Report: An 'Astonishing' Rise In Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Government Groups

[onehandle]

When the Obama administration's Department of Homeland Security released a report this past August raising concern about the rise of "right-wing extremist activity," a debate erupted over whether the findings were politically motivated or based on factual analysis.

A slew of stories of right-wing violence -- from the shooting at the Washington D.C. Holocaust Museum to attacks on IRS buildings -- seem to verify DHS's warnings. And a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks instances of violent extremism, provides further evidence.

On Tuesday, the SPLC released its quarterly intelligence report, titled "Rage on the Right," in which it charted what officials described as "an astonishing" rise in "nativist extremist" and anti-government "Patriotic" groups. The former, which includes institutions that "go beyond mere advocacy of restrictive immigration policy to actually confront or harass suspected immigrants," saw its numbers bulge from 173 groups in 2008 to 309 in 2009. The latter saw an even larger explosion in numbers, going from 149 groups (including 42 militias) in 2008 to 512 (including 127 militias) in 2009.

"That is cause for grave concern," the SPLC concludes. "Individuals associated with the Patriot movement during its 1990s heyday produced an enormous amount of violence, most dramatically the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/report-an-astonishing-ris_n_482409.html

[Hello_Kitty]

1. How can a person be anti-immigrant AND anti-government?

If there's no government, there's no ability to keep immigrants out.

Not that any would want to come here if these dumbshits got the Libertarian Paradise they want.

[DBoon]

4. that's what private militias are for

as long as the violence is not done by an agency of the government, it is OK

It doesn't really infringe your freedom if its not the government doing it

[madrchsod]

2. they are just coming out of the woodwork now...

they have been around for a long time....

[pampango]

3. From the report: "driven largely by an angry backlash against non-white immigration..."

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/spring/rage-on-the-right

"Hate groups stayed at record levels — almost 1,000 — despite the total collapse of the second largest neo-Nazi group in America. Furious anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80%, adding some 136 new groups during 2009. And, most remarkably of all, so-called "Patriot" groups — militias and other organizations that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose “one-world government” on liberty-loving Americans — came roaring back after years out of the limelight."

"The number of hate groups in America has been going up for years, rising 54% between 2000 and 2008 and driven largely by an angry backlash against non-white immigration and, starting in the last year of that period, the economic meltdown and the climb to power of an African American president. According to the latest annual count by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), these groups rose again slightly in 2009 — from 926 in 2008 to 932 last year — despite the demise of a key neo-Nazi group. The American National Socialist Workers Party, which had 35 chapters in 28 states, imploded shortly after the October 2008 arrest of founder Bill White for making threats against his enemies."

[nemo137]

5. And yet, my dad insists that these are liberty-loving Americans.

Instead of the traitors-in-waiting that they are.

[gratuitous]

6. Who is "astonished"

Sorry, I can't go to Huffington's website without my browser crashing. But who is "astonished" by this? We have one of the major networks blasting fear and hatred 24/7; some of that seed will surely fall on fertile ground, and a crop will spring up. It's as natural as the changing of the seasons, the turning of the tides and the blowing of the wind. Nothing astonishing about it.