peterson recalled Gibison saying.
Peterson said he pulled up and Gibison rolled down the passenger-side window, fatally shooting Wood in the head with a handgun. The two then sped back to Delaware, he said.
Gibison's former girlfriend, Jennifer Kaczmarczyk, testified that he had told her he shot a black man in Philadelphia. He was initially a nonracist "blue-collar" skinhead, with patriotic views, but later become involved in the Nationalist Nazi movement, she said.
Asked what Peterson's role in the slaying had been, Kaczmarczyk said, "He just drove."
Michael Farrell, Gibison's attorney, has said his client has tattoos associated with the white supremacist ideology, but was not a member of any such group himself.
Peterson testified that the men were hoping the killing would earn them each a spider-web tattoo, a badge of status among white supremacists.
Gibison was arrested in November at his home in Delaware in what had been a cold case.
Philadelphia homicide detective Leon Lubiejewski testified that FBI agents working on a firearms case in Delaware contacted him last year to check on unsolved murders between January and May 1989. He said he narrowed down the cases to Wood's killing.
Ballistics tests later found that the markings on a pistol seized from Peterson's home were similar to those on the bullet taken from Wood's head, Lubiejewski said.
Peterson was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony and has not been charged in the killing, King said.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )
CBS
Thomas Gibison, 35, of Newark, Del., was arrested in November and charged with murder and ethnic intimidation in the April 16, 1989, shooting death of Aaron Wood. Common Pleas Judge David Shutter on Wednesday ordered Gibison to stand trial on the charges.
Gibison, then 17, and Craig Peterson, 19 at the time, were driving around Philadelphia, looking to kill a black man, an act they viewed as a rite of passage among white supremacists, Peterson testified at the preliminary hearing.
Peterson said he borrowed his mother's car and the two drove to Wilmington, Del., but they "didn't see anybody." They then headed to Philadelphia.
"Our target was the black man," he told Assistant District Attorney Roger King during Gibison's preliminary hearing Wednesday.
When the duo got near Girard College in North Philadelphia, Gibison spotted Wood, 35, walking under a streetlight. "There's one right there!" Peterson recalled Gibison saying.
Peterson said he pulled up and Gibison rolled down the passenger-side window, fatally shooting Wood in the head with a handgun. The two then sped back to Delaware, he said.
Gibison's former girlfriend, Jennifer Kaczmarczyk, testified that he had told her he shot a black man in Philadelphia. He was initially a nonracist "blue-collar" skinhead, with patriotic views, but later become involved in the Nationalist Nazi movement, she said.
Asked what Peterson's role in the slaying had been, Kaczmarczyk said, "He just drove."
Michael Farrell, Gibison's attorney, has said his client has tattoos associated with the white supremacist ideology, but was not a member of any such group himself.
Peterson testified that the men were hoping the killing would earn them each a spider-web tattoo, a badge of status among white supremacists.
Gibison was arrested in November at his home in Delaware in what had been a cold case.
Philadelphia homicide detective Leon Lubiejewski testified that FBI agents working on a firearms case in Delaware contacted him last year to check on unsolved murders between January and May 1989. He said he narrowed down the cases to Wood's killing.
Ballistics tests later found that the markings on a pistol seized from Peterson's home were similar to those on the bullet taken from Wood's head, Lubiejewski said.
Peterson was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony and has not been charged in the killing, King said.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )
CBS
Outrage over college theme party accused of mocking Hispanics
A "South of the Border" theme party has stirred outrage at a Silicon Valley university after students showed up at the bash dressed as Hispanic janitors, gardeners, gangbangers and pregnant teens.
Photographs from the private, off-campus party organized by Santa Clara University students in late January appeared on the Internet soon afterward, prompting an outcry on campus.
One image shows a partygoer with a balloon stuffed under her shirt, making her appear pregnant. In another, a woman wears pink rubber cleaning gloves and carries a feather duster.
"A lot of people have the idea that Mexicans or Latin Americans are all like that, and that's wrong," said Nadine Rasch, 18, a finance major from Guatemala, who did not attend the party.
Paul Locatelli, president of the nearly 8,400-student Jesuit university, has condemned the party. No students have been disciplined, but a campus spokeswoman said the school is investigating the party and that the university's code of conduct extends to students who live off-campus.
A protest march organized by students attracted 250 people Tuesday, and the campus has held meetings and plans a forum for this Thursday.
SFGate
Photographs from the private, off-campus party organized by Santa Clara University students in late January appeared on the Internet soon afterward, prompting an outcry on campus.
One image shows a partygoer with a balloon stuffed under her shirt, making her appear pregnant. In another, a woman wears pink rubber cleaning gloves and carries a feather duster.
"A lot of people have the idea that Mexicans or Latin Americans are all like that, and that's wrong," said Nadine Rasch, 18, a finance major from Guatemala, who did not attend the party.
Paul Locatelli, president of the nearly 8,400-student Jesuit university, has condemned the party. No students have been disciplined, but a campus spokeswoman said the school is investigating the party and that the university's code of conduct extends to students who live off-campus.
A protest march organized by students attracted 250 people Tuesday, and the campus has held meetings and plans a forum for this Thursday.
SFGate
Sunday, February 11, 2007
College Investigates 'Politically Incorrect' Party
(AP) ST. PAUL, Minn. A party that asked students to come dressed “politically incorrect” has prompted an investigation by Macalester College officials who learned one student was costumed as a Ku Klux Klan member and another wore blackface with a noose around his neck.
Students at the private school told administrators about the Jan. 16 party on campus.
“My initial reaction was shock,” said Paul Maitland-McKinley, a member of the Black Liberation Affairs Committee, a student group. “I thought, this can’t really happen on my campus.”
A campus-wide discussion is planned for Tuesday.
“We hope we can start a deeper dialogue on ... why these types of activities hurt people and why they get the kind of response they do,” said Jim Hoppe, the school’s associate dean of students.
The student newspaper, The Mac Weekly, quoted senior David Nifoussi, who attended the party, as saying it was meant to be a satiric comment on “things that would be considered taboo in most situations” at the liberal school.
Macalester is the latest in a series of colleges to investigate student parties and incidents that have involved racial overtones.
Earlier this school year, Trinity College and Whitman College had parties where students showed up in racially offensive costumes or blackface. At Texas A&M University, students made a racist video that apparently was intended as satire, and a fraternity at Johns Hopkins University was suspended after a “Halloween in the Hood” party displayed a fake skeleton hanging from a noose.
The Macalester party was held a week before spring classes started and did not draw a large crowd, Hoppe said.
Macalester President Brian Rosenberg sent a statement to students, faculty and staff members condemning the offensive costumes and party theme.
“It is important to understand that the college condemns and will not tolerate activities of this type,” he wrote. “It is deeply disappointing that Macalester students would be so insensitive and demonstrate such a lack of understanding of the college’s values and mission.”
Saturday, February 10, 2007
The Ku Klux Klan Today
The Ku Klux Klan Today
The Ku Klux Klan, which just a few years ago seemed static or even moribund compared to other white supremacist movements such as neo-Nazis, has experienced a surprising and troubling resurgence due to the successful exploitation of hot-button issues including immigration, gay marriage and urban crime. Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has in turned helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity.
In this report, ADL documents a noticeable spike in activity by Klan chapters across the country: 
ADL has identified the following states as being notable for active or growing Klan chapters:
The basic ideology of the Ku Klux Klan today is not very different from that of many other hard-core white supremacist groups, such as neo-Nazis.
Although some Klansmen may still hold cross-burnings dressed in robes and hoods, today’s young Klansmen are more likely to look virtually indistinguishable from racist skinheads or neo-Nazis. Today’s Klansmen may be as likely to gather at white power music concerts or socialize at so-called ‘unity rallies’ with other white supremacists, as to participate in ritualistic cross burnings in the rural wilderness. Klan groups have become increasingly “nazified,” with members embracing and immersing themselves in neo-Nazi and racist skinhead subcultures, adopting the music, dress, tattoos and imagery of neo-Nazis.
ADL
 |
In this report, ADL documents a noticeable spike in activity by Klan chapters across the country:
- Longstanding groups have increased their activity and experienced a rapid expansion in size.
- New groups have appeared, causing racial tensions in communities previously untroubled by racial issues. They hold anti-immigration rallies and recruitment drives and distribute racist literature with a new emphasis on the immigration issue, and Hispanics.
- Klan groups have become more active in parts of the country that had not seen much activity in recent years, including the Great Plains States such as Iowa and Nebraska, and Mid-Atlantic states such as Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The report includes a state-by-state listing of active Klan groups.
- Klan groups increasingly are cooperating with neo-Nazi groups.
- The Klan has adopted new publicity tricks and has embraced the Internet as a means to spread anti-Semitism and racism.
ADL has identified the following states as being notable for active or growing Klan chapters:
| SOUTH | MIDWEST | GREAT PLAINS | MID-ATLANTIC |
| Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi South Carolina Tennessee Texas | Indiana Kentucky Michigan Ohio | Iowa Nebraska | Maryland New Jersey Pennsylvania West Virginia |
The basic ideology of the Ku Klux Klan today is not very different from that of many other hard-core white supremacist groups, such as neo-Nazis.
Although some Klansmen may still hold cross-burnings dressed in robes and hoods, today’s young Klansmen are more likely to look virtually indistinguishable from racist skinheads or neo-Nazis. Today’s Klansmen may be as likely to gather at white power music concerts or socialize at so-called ‘unity rallies’ with other white supremacists, as to participate in ritualistic cross burnings in the rural wilderness. Klan groups have become increasingly “nazified,” with members embracing and immersing themselves in neo-Nazi and racist skinhead subcultures, adopting the music, dress, tattoos and imagery of neo-Nazis.
ADL
KKK becoming increasingly popular in the US
The Ku Klux Klan has experienced a worrying resurgence in popularity in the United States due to the "hot-button issues including immigration, gay marriage and urban crime" the Anti-Defamation League has said.
The ADL, which monitors the activities of the KKK as well as other racist groups and relays their findings to law enforcement and policymakers, views the recent increase in Klan activity in the US as troublesome, since the Klan has been relatively under the radar in recent years.
"If any one single issue or trend can be credited with reenergizing the Klan, it is the debate over immigration in America," said ADL Civil Rights Director Deborah M. Lauter. "Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has in turn helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity."
The KKK has exploited Americans's fear of Muslim and Arab immigrants, as well as the growing anti-immigrant feeling in the South stemming from the overwhelming influx of illegal Mexican workers, said ADL Israel office director Arieh O'Sullivan. New hate groups have emerged, and have manifested themselves by holding anti-immigration rallies and recruitment drives. These groups have also been active in distributing racist literature with a new emphasis on the immigration issue and Hispanics, and have effectively communicated with their supporters and publicized events through KKK- sponsored sites on the Internet, he said.
According to the ADL, the KKK believes that "America is drowning in a tide of non-white immigration, controlled and orchestrated by Jews, and is vigorously trying to bring this message to Americans concerned or fearful about immigration."
While certain Klan "strongholds" such as Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee have rapidly expanded in size, the emergence of new activity in Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania has created racial issues inside of communities that had until now been untroubled by such activity. The KKK has also been cooperating with neo-Nazi groups based in the National Socialist Movement.
"Although some Klansmen may still hold cross-burnings dressed in robes and hoods, today's young Klansmen are more likely to look virtually indistinguishable from racist skinheads or neo-Nazis," Lauter added. "Today's Klansmen may be as likely to gather at white power music concerts or socialize at so-called 'unity rallies' with other white supremacists as to participate in ritualistic cross burnings in the rural wilderness." The ADL has noted that Klan groups have become "Nazified" over recent years, with members choosing to engross themselves in the neo-Nazi subculture.
Between 2000 and 2005, hate groups mushroomed 33 percent and Klan chapters by 63%, according to Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes. Precise data is difficult to pinpoint, 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.
The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which monitors hate crimes throughout the US, has substantiated the ADL's claim based on their findings of an increase of hate crimes since 2004. According to the FBI study released in October 2006, 54% of hate crime violence is racially-motivated, while 17% was motivated by religious bias and 13% was due to national origin.
Klan growing, fed by anti-immigrant feelings, report says
• Ku Klux Klan rebounding by exploiting hot-button issues, report says
• Klan uses, stirs up anti-immigrant sentiments, says Anti-Defamation League
• Hate group watchdog says Klan chapters grew 63% between 2000 and 2005
• ADL says Klan cooperating with other extremist groups more than before
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Ku Klux Klan has rebounded by exploiting current hot-button issues, especially immigration, according to a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League.
The Klan, and other white supremacist groups like skinheads and neo-Nazis, grew significantly more active in the past year, holding more rallies, distributing leaflets and increasing their presence on the Internet -- much of it focused on stirring anti-immigrant sentiment, according to the report.
"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." (Read the full ADL reportexternal link)
"Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has, in turn, helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity," Lauter said.
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. (Watch how the KKK is seeing a resurgenceVideo)
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.
Hate groups were fading in 1990s
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.
A burning cross on the front lawn
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.
CNN
Racist Groups on the Rise in Michigan
February 7, 2007
A new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that monitors hate groups and hate crimes in the United States, has documented a substantial increase in activity by Ku Klux Klan groups over the past couple of years. The ADL has documented a reversal in what had been a steady decline in Klan activity with existing groups expanding and increasing their activity, new groups appearing and creating racial tensions in communities previously unaffected by organized white supremacist groups, the Klan expanding its reach across the United States, cooperating with neo-nazi and other racist groups, and making more successful use of the internet. As always, while the ADL does offer some important and useful information, is important for those fighting the racist right from a left perspective to remember that the ADL has never been friends of militant movements to confront racism and fascism, and indeed the organization talks about the violent extremism of the Weather Underground and the alleged convergence between the racist right and the anti-globalization left and anarchist movements.
The ADL attributes the Klan's increase in activity due to its "successful exploitation of hot-button issues including immigration, gay marriage, and urban crime." As other white supremacist groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens and the American Renaissance have seized on immigration as an issue through which they can attempt to organized misinformed white people, the Klan has attempted to insert themselves into the anti-immigration movement. While not particularly well-known, the Klan in the 1970s and 1980s ran a series of armed border patrol actions on the United States-Mexico border, thereby being both a tactical and ideological precursor to the vigilante Minuteman movement. Moreover, klan groups across the country have increasingly worked with other racist groups and appeared at rallies with the National Socialist Movement and have attended white supremacist "unity" events seeking to reduce sectarianism. At the same time, the ADL reports that the modern Klan has become increasingly "nazified" with its members participating more in the skinhead and neo-nazi subcultures than they had in the past. Groups associated with the Ku Klux Klan, which has for a long time been fragmented and without a serious national structure, have also taken the beginning steps towards unifying their movement.
Here in Michigan, there has also been an increase in activity by the racist right over the past year. While the ADL report cites the Michigan-based United and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan as an example of a klan group that has grown over the past year and describing how it spread rapidly after breaking from the Ohio-based Mystic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the majority of the activity by the racist right in Michigan over the past year has not been organized by the Ku Klux Klan. The Michigan Unit of the prominent neo-nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) was quite active in Michigan in 2006, organizing a variety of localized actions, hosting the National Socialist Movement's national conference in Grand Rapids in April, and hosting a national rally in Lansing. Racist groups were particularly emboldened by the passage of the anti-affirmative action Proposal 2 (Michigan Civil Rights Initiative) in November, and indeed groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens and the aforementioned United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were the only groups that publicly supported the measure. While the question of what role the two organizations actually played in the passage of the measure is up for debate, especially with the two groups primarily writing letters to newspapers or distributing flyers and neither having a particularly large constituency, both groups have taken credit for the passage of Proposal 2. The fact that these groups supported the measure not only shows the racism that was at the root of the initiative, but it also gives a "victory" to organize around and both groups intend to remain active in 2007. Michigan also saw the formation of the European American Association last year, a group that brought Canadian fascist Paul Fromm to Lansing while at the same time cloaking its racism in language talking about "western civilization" rather than white power. In October of 2006, Detroit was the site of the annual Hammer Fest, organized by the skinhead Hammerskin nation.
MediaMouse
A new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that monitors hate groups and hate crimes in the United States, has documented a substantial increase in activity by Ku Klux Klan groups over the past couple of years. The ADL has documented a reversal in what had been a steady decline in Klan activity with existing groups expanding and increasing their activity, new groups appearing and creating racial tensions in communities previously unaffected by organized white supremacist groups, the Klan expanding its reach across the United States, cooperating with neo-nazi and other racist groups, and making more successful use of the internet. As always, while the ADL does offer some important and useful information, is important for those fighting the racist right from a left perspective to remember that the ADL has never been friends of militant movements to confront racism and fascism, and indeed the organization talks about the violent extremism of the Weather Underground and the alleged convergence between the racist right and the anti-globalization left and anarchist movements.
The ADL attributes the Klan's increase in activity due to its "successful exploitation of hot-button issues including immigration, gay marriage, and urban crime." As other white supremacist groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens and the American Renaissance have seized on immigration as an issue through which they can attempt to organized misinformed white people, the Klan has attempted to insert themselves into the anti-immigration movement. While not particularly well-known, the Klan in the 1970s and 1980s ran a series of armed border patrol actions on the United States-Mexico border, thereby being both a tactical and ideological precursor to the vigilante Minuteman movement. Moreover, klan groups across the country have increasingly worked with other racist groups and appeared at rallies with the National Socialist Movement and have attended white supremacist "unity" events seeking to reduce sectarianism. At the same time, the ADL reports that the modern Klan has become increasingly "nazified" with its members participating more in the skinhead and neo-nazi subcultures than they had in the past. Groups associated with the Ku Klux Klan, which has for a long time been fragmented and without a serious national structure, have also taken the beginning steps towards unifying their movement.
Here in Michigan, there has also been an increase in activity by the racist right over the past year. While the ADL report cites the Michigan-based United and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan as an example of a klan group that has grown over the past year and describing how it spread rapidly after breaking from the Ohio-based Mystic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the majority of the activity by the racist right in Michigan over the past year has not been organized by the Ku Klux Klan. The Michigan Unit of the prominent neo-nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) was quite active in Michigan in 2006, organizing a variety of localized actions, hosting the National Socialist Movement's national conference in Grand Rapids in April, and hosting a national rally in Lansing. Racist groups were particularly emboldened by the passage of the anti-affirmative action Proposal 2 (Michigan Civil Rights Initiative) in November, and indeed groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens and the aforementioned United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were the only groups that publicly supported the measure. While the question of what role the two organizations actually played in the passage of the measure is up for debate, especially with the two groups primarily writing letters to newspapers or distributing flyers and neither having a particularly large constituency, both groups have taken credit for the passage of Proposal 2. The fact that these groups supported the measure not only shows the racism that was at the root of the initiative, but it also gives a "victory" to organize around and both groups intend to remain active in 2007. Michigan also saw the formation of the European American Association last year, a group that brought Canadian fascist Paul Fromm to Lansing while at the same time cloaking its racism in language talking about "western civilization" rather than white power. In October of 2006, Detroit was the site of the annual Hammer Fest, organized by the skinhead Hammerskin nation.
MediaMouse
White Supremacist Groups In North Carolina
The recent arrests of several people reported to be skinheads has us asking questions: just how widespread is this issue?
It was a disturbing scene on Friday, when Greenville Police showed us Nazi flags, handguns, knives and Ku Klux Klan literature they say they confiscated from members of a white supremacist group, members facing several charges including conspiracy to commit murder.
Then, on Tuesday, a new report came out showing groups of KKK members, skinheads and neo-Nazis are growing more active in our country. In fact, the report show old Klan chapters have been revived and new ones started through the south, while in other parts of the country, many have a new mission: stirring up anti-immigrant sentiment.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says Klan chapters are up by 63 percent between 2000 and 2005; estimates show as many as 150 Klan chapters in our country with up to 8000 members.
There is only one KKK group cited in North Carolina, in the central part of the state, but our research on the net showed two.
Research shows KKK chapters sometimes form alliances with white supremacist groups. Only one of the white supremacist groups, the Hammerskin Nation, has a presence on a national scale.
Statistics show a regional chapter, the Confederate Hammerskins, is active in North Carolina and other states.
WITN
It was a disturbing scene on Friday, when Greenville Police showed us Nazi flags, handguns, knives and Ku Klux Klan literature they say they confiscated from members of a white supremacist group, members facing several charges including conspiracy to commit murder.
Then, on Tuesday, a new report came out showing groups of KKK members, skinheads and neo-Nazis are growing more active in our country. In fact, the report show old Klan chapters have been revived and new ones started through the south, while in other parts of the country, many have a new mission: stirring up anti-immigrant sentiment.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says Klan chapters are up by 63 percent between 2000 and 2005; estimates show as many as 150 Klan chapters in our country with up to 8000 members.
There is only one KKK group cited in North Carolina, in the central part of the state, but our research on the net showed two.
Research shows KKK chapters sometimes form alliances with white supremacist groups. Only one of the white supremacist groups, the Hammerskin Nation, has a presence on a national scale.
Statistics show a regional chapter, the Confederate Hammerskins, is active in North Carolina and other states.
WITN
Immigrant Protests Energize KKK, Neo-Nazis
By ERIN TEXEIRA
AP
NEW YORK (Feb. 6) - 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.
Backlash From Far Right
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.
AP
NEW YORK (Feb. 6) - 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.
Backlash From Far Right
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.
Ku Klux Klan reportedly on the rise
By Matthew Bigg
Thu Feb 8, 4:43 PM ET
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The white supremacist Ku Klux Klan is on the rise in the United States and is exploiting the issue of illegal immigration to attract new members, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.
The Klan has declined dramatically since the 1960s when its members dressed in white robes, burned crosses and spread terror through lynchings but immigration is helping to revive its fortunes, said the league which monitors hate groups.
"The (Klan's) thinking is that if the average Joe is against immigration then we are against it too. They are trying to gain a foothold in the mainstream community," said Allen Kohlhepp of the league's southeast region on Thursday.
"Ninety percent (of Klan members) will never commit a crime but their rhetoric will influence the one in the group who may go off and do something," Kohlhepp said in an interview.
The secretive Klan probably has several thousand members nationwide and has gained hundreds of new members over the immigration issue and its exploitation of opposition to gay marriage and fear of crime, Kohlhepp said.
It has expanded in parts of the country including the Great Plains and the West Coast where it used to be inactive.
In one example, the Brotherhood of Klans attempted to recruit members in Iowa towns such as Denison and Storm Lake where immigrants from Mexico and Laos have settled recently, the report said.
The Klan fits into the broader picture of right wing militant and neo-Nazi groups that sprang to prominence with the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 but they have been marginalized and weakened by in-fighting, the report said.
They also no longer have close relationships with law enforcement officials and local government that enabled them to spread terror in the Deep South in the decades before the 1960s, said the league's report.
Most Klan members no longer wear white and instead frequently dress like racist skinheads and Neo-Nazis at meetings with whom they cooperate, Kohlhepp said.
About 80 members of the National Socialist Movement and Klan groups met in Laurens, South Carolina, to discuss ways to increase cooperation, the report said.
Klan members remain identifiable at meetings with other groups by the Klan symbol they wear of a red drop of blood in the center of a white cross on a blood red background, said Kohlhepp.
Yahoo
Thu Feb 8, 4:43 PM ET
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The white supremacist Ku Klux Klan is on the rise in the United States and is exploiting the issue of illegal immigration to attract new members, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.
The Klan has declined dramatically since the 1960s when its members dressed in white robes, burned crosses and spread terror through lynchings but immigration is helping to revive its fortunes, said the league which monitors hate groups.
"The (Klan's) thinking is that if the average Joe is against immigration then we are against it too. They are trying to gain a foothold in the mainstream community," said Allen Kohlhepp of the league's southeast region on Thursday.
"Ninety percent (of Klan members) will never commit a crime but their rhetoric will influence the one in the group who may go off and do something," Kohlhepp said in an interview.
The secretive Klan probably has several thousand members nationwide and has gained hundreds of new members over the immigration issue and its exploitation of opposition to gay marriage and fear of crime, Kohlhepp said.
It has expanded in parts of the country including the Great Plains and the West Coast where it used to be inactive.
In one example, the Brotherhood of Klans attempted to recruit members in Iowa towns such as Denison and Storm Lake where immigrants from Mexico and Laos have settled recently, the report said.
The Klan fits into the broader picture of right wing militant and neo-Nazi groups that sprang to prominence with the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 but they have been marginalized and weakened by in-fighting, the report said.
They also no longer have close relationships with law enforcement officials and local government that enabled them to spread terror in the Deep South in the decades before the 1960s, said the league's report.
Most Klan members no longer wear white and instead frequently dress like racist skinheads and Neo-Nazis at meetings with whom they cooperate, Kohlhepp said.
About 80 members of the National Socialist Movement and Klan groups met in Laurens, South Carolina, to discuss ways to increase cooperation, the report said.
Klan members remain identifiable at meetings with other groups by the Klan symbol they wear of a red drop of blood in the center of a white cross on a blood red background, said Kohlhepp.
Yahoo
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