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MAP & LISTING INSIDE

PUBLISHED BY SPRING 2016 // ISSUE 160 THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER

PLUS: NATIONS DEFLATES ‘SOVEREIGNS’ IN MONTANA EDITORIAL A Year of Living Dangerously BY MARK POTOK Anyone who read the newspapers last year knows that suicide and drug overdose deaths are way up, less edu- 2015 saw some horrific political violence. A white suprem- cated workers increasingly are finding it difficult to earn acist murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C. a living, and income inequality is at near historic lev- Islamist radicals killed four U.S. Marines in Chattanooga, els. Of course, all that and more is true for most racial Tenn., and 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif. An anti- minorities, but the on whites who have his- extremist shot three people to torically been more privileged is fueling real fury. death at a clinic in It was in this milieu that the number of groups on Springs, Colo. the grew last year, according to the latest But not many understand just how count by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The num- bad it really was. bers of hate and of antigovernment “Patriot” groups Here are some of the lesser-known were both up by about 14% over 2014, for a new total political cases that cropped up: A West of 1,890 groups. While most categories of hate groups man was arrested for allegedly declined, there were significant increases among Klan plotting to attack a courthouse and mur- groups, which were energized by the battle over the der first responders; a Missourian was Confederate battle flag, and racist black separatist accused of planning to police officers; a former groups, which grew largely because of highly publicized Congressional candidate in allegedly conspired incidents of police shootings of black men. to mass-murder Muslims; a white supremacist In the second half of the year, a new factor came blew his own leg off as he built bombs; and three North into play: a presidential race that grew more ugly by Carolinians were accused in a plot to attack the military. the month, beginning with ’s description There’s more. A man who ran a “White of undocumented Mexican immigrants as rapists and ” pleaded guilty to manufacturing 20 bombs; a drug dealers and culminating, arguably, with his call for New Yorker allegedly collected heavy weapons to mur- a temporary ban on Muslim immigration. Even as more der and African ; three Georgia mili- establishment Republicans held back from most criti- tiamen went to prison for plotting to attack utilities cism, Trump and other candidates increasingly injected and start a war with the ; a West Virginia real hate into the electoral contest. “sovereign citizen” was accused of attempting to over- The pace of radical activity did not slow down as throw the state government; two white supremacists the new year began. On Jan. 2, 2016, two sons of Cliven in Virginia were charged with buying explosives from Bundy — the extremist rancher whose 2014 undercover agents in order to attack black churches and armed showdown with federal officials ended with the synagogues; and a racist Minnesotan was arrested for government backing down — broke into and occupied shooting five protesters. a federal wildlife refuge near Burns, Ore. Ammon and Although the number of deaths attributable to Ryan Bundy, who led some two dozen armed militia- domestic still was very small compared to, men in the occupation, said they would remain until two say, cancer or traffic accident deaths, such killings cause local ranchers serving time for on federal lands far greater social damage because they produce shock were freed and federal lands were handed over to the waves in targeted communities and also tend to split county. Later, one of their number told reporters that the Americans along pre-existing fault lines like race. refuge would “never” be returned to the government. The violence arose in a landscape dominated by At first, these kinds of assertions drew some luke- losses for those on the political far right. Hardliners warm support in the area. But locals quickly tired of were enraged by the Supreme Court’s legalization of the occupiers’ antics and self-absorbed claims. In late same-sex marriage; to accept Syrian refu- January, editorialized against the “delu- gees; President Obama’s executive orders meant to stall sional behavior” of “’s gang,” saying it had deportation of many undocumented workers; the attack “mugged democracy.” It went on to cite a Democratic on the Confederate battle flag that resulted from a flag- congressman describing the men as “terrorists.” enthusiast’s in Charleston; and the demo- It’s time for others to speak up, too. As our coun- graphic browning of the U.S. population. try grows increasingly polarized and angry, politicians, At the same time, numerous studies have shown that pundits, preachers and other leaders should be work- the white working class in America is under increas- ing to bring us together — and to battle the anger and ing pressure. Real wages have been declining for years, hate that surrounds us. ▲ COVER ART BY ALEX WILLIAMSON are building acommunityfor who boughthundreds ofemptyhomes base worry thatthe“sovereign citizens” residents ofthisabandonedAirForce up soonafter. Today, thefewremaining signsbegan topop Constitution-quoting Mont., three years ago, andtheirweird, The strangers showed upinSt. Marie, 14 in Montana HATE GROUPMAP// HATE GROUPLISTING // ‘PATRIOT’ GROUPLISTING // STARTING ONPAGE 43 Fear andLoathing radicals. in while another wannabe führer isnow last would-be leaderhasclosedupshop, groups hasallbutfadedintohistory. Its America’s most infamousneo-Nazi of itsfounder, whatwas onceoneof Nations and12years afterthedeath Law Centerlawsuit crippledtheAryan Sixteen years afteraSouthernPoverty 22 of whichexpanded theirnumbersby almost 15%afteraperiodof Patriot,1995 hasbeenagrowth inhategroups andso-called ormilitia,groups, both others. Accompanying whathasbeendescribedastheworst suchviolencesince extremists, includingjihadists, whitesupremacists, antigovernment “Patriots” and The year 2015was marked by record levels ofviolencefrom domestic American 35 ON THECOVER prison. TheYear inHate &Extremism Aryan Deflations SPRING 2016 // ISSUE 160 hasn’t candidates are shrillyattackingMuslims And thefactthatmajorpresidential hatred directed atAmericanMuslims. sparked amajorwave ofviolenceand in France andSan Bernardino, Calif., has zine andendedwithjihadist attacks onParis’ A year thatbeganwithbloodyIslamist 28 Backlash

helped. Charlie Hebdo

decreases. maga- Intelligence Report

INTELLIGENCE REPORT EDITOR Mark Potok

INTELLIGENCE PROJECT DIRECTOR Heidi Beirich

SENIOR WRITER Don Terry

ONLINE EDITOR/SENIOR WRITER Ryan Lenz

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH Evelyn Schlatter 18 ‘Culture Jamming’ 25 Seeing Red Racist leaders are increasingly Anti-Indian groups have DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF INVESTIGATIONS Laurie Wood sending out disinformation, long portrayed themselves as

INFORMATION MANAGER including fraudulent eyewit- simply seeking equal rights. Michelle Bramblett ness reports and fake But now they’re adopting INTELLIGENCE ANALYST stories, to spread their ideas a classic Anthony Griggs and memes. about secret communists. RESEARCH ANALYST Janet Smith

PROGRAM ASSOCIATE Karla Griffin 64 Life After Hate Former white supremacists discuss how they took an idea born RESEARCHERS Angela Freeman, Karmetriya Jackson in and started an ExitUSA program aimed at helping peo-

DESIGN DIRECTOR ple leave the racist movement. Russell Estes

DESIGNERS Shannon Anderson, Valerie Downes, Michelle Leland, Sunny Paulk, Scott Phillips, Kristina Turner

PRODUCTION MANAGER Regina Collins

SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR departments Alex Amend 3 Intelligence Briefs MEDIA AND GENERAL INQUIRIES Heidi Beirich Candidates’ extremist views are aired; white nationalist leader LAW ENFORCEMENT INQUIRIES Laurie Wood dies; “flaggers” are charged in racial confrontation; SUBSCRIPTION REQUESTS Karla Griffin and other glimpses of extremism. Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Ave. • Montgomery, AL 36104 (334) 956-8200 • intelligencereport.org 68 For the Record PUBLISHED BY A sampling of hate crimes and hate group activities from the last THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER’S INTELLIGENCE PROJECT quarter of 2015 is summarized in state-by-state listings.

69 The Last Word

SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER PRESIDENT Not everyone takes the militiamen who occupied a federal J. Richard Cohen wildlife center in seriously. A litany of “erotic fan fiction”

SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER FOUNDERS lampoons the cowboy constitutionalists. Joseph J. Levin Jr.

SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS Alan B. Howard, Chair Henry Solano, Vice Chair Marsha Levick, Elden Rosenthal, Will Little, James Rucker, Lida Orzeck, Ellen Sudow, Bryan Fair, James McElroy, law enforcement inquiries welcomed Bennett Grau, Jocelyn Benson The Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Printed with inks containing 27.3% renewable resources renewable 27.3% containing with inks Printed The Intelligence Report is published two times a year by the staff of the Intelligence welcomes law enforcement inquiries regarding radical right extremists Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center and provided free of charge to law and hate groups. Please direct questions during normal business hours enforcement officials, journalists, scholars and others. The Southern Poverty to Laurie Wood via the SPLC’s general number, (334) 956-8200. Law Center is supported entirely by private donations. No government funds are involved. © 2016 Southern Poverty Law Center. All rights reserved. INTELLIGENCE

Briefs EXTREMISM IN THE U.S.

[ HACK ATTACKS ] ’ Planned Outing of Klan Members Falls Flat

Operation KKK did not go as a text-sharing site — including Nov. 11 was sentenced to death planned. Instead, the plan by the four U.S. senators and five big- for murdering three people at hacker collective Anonymous to city mayors. But many names two Jewish centers in . reveal the identities of up to 1,000 on the list (including, it seems In the end, almost no one members of the was clear, those of the maligned pol- was satisfied by the outcome marred by incomplete information iticians) did not belong to KKK of Operation KKK 2015. Not and the premature posting of data members. A account the intended victims, of course by an overeager copycat who got thought to be the “official” (except perhaps Frank Ancona, almost all of his or her facts wrong. voice of the Anonymous hack- imperial wizard of a - Plans by the In late October, Anonymous, ers who originally announced based group calling itself the Anonymous hacking a “hacktivist” group known for the planned data dump, dis- Traditionalist American Knights collective to out Klan members’ identities tangling with the Church of tanced itself from the Pastebin of the Ku Klux Klan, who told Vice ran into trouble when Scientology, the gay-bashing list, and when the “official” list News that he expected the hack an early copycat and was released on Nov. 5, it con- attack to “bring some positive made a series of even the Islamic State, declared sisted mostly of online handles publicity” and a boost in mem- baseless allegations. that it had collected a trove of and email addresses, a decision bership.) And not Anonymous, identifying information about Anonymous said was made in whose fairly cautious effort of KKK members that it would soon the interest of its victims’ safety. Nov. 5 was both upstaged and tar- be posting online. The most famous name on the nished by the more sensational Visit intelligencereport.org for more information A few days later, on Nov. 1, a list official Anonymous list was that but almost entirely discredited on the state of hate

ANONYMOUS of names appeared on Pastebin, of Frazier Glenn Miller, who on Pastebin dump of Nov. 1. in America.

spring 2016 3 INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS

Anonymous’ beef with the [ EXTREMISM IN THE MAINSTREAM ] President Vladimir Putin all went KKK dates back to the November to school together in Moscow 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo., Candidates for in 1968. that followed the decision not suggested base- to prosecute Darren Wilson, the President, Other lessly that the man who mur- white police officer who fatally Offices, Voice dered three at a Colorado shot unarmed black teenager Planned Parenthood (see story, Michael Brown. At that time, Extremist Views p. 7) was a “transgendered left- Anonymous retaliated against a ist activist.” Klan group that threatened to Donald Trump described Pres- lauded American Family Radio use “lethal ” against pro- ident Dwight D. Eisenhower’s — which features among its pun- testers by hacking the group’s brutal “” as a dits , who claims Twitter account and releasing “very humane” way to accomplish that LGBT people were respon- personal identifying information mass deportation, responded to sible for and about its members. the beating of a Black Lives Mat- that because American Indians But even when their hearts ter protester at a campaign rally failed to embrace , are in place, the “virtual by saying, “Maybe he should have they deserved to have their land vigilantes” (as termed them) been roughed up,” and claimed taken by European settlers — for of Anonymous can make mis- to have personally seen “thou- offering viewpoints that people takes. In 2014, before Wilson’s identity was made public, the group released the name of a police officer its mem- bers believed had shot and killed Brown. They got the wrong guy, and then couldn’t stem the avalanche of death threats sent to their accidental victim. Soon after Operation KKK simmered down, a Vermont prosecutor mounted a more focused attack on Klan activity when he charged a Klan activist with disorderly conduct, with a enhancement, for allegedly targeting an African-American woman and sands and thousands” of New Jer- “are not going to get on NPR.” a Latina with fliers promoting sey Muslims celebrating the 9/11 Marco Rubio selected a man who the Klan. On Nov. 10, authorities attacks — something that both law believes President Obama was in Morrisville arrested William enforcement and media investiga- fathered by a communist pedo- Schenk, of , say- tions have thoroughly debunked. phile as co-chair of his Alabama ing that the 21-year-old’s inten- Ben Carson said he found the campaign committee. tional delivery of KKK materials notion of gun control more dis- These men are GOP front-run- Strange brew: Political to minority subjects’ homes con- turbing than the sight of a bul- ners — individuals who, if the 2016 races, especially stituted a threat and was not pro- let-riddled dead body, believed presidential race continues along for the Republican tected by the First Amendment. If the biblical figure Joseph built the same path in which it began, nomination, have convicted on all charges, Schenk the Egyptian pyramids to serve stand a reasonable chance of being AP IMAGES/JOHN LOCHER been marked by an — who was on probation in his as granaries, and asserted that elected to what is arguably the extraordinary level of extremist, demeaning home state in connection with a Palestinian Authority President most powerful position on earth. and factually untrue 2011 arson — faces more than four Mahmoud Abbas, Ayatollah Ali It’s hard to say which candi- rhetoric. years in prison. Khamenei of and Russian date’s rhetoric is most appalling.

4 splc intelligence report Donald Trump, whose combina- Assistant Attorney tion of , and General for National has inspired seri- Security John Carlin explains details of a ous analysts on both the left and new post focusing on right to describe him as a fascist . or quasi-fascist, perhaps edges out the competition in this regard. That’s buttressed by some of his fans’ propensity to shout white nationalist slogans at rallies and invoke his nativist platform to defend anti-immigrant vio- lence, as two men allegedly did after their August arrest for beating a homeless Mexican immigrant. But even Cruz and Huckabee, who are widely considered more serious and relatively “moder- ate” contenders for office, spoke at a November “National Religious Liberties Conference” organized by Kevin Swanson, a and minorities — more than can be but a newly updated 2015 study advocate who believes LGBT peo- said for some serious contenders by the New America Foundation ple should be put to death and says for higher office. reported that since 9/11, non- America should “repent of Harry Islamic right-wing domestic ter- Potter.” It would be funny if it [ LAW ENFORCEMENT ] rorists have killed about the same weren’t so scary. number of people in the United Things are bad in some places DOJ Announces New States as jihadists have. at the state and local level, too. In Recognizing that reality, the Knox County, Tenn., Tom Pierce, Post Focused on U.S. Department of Justice in candidate for county commis- Domestic Terrorism October announced the cre- sioner for the Traditionalist ation of the Domestic Terrorism Worker’s Party (TWP) — an orga- In April 2009, the political right Counsel, a new office that will nization recently created as the exploded with rage after law “serve as our main point of con- political wing of the Traditional enforcement sources leaked a tact for U.S. Attorneys working Youth Network hate group — Department of Homeland Secu- on domestic terrorism matters” argues in his platform that anyone rity (DHS) report warning of a and coordinate with the Attorney who receives an abortion should resurgence of right-wing extrem- General’s newly revived Domestic be executed. Supporters of Tony ism in the wake of President Terrorism Executive Committee. Hovater, TWP’s candidate for the Obama’s election and a desper- Assistant Attorney General New Carlisle, , City Council, ate economic downturn. Under John P. Carlin, who invoked the had to clarify that Hovater was not tremendous pressure from politi- June 2015 assassination of nine about “white power” but rather cians and right-wing groups, DHS gathered for “white political power.” essentially retracted the report and study by a white supremacist Meanwhile, Augustus Sol allowed its non-Islamic, domestic and the 2010 murder of two West Invictus, the Florida Libertarian terrorism analysis unit to go fallow. Memphis, Ark., police officers by Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate, In the aftermath, federal intel- a father-son team associated with admitted in October that he once ligence and law enforcement agen- the antigovernment “sovereign “sacrificed an animal to the god of cies seemed to largely lose interest citizens” movement, said he and wilderness” and confirmed, “Yes, in non-Islamic domestic - his DOJ colleagues would “reded- I drank the goat’s blood.” ists, even as evidence continued icate ourselves to identify, disrupt On the bright side, if there to accumulate that such home- and prevent domestic threats” and is one, Invictus, a neo-Pagan, is grown violent extremists pose a “do all we can to identify, track and unlikely to mount a campaign deadly threat to the , defuse those who would engage in

GETTY IMAGES/ALEX WONG GETTY IMAGES/ALEX to rid the country of religious just as jihadists do. Numbers vary, large-scale acts of violence.”

spring 2016 5 INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS

Training for the race Antigovernment “Patriot” war: Robert Doyle, extremists and conspiracy the- Ronald Chaney and orists reacted to the announce- Charles Halderman III are accused of plot- ment predictably. ting attacks on black “DOJ’s ‘domestic terrorism churches and Jewish counsel’ will politically persecute synagogues. libertarians and conservatives,” warned Infowars.com, chief vehi- cle for antigovernment grandee and Internet radio personality . “DOJ Wants to Arrest You for Terrorism for Not Liking Them,” wrote Larken Rose, a blogger who made news in 2011 with a [ DOMESTIC TERRORISM ] post titled, “When Should You arsenal and train for the coming Shoot a Cop?” The post suggested Principals in Race race war, were charged with con- that it is acceptable to kill law spiracy to possess firearms after enforcement officers if you per- War Plot Said to having been convicted of felonies. ceive them to be violating your Practice Neo-Pagan Halderman, who has 17 previ- constitutional rights. ous felony convictions and a his- “Anybody with a gun now, in Asatru Religion tory of associating with the Aryan my opinion, is an extremist, at Brotherhood, a Nazi-themed least as viewed by this govern- Law enforcement officials in prison gang, was charged with ment,” John Whitehead of the far- November arrested five suspects conspiracy to commit robbery. right Rutherford Institute added. in connection with an ongoing All three were ordered held “You’re going to be watched.” investigation of a group of white without bond. Since few details are known supremacists in Virginia alleged Chaney’s parents did not face about how the new office will to be plotting to bomb and shoot federal charges and were not iden- work, opponents of the DOJ’s move black churches and Jewish syna- tified as co-conspirators in the focused instead on past govern- gogues, with the aim of igniting a race war plot, but were held on ment efforts to identify and track race war. At least two of the con- firearms and drug charges. domestic terrorists. Many obsessed spirators were alleged adherents The FBI investigation began in over the role of the Southern of a racist version of a neo-Pagan September, when agents received Poverty Law Center, publisher of that has captured the information that Doyle and a the Intelligence Report, which has imagination of hundreds, and pos- group of fellow travelers were been pushing for something like sibly thousands, of prison inmates. going to meet at his Chesterfield, the new counsel post for years. In simultaneous raids, FBI Va., home “to discuss acting out Tom Fitton, head of Judicial agents arrested Robert C. Doyle, in furtherance of their extremist Watch, an antigovernment activ- 34, Ronald Beasley Chaney III, 33, beliefs by shooting or bombing ist law firm with conspira- and Charles D. Halderman, 30, in the occupants of black churches cist leanings, told the far-right connection with the race war plot. and Jewish synagogues.” Doyle WorldNetDaily (WND) that the Henrico County law enforcement and Chaney III ordered firearms SPLC and DOJ were colluding officials arrested Chaney’s father, from an undercover agent on to create a totalitarian state that Ronald Beasley Chaney Jr., 58, and Oct. 25, and Chaney was arrested would “target those who oppose his wife, Terry Gun Chaney, 52, on Nov. 8, immediately after hand- the Obama agenda.” Paraphrasing state firearms and drug charges. ing over cash for the purchase.

Fitton, WND’s Leo Hohmann Those arrested faced a pot- Doyle, Halderman and the elder RIVERSIDE REGIONAL JAIL/HENRICO SHERIFF’S OFFICE claimed that “if a black man pourri of state and federal charges. Chaneys were arrested later at kills a white cop, it’s ignored by Doyle and Chaney III, who alleg- other locations. the Justice Department and left edly both met with undercover According to federal officials, to local law enforcement. But if agents posing as illegal arms deal- Doyle and Chaney III adhere to a mentally ill white loner who ers and discussed their plan to rob Asatru, an offshoot of the racist can’t find a girlfriend shoots and kill a local silver and jewelry Odinist religion that emphasizes up a school, it’s seen as ‘right- dealer, rob an armored car, and the magical elements of pre- wing extremism.’” use the proceeds to purchase an Christian European ,

6 splc intelligence report EXTREMISM IN THE MAINSTREAM

paying homage to Norse gods like . The religion is prac- ticed by many incarcerated indi- “Will the West endure, or disappear by the century’s viduals, some of whom maintain end as another lost civilization? Mass immigration, their beliefs when they exit the if it continues, will be more decisive in deciding the prison system. Adherents of Asatru are not uniformly racist, fate of the West than Islamist terrorism.” and it is officially recognized as a —Former presidential candidate , in an Aug. 18 post praising Donald Trump and Sen. (R-Ala.) for their hostility to immigrants religion in Iceland, where practi- tioners have avoided racist inter- “They want more and more until they want your pretations of the faith. little kids.” [ ANTI-ABORTION EXTREMISM ] —Right-wing author BILL FEDERER, on LGBT people during an Aug. 28 rally in Cape Girardeau, La. Killings at Planned “You thugs, you Black Lives Matter bullshit… . Parenthood Follow We gonna hunt you sons of bitches down.” —Former prison guard NATHAN ENER, in a YouTube rant publicized on Sept. 1, Deceptive Attack threatening violence against black activists while brandishing a shotgun and raging about Video the murder of Harris County Deputy Sheriff Darren Goforth “[T]hey are both liberal Jews.” Three people have been mur- —JAN MICKELSON of ’s WHO Radio, on Sept. 9, explaining why Supreme Court dered, and countless terrorized, justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsberg should have recused themselves from in a frightening cluster of attacks ruling on same-sex marriage on Planned Parenthood facilities across America. “It’s 9/11 week. Use coupon code ‘muslim’ at our site On Nov. 27, Robert Lewis Dear, for $25 off any gun.” 57, a man with a history of vandal- —Florida Gun Supply owner ANDY HALLINAN, who says his store is a “Muslim Free Zone” izing clinics who allegedly once and brags about his friendship with oft-arrested Trayvon Martin killer George Zimmerman, described the murderous anti- in a Sept. 9 tweet advertising a sale at his Inverness shop abortion Army of God as “heroes,” holed up in a Colorado Springs, “I’m going to knock on your fucking door, and I’m Colo., Planned Parenthood, alleg- going to check your mom’s ID, and all your fucking edly using an assault rifle to kill three people and wound nine cousins and relatives, and when they give me a fake before surrendering to police after fucking name, I’m going to have immigration pick a gun battle that lasted hours. everybody up so they can go back to the fucking The dead included Officer border or wherever the fuck they came from.”

Garrett Swasey, 44, a member of —Sgt. ROY BORDAMONTE, former head of the Passaic, N.J., Police Department’s bias the University of Colorado cam- crimes unit, who was put on desk duty after a local citizen on Sept. 10 publicized a video of pus police force who rushed to the his threatening tirade against a group of young people of Mexican descent scene along with dozens of other area law enforcement officers, “[S]ub-human creeps.” Jennifer Markovsky, 35, a stay-at- —Milwaukee County, Wis., SheriffDAVID CLARKE describing the Black Lives Matter movement home mother who was accompa- and calling on police to stop protecting protesters, on the Sept. 26 edition of “ and Friends” nying a friend to the clinic, and 29-year-old Ke’Arre Stewart, an “I would say let the little homo sue all he wants.” Army veteran and father of two. —Lakeland, Tenn., Commissioner CLARK PLUNK, in a Sept. 28 post attacking a Five other officers suffered non- student who took to after the Christian Brothers High School barred him from taking a male date to its homecoming dance, then suspended him fatal gunshot wounds. In court a few days later, “Our nation has gone to Gomorrah and it’s up to us to Dear interrupted proceedings to shout that he was a “warrior for turn it around.” the babies.” —Alabama Board of Education member BETTY PETERS (R-District 2), decrying the purport- edly “homosexualist” agenda of the Common Core educational standards and the Southern Other attacks on Planned Poverty Law Center, during an Oct. 21 speech to the Coffee County Republican Women

AP IMAGES (BUCHANAN); VIMEO (FEDERER); FACEBOOK (ENER); YOUTUBE (MICKELSON); YOUTUBE (HALLINAN); (HALLINAN); YOUTUBE (MICKELSON); (ENER); YOUTUBE (FEDERER); FACEBOOK (BUCHANAN); VIMEO AP IMAGES (PETERS) FACEBOOK (PLUNK); LAKELANDTN.GOV (CLARKE); CHIKWENDIU JAHI POST/ WASHINGTON GETTY IMAGES/THE TWITTER (BORDAMONTE); Parenthood facilities, including

spring 2016 7 INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS

Robert Lewis Dear has vehicle parked at a facil- been charged with killing three people at ity under construction in a Planned Parenthood New Orleans. clinic in Colorado — The rash of anti- the most dramatic abortion violence attack on such seemed clearly to have facilities since a far- right group attacked been inspired by a col- the organization with lection of deceptively deceptive videos. edited undercover vid- eos accusing Planned Parenthood of ille- gally selling “body parts from aborted fetuses.” Moments after his arrest, Dear was reported to have told officers “no more baby parts.” The videos were pro- duced by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), a group with four in 74 days and a hand- inspectors deemed the build- close ties to some of America’s ful of other criminal or suspi- ing unsafe. Twenty-eight days hardest-line anti-abortion cious incidents, preceded the later, a clinic in Thousand Oaks, extremists. Although their claims deadly shooting. A clinic in Calif., was attacked in almost the were quickly debunked by numer- Pullman, Wash., was firebombed same manner. There were smaller ous media outlets, the videos in the early hours of Sept. 4, caus- arsons on July 19 at a clinic in nonetheless prompted numerous ing damage so extensive that Aurora, Ill., and on Aug. 1 against a congressional inquiries and calls BLOTTER UPDATES ON EXTREMISM AND THE LAW

JULY 20 home was arrested on charges served time for intentionally liamson plotted to start an The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of of being a felon in possession selling tainted meat to public “active revolution against Appeals declined neo-Nazi of a firearm and ordered held schools, had advanced $200 to the government” by target- ’s request to without bond. Mark Schmidt, Geral Pinault to build a web- ing law enforcement agencies reverse his 2012 conviction 49, allegedly told an infor- site for his Beef and sabotaging power grids, for mailing a that mant he planned to kill people Company. After researching transfer stations and water injured a black city official at work and “have a shooting Stanko, Pinault decided to treatment facilities. The three- and two others at the Scotts- with the ‘pigs’ and/or ‘feds.’” return the $200 in the form of some hoped to spark a decla- dale, Ariz., Office of Diversity Officials said they were con- a money order, which Stanko ration of martial law and a and Dialogue in 2004. Mahon, templating bringing addi- kept even though he’d also subsequent uprising by like- who with his twin brother tional charges. canceled his $200 check. minded militiamen. Dennis had ties to the , will be 93 AUG. 20 AUG. 28 SEPT. 2 years old when his sentence A Lincoln County, Neb., jury A Rome, Ga., federal judge A Kansas City federal judge

ends in 2044. found longtime white suprem- sentenced three Georgia mili- handed down a 20-year sen- AP IMAGES/THE POST/ANDY CROSS acist Rudy Stanko guilty of tia members to 12 years each tence to an avionics techni- JULY 24 by deception. Stanko, in prison, after they pleaded cian who tried to explode a A Marion, N.C., man who who in the early 1990s was guilty to charges of conspir- at Wichita’s Dwight allegedly wore a Nazi uniform briefly named as the heir acy to use weapons of mass D. Eisenhower National Air- while conducting “military apparent to the then-leader destruction. Terry Eugene port. Terry Lee Loewen, 60, training” for hours on end in a of the neo-Nazi World Church Peace, Brian Edward Can- who in June pleaded guilty wooded area near his parents’ of the Creator and who once non and Corey Robert Wil- to a single count of attempt-

8 splc intelligence report to discontinue all federal funding clinics and intimidate healthcare his career, had significant con- to Planned Parenthood. professionals and women is ‘OK.’ tacts with lawmakers. In 1978, Days after the Colorado mas- It is not.” he founded America’s first major sacre, anti-abortion activists According to the National outfit, the were openly blaming Planned Abortion Federation, there have Institute for Historical Review Parenthood for causing people been 11 , 26 attempted (IHR), a pseudo-academic organi- to attack it. “Violence is never murders, 42 bombings and 182 zation that once offered a $50,000 the answer, but we must start arsons aimed at abortion clinics reward to the first person who pointing out who is the real cul- and providers since 1977. could prove Jews were gassed at prit. The true instigator of this Auschwitz, then refused to pay the violence and all violence at any [ END OF AN ERA ] Holocaust survivor who provided Planned Parenthood facility documentary evidence. Decades is Planned Parenthood them- Key Holocaust Denier earlier, in the 1950s, he founded selves,” Adams County, Colo., , a political organi- state Rep. JoAnn Windholz wrote and Anti-Semitic zation that billed itself as conser- in a statement published Dec. 1 Publisher Dies at 89 vative and anti-communist but in by The Colorado Independent. fact promoted white supremacist “Violence begets violence. So Willis Carto, one of America’s ear- and especially anti-Semitic views. Planned Parenthood: YOU liest and most outspoken Holo- Carto supported former STOP THE VIOLENCE INSIDE caust deniers and the founder of Alabama Gov. ’s YOUR WALLS.” numerous radical-right political 1968 presidential campaign, co- Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) organizations and publications, authoring a pamphlet, entitled disagreed. In a statement issued died in his home on Oct. 26. He “Stand Up For America: The following the spate of arsons, she was 89. Story of George C. Wallace,” wrote that “toxic rhetoric directed Carto, who had become less which heralded the arch-segre- at Planned Parenthood has dan- active in recent years due to old gationist governor as the only gerous consequences. It sends a age, was for decades a key figure candidate capable of beating signal that using violence to close on the radical right and, early in “blacky” and the supposedly

ing to use a weapon of mass and is suspected of sexually acts on a child. “I will always related case, John Mark Reidle destruction, told an under- abusing at least eight more. hate the Jew,” an unrepentant of Aurora, Mo., faces up to 10 cover agent he was waiting In 2005, Sloniker was report- Kreis, who once proposed an years when he is sentenced for for a “green light” from Allah edly expelled from an SSPX anti-Jewish alliance between acting as a straw buyer for the to carry out a . seminary for being mentally Al Qaeda and the Aryan weapon Miller used. He said he was inspired by Al unstable after he tried to cir- Nations, said at sentencing. Qaeda’s and cumcise himself. NOV. 12 Anwar al-Awlaki. NOV. 10 An Akron, Ohio, man was NOV. 5 A judge in Johnson County, arrested after allegedly using OCT. 9 A Lexington, S.C., judge sen- Kan., sentenced former Ku social media to call for sup- A long-haul trucker and for- tenced August Byron Kreis III, Klux Klan leader and White port of the Islamic State mer seminarian at the anti- 61, a former Pennsyl- Patriot Party founder in September. Terrence J. Semitic Society of Saint Pius X vania leader in white Frazier Glenn Miller McNeil, 25, was also accused (SSPX), a “radical traditional- supremacist groups Jr. to death for mur- of posting the addresses of ist” Catholic religious order, including the Ku Klux dering three people dozens of military person- was arrested in Menomonie, Klan, the Posse Comi- at two Overland Park nel on a Tumblr account, tell- Wis., and extradited to Coeur tatus and the Aryan Jewish centers in April ing readers to “[k]ill them in d’Alene, , to face felony Nations, to 50 years in Miller 2014. Miller, 75, said he their own lands, behead them charges of raping two under- prison for one count shot his victims — all in their own homes, stab them age boys. Kevin G. Sloniker, of criminal sexual of whom were Chris- to death as they walk their 30, reportedly admitted to conduct involving an child tian — because he wanted to streets thinking that they

AP IMAGES//JOE LEDFORD LEDFORD CITY STAR/JOE KANSAS AP IMAGES/THE molesting a total of nine boys and two of committing lewd kill Jews before he died. In a are safe.”

spring 2016 9 INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS

End of an era: Willis contempt for the cause most Carto, who spent some 60 years as a of them died for, apparently leading propagandist wished to be buried alongside on the radical right, his fellow veterans at Arlington died in October. National Cemetery. His request to be interred there had not been decided at press time.

[ CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS ] Georgia ‘Flaggers’ Face Gang Charges in Family Confrontation For the century and a half since the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War, a certain set of south- ern white folks have proudly flown the Confederate battle flag on their property and displayed it Communist-dominated federal Duke, Gritz and White were on their vehicles. government. He drifted further just a few of many important rad- Though racists, segregation- from the political mainstream ical-right figures Carto inspired ists and Klansmen adopted the after Wallace’s defeat. In 1984, and promoted. William Pierce, flag as their emblem during the he founded the Populist Party, founder of the National Alliance civil rights era, successfully fight- which fielded Klansman-turned- (which was, until Pierce’s death in ing to raise it over state capi- politician as its 2002, America’s most important tol buildings across the South, presidential candidate in 1988, neo-Nazi organization), was once many Southerners who other- followed by Green Beret-turned- such an admirer. Carto also corre- wise distance themselves from the militia enthusiast in 1992. sponded with James von Brunn, region’s racist heritage remained Gritz won 0.14% of the popular a neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier stubbornly unwilling to acknowl- vote, more than twice the amount who murdered a security guard edge that for many people, par- Duke had managed to accumulate. at the United States Holocaust ticularly African Americans, the In the early 2000s, having lost Memorial Museum in 2009. battle flag is a symbol of hate and control of Liberty Lobby and its Like von Brunn, Carto fought the sight of it is at once frighten- tabloid newspaper, , in World War II, and, like von ing, sickening and infuriating. in a series of acrimonious legal Brunn, he came to believe he had When the brutal murder of battles in which former col- fought for the wrong side. In its nine African Americans at a leagues accused him of fraud and obituary for Carto, the Free Press Charleston, S.C., Bible study in financial mismanagement, Carto quoted its founder sarcastically June by a battle flag-waving white founded , a characterizing his military ser- supremacist prompted the pen- journal devoted to Holocaust vice as an effort “to fight for the nant’s long-overdue removal from denial, and , glorious democracy of my coun- many public spaces across the a racist and anti-Semitic reboot try, the survival of Soviet com- former Confederacy, some bat- of The Spotlight that also peddles munism, a third and fourth term tle flag proponents felt aggrieved, UFO conspiracy theories and bills for Roosevelt, a chance to kill hurt and marginalized. A subset itself as “America’s last real news- Germans by the thousands as of them took up the flag as a sort paper.” The Free Press provided a desired by Churchill, Eisenhower of cause, festooning their pickup platform to numerous up-and- and the Zionists, part of Palestine trucks with huge replicas that coming stars of the radical right, for them as a bonus, vast riches snapped and menaced in the hot including , a neo-Nazi for the bankers and war suppliers, southern breeze. from Roanoke, Va., who is serv- coffin makers and flag makers.” On July 25, a Georgia-based ing a lengthy term in prison for Carto received a Purple crew of these so-called “flaggers” repeatedly threatening perceived Heart after being wounded in apparently went too far. Now, 15 YOUTUBE enemies with violence. the and, despite his individuals — 10 men and five

10 splc intelligence report women — have been charged with group called Respect the Flag, party was being held, several issuing terroristic threats and par- under Georgia’s Street Gang Respect the Flag members alleg- ticipating in gang activity in con- Terrorism and Prevention Act. edly parked their trucks and nection with their driving their The law, according to the Georgia leaped out, brandishing weap- flag-draped trucks to a birthday General Assembly’s statement of ons. According to witnesses, party for a young black child in intent, is meant to criminalize some yelled, “Fuck y’all niggers” Douglasville, Ga. Once there, they association with “violent crim- and “shoot ‘em.” When someone allegedly brandished weapons, inal street gangs whose mem- from the party told them there shouted racial slurs and issued bers threaten, terrorize and were children present, a member threats before roaring off. commit a multitude of crimes of the convoy replied, “We’ll shoot The Southern Poverty Law against the peaceful citizens of those bastards too.” Center, which publishes the their neighborhoods.” “This is what terror feels like,” Intelligence Report, launched an That description would cer- said Melissa Alford, who was investigation and played an inte- tainly seem to characterize the hosting the party. “These people gral role in presenting Douglas behavior of the Respect the Flag intimidated and threatened us just County District Attorney convoy, which, on the morning for being who we are.” Brian Fortner with evidence in question, happened upon the and witnesses. Douglasville party and decided to [ ANTI-LGBT EXTREMISM ] On Oct. 12, Fortner charged make some trouble. the individuals, who are accused After driving across part of World Congress of of belonging to a loosely organized the private property where the Families Event Draws Gay-Bashing Lineup A hate group with international reach and a talent for couching its anti-LGBT agenda in respectful- sounding terms convened in Salt Lake City during the last week of October, bringing together a raft of right-wing heavy-hitters to talk about “[t]he value of life in all its stages and conditions.” This was the first time that the World Congress of Families (WCF), a Rockford, Ill.-based organization that’s been instru- mental in promoting anti-LGBT laws in , Russia, Uganda and elsewhere, has held its annual gathering in the United States. Typically, the group meets abroad, in countries more open to its aggressive anti- LGBT agenda. (The 2014 con- ference, for instance, was set to take place in Russia, the site of a recent WCF victory in the form of a law banning LGBT “propa- ganda.” But those plans were Hate on parade: 15 suspended in the aftermath of people who allegedly Russia’s annexation of Crimea harassed black from neighboring Ukraine.) residents from a parade of Confederate Speakers at the Salt Lake City flag-bearing vehicles event included Mark Regnerus, face charges of making

TWITTER author of a discredited but widely terroristic threats.

spring 2016 11 INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS

cited study claiming that same- and, especially, same-sex cou- In a series of conference calls, sex couples make bad parents; ples. Its leadership is particularly some of which showed up online, Brian Brown, head of the anti- exercised about the legalization Thomas David Deegan, 39, alleg- LGBT National Organization for of same-sex marriage, which it edly outlined his plan to forcibly Marriage; Austin Ruse, presi- sees as a Trojan Horse for plans remove state government leaders dent of the Center for Family and to criminalize Christianity. from office and replace them with Human Rights (C-FAM), an anti- While increasingly unpop- “sovereign citizens,” extremists LGBT hate group, who in 2014 ular in America, that notion who believe that most laws don’t said that “hard left, human-hating has gained particular traction apply to them. He also allegedly people that run modern universi- in parts of Africa, where laws planned to try those leaders in a ties … should all be taken out and criminalizing homosexual- sovereign-run court and execute shot”; Peter Sprigg of the Family ity have recently made a come- any found guilty of treason. Research Council, an influen- back. Indeed, Peter Montgomery Deegan allegedly told his lis- tial hate group that specializes in of Right Wing Watch charac- teners to grab their guns and terized WCF as a “love-fest head to Charleston, W.Va., and to between African activists and plan on shooting any police who their American allies.” Theresa showed up during the enactment Okafor, recipient of WCF’s 2015 of his plot. “We are at war,” he “Woman of the Year” award, is a reportedly said. Nigerian native who, in addition Instead of war, Deegan — who to promoting harsh anti-LGBT apparently believed there was a laws in the region, has suggested vast Vatican conspiracy to parcel that pro-equality activists are in out U.S. territories and “re-enslave” league with the jihadist terrorists citizens — earned himself a bed of Boko Haram. in West Virginia’s North Central Rhetoric at the four-day Regional Jail and a charge of threat- event hewed, for the most part, ening to commit a terrorist act. He to WCF’s tradition of keeping has declined counsel, as many sov- its tone civil and its message ereigns do, and will apparently be extreme. A notable departure representing himself. came the last day of the gathering, Rick Van Thiel, of Las Vegas, when Everett Piper, president of had smaller dreams. All the for- Oklahoma Wesleyan University, mer porn star, male prostitute and Pamela Atkinson, an adviser to Utah Gov. peddling lies about the supposed declared that the “wise and sex toy inventor wanted was to be Gary Herbert, defends risks LGBT people pose to soci- learned in our courts, and in our a doctor. the governor’s ety; and Rafael Cruz, a gay-bash- classrooms, and, unfortunately, For a while, it seemed he had support of the World ing public figure best known as even in our churches, actually achieved that goal: At a “clinic” Congress of Families, father of ultra-right-wing Texas work to remove a man’s soul and based out of a rundown trailer which has been deemed a hate group. senator and presidential candi- expect him to stay out of .” that one former patient com- date Ted Cruz. pared to a scene from a horror A clutch of influential right- [ ‘SOVEREIGN CITIZENS’ ] film, “Dr. Rick” is accused of hav- wing organizations, including ing performed dozens of abor- several anti-LGBT groups such as Radical Plans tions, circumcisions, castrations, the Alliance Defending Freedom, root canals and cancer treatments, the and to Overthrow guided in his technique by vid- the National Organization for , Play eos he’d watched on YouTube. As Marriage, partnered with WCF payment, he preferred bitcoin, a to stage the meeting. Doctor, Outlined digital currency beloved of liber- WCF bills itself as pro-fam- tarians, black-market operators ily, but proffers a narrow defini- West Virginia authorities in Sep- and others. tion of “natural family” as “the tember arrested a Mineral Wells “I contract privately with CORBIS/AP IMAGES/RICK BOWMER voluntary union of a man and a man on accusations of plotting to people [and] do not contract woman in a lifelong covenant of overthrow the state government with government employees of marriage” — excluding and mar- and establish a prototype coup any kind,” he said in advertis- ginalizing single parents, grand- that extremists in other states ing his medical services. “Prior parents, nonbiological guardians, could follow. to becoming a professional [sic]

12 splc intelligence report NORTH CENTRAL REGIONAL JAIL (DEEGAN); CONTRIBUTED (FLAGGERS) it instead at$1 million. to setbailat$20,000, andpegged lic defenderSteve Lisk’s request Ann Zimmermanrejected pub Las Vegas Justice ofthePeace munity than a serial murderer,” ent more of adangertothecom as a person who “seems to pres however. DescribingVan Thiel neys. Even theycouldn’t help, arms ofactuallicensedattor der charge drove himintothe but itappearsthatthemur himself in numerous past actions, before thosecharges are human life.” It couldbemonths cian shows “reckless disregard for one whoisn’t alicensedphysi medical care dispensedby some Van Thiel, on the theory that to seek murder charges against Marc DiGiacomosaidheintends few weeks laterwhenprosecutor viding drugs. Theygotworse a illegal drugs, and illegally pro arm by afelon,possessionof a license, possession of a fire of practicing medicinewithout Detention Centeronstate charges and detained at the Clark County when Van Thiel,52, was arrested Thiel wrote onhissite. 14 years, soI’ve seenitall,” Van ter, pornactorandproducer for inventor, swinger, BDSMmas doctor, Iwas asex machine Deegan Van Thielhasrepresented Things fellapartonOct.2, ▲

filed. ------mass murderer . symbols thatfollowed attacks ontheConfederate battleflag,which hadbeenembraced by racist helped finance it. The recent protest there was oneofmore of than350insupport Confederate the MountRushmore monumentto U.S.presidents andwas aleadingmember oftheKlan,which “second era” Klan.The sculpture was by planned andstarted Gutzon Borglum, whoalsocreated Lee, Stonewall Jackson andJefferson Davis, andalso was thesite oftheNov. ofthe 25,1915,birth for huge sculptures carved into theside ofthemountainthatdepictConfederate heroes Robert E. Dream” speech—“Let freedom ringfrom Stone MountainofGeorgia.” Stone Mountainisknown of erecting themonumentto theslaincivilrightsleadercomes from alineinhisfamous “I Have a just for theprotest andlambasted the“traitors” whowere thesite. The seekingto “tarnish” idea of antigovernment “Patriot” groups, andDefend Stone Mountain,whichapparently was created of theKu KluxKlan,theSonsofConfederate Veterans, theLeague oftheSouth,anassortment monument. The demonstration was promoted inadvance by theInternational Keystone Knights a proposal by state officials toadda “Freedom LutherKing Bell”dedicated toMartin Jr. tothe About 40so-called“flaggers” gathered atthenation’s largest Confederate memorial to protest Stone Mountain, Georgia Nov. 14,2015 spring 2016 13 On a decaying former Air Force base, antigovernment ‘sovereign citizens’ are battling the few remaining locals for control

BY RYAN LENZ | ILLUSTRATION BY SUNNY PAULK

14 splc intelligence report ST. MARIE, Mont. — Howling winds “VIOLATORS WILL BE TREATED “They showed up and paid the back sweep across the high plains. Weeds AS INTRUDERS.” taxes on 400 condo units,” Murnion told spring up in gravel streets that bend The language, with its insistent ref- the Intelligence Report in November. “We through the empty neighborhoods that erences to the Constitution, didn’t had no dealings until they showed up, once housed a vibrant community of air- sound like a normal no-trespassing speculating on these properties and try- men at the forefront of the Cold War. Only notice. Some attributed the posters to ing to make a quick buck.” the sight of an occasional human dispels the recent appearance of the Montana Those units were just part of the the atmosphere of total abandonment. Aviation Research Company, a subsid- town’s enormous inventory of empty In the early 1960s, what would later iary of Boeing that maintains one of only and blighted buildings, which include a be dubbed St. Marie grew up around a handful of runways long enough to church, a high school, the officers club, a the Glasgow Air Force Base, one of dozens of launch points for Strategic Air Command bombers. But when the Defense Department shuttered the base for a final time in 1976, after an earlier closing between 1968 and 1971, its mili- tary residents were shipped elsewhere. A population that once numbered over 7,000 people dwindled to a few hundred, infrastructure crumbled, vacant houses began to fall apart, and the settlement 50 miles from the Canadian border became a near ghost town. There were efforts to repurpose the once-thriving community — by the mil- itary at first, then a private developer who sought to create a military retire- ment village, then another developer who ended in bankruptcy — but they each failed for reasons that remain hotly disputed among today’s population of just 264 people. And then came the attempt that is still roiling St. Marie. land the now-discontinued space shut- Strange signage: No-trespass notices citing Three years ago, much to the conster- tle. The firm was engaged in top-secret the Constitution were one of the early signs nation and bewilderment of those who research, and residents who lived among that something odd was happening in St. Marie, Mont. Residents soon learned that two lived there, odd signs began to appear some 1,000 empty buildings thought that “sovereign citizens” were behind the warnings. around the bleak remains of the com- might explain the forbidding signs. munity, posted on homes, the dilapidated But then they remembered how three officers club, the former school and more. mysterious men had recently appeared in bowling alley and more. Huge numbers “NO TRESPASS,” the posters warned. a green pickup truck, driving up and down of the properties have been abandoned or “YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED, St. Marie’s semi-abandoned streets for are in bankruptcy proceedings, and many THAT THE OWNER OR TENANT unknown reasons. They initially had been were years delinquent in their taxes. OF THIS PROPERTY REQUIRES taken for just another odd set of visitors, Under Montana law, similar to that of ALL PUBLIC OFFICIALS, AGENTS, maybe wildcatters or venture capitalists many states, when a property’s taxes are OR PERSON(S) TO ABIDE BY ‘THE hoping to capitalize on the extraordinary delinquent, the county can impose a tax SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND,’ THE oil boom happening just to the east in lien on it to prevent its sale without the CONSTITUTION FOR THE UNITED ’s Bakken Shale Formation. tax bill being settled. Third parties are STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE They were, it turns out, something allowed to buy the tax lien by paying back RATIFIED AMENDMENTS THERETO. more than that. taxes — a process known as “tax assign- … ALLEGED ZONING OR CODE NON- ment” — and then, if the original owners COMPLIANCES DO NOT ESTABLISH Enter the Sovereigns can’t reimburse them within a set period, CONSTITUTIONAL REASONS FOR Nick Murnion, the Valley County attor- they are given clear title to the property.

AP IMAGES/THE BILLINGS GAZETTE/LARRY MAYER BILLINGS GAZETTE/LARRY AP IMAGES/THE ENTERING THIS PROPERTY. ney, remembers it well. It all took Pat Kelly by surprise.

spring 2016 15 A former Air Force officer with radicals who, as a rule, believe that State. Frantz also appears as one-third dreams of turning St. Marie into a retire- most laws, especially federal laws, do owner of Premier Wood Products, ment community where military veter- not apply to them. Typically, sovereigns LLC, which was “involuntarily dissolved” ans could swap stories and maybe play believe they are not required to have for reasons not explained in paperwork a round of golf on the course he planned driver’s licenses or pay federal taxes, from that state’s licensing division. to build, Kelly began buying up homes in and they are known for their nonsensi- According to an account in the Billings the 1980s. According to Kelly, that was cal legal pleadings and theories and their Gazette, the largest paper in the region, only the latest attempt to save the place. use of property liens. DTM has engaged in a series of maneu- Kelly says that the federal govern- Brauner, who follows sovereign con- vers to take over St. Marie properties. ment had earlier spent “tens of mil- vention by writing his first names as In 2012, the paper said, the sover- lions of dollars” trying to find a new use “Terry-Lee” rather than Terry Lee, has eigns, calling themselves Citizens Action for the base and its housing before ulti- a particularly colorful past. In the mid- Committee of Valley County, posted a mately giving the commercial buildings 1970s, he several times tried to go over newspaper announcement that they and runways to the county and putting towering waterfalls in a craft built of intended to take over unincorporated St. the area’s 1,223 housing units up for sale. truck tire inner tubes in Washington Marie, declare it blighted, and then exer- Those housing units were auctioned off, state, telling reporters that he had been cise eminent domain to take over prop- with a salvage firm winning the bid- trying to draw attention to himself since erties. That failed, but was followed by ding but then backing out after failing childhood and wanted to live a life like an effort to join and take over the local to get financing. that of Evel Knievel. property owners association by using Ultimately, Kelly found financing In 1992, he battled the IRS over more proxy votes from the many properties and he and his late wife, Judy, began to than $1 million in tax debt. In 2010, he DTM controlled. That failed as well, the build what they envisaged as a “Christian ran for sheriff as a “constitutionalist” in Gazette reported. Then they tried to cre- Community” they named St. Marie. Spokane County, Wash. After garner- ate their own homeowners association, But in the end, after the county drasti- ing almost 2,000 votes but losing the an attempt that also fell apart. cally raised taxes, they, too, fell behind race, Brauner wrote to a local newspa- But the biggest clarion call came from on taxes. per to say he had been the only “abso- Pat Kelly, in an Oct. 19, 2013, letter to the It was in late 2012 when the three lutely constitutional candidate.” Much Glasgow Courier, written after he lost a strangers showed up, Kelly said, telling later, in St. Marie, he spent two weeks first wave of properties. “A member of him that they had plans to build camps in jail and paid an $800 fine for driving DTM said he plans on teaching the sov- for the surge of workers then flock- a car without a license or insurance. He ereign citizen theory in St. Marie,” Kelly ing to the Bakken. They said they rep- told authorities he wouldn’t get a license warned. “I believe that everyone needs to resented a Washington state company because the application form required be aware of what I’ve written.” called DTM Enterprises. Welcoming that he affirmatively answer the ques- them, Kelly put them up in a guest- tion, “Are you a U.S. citizen?” Fears, Hopes and Promises house he kept on his property. Then, to In 2013, before his traffic arrest, Is DTM Enterprises trying to build a sov- his shock and surprise, DTM Enterprises according to the Glasgow (Mont.) ereign citizens’ redoubt? paid $187,086.43 in back taxes on 371 of Courier, Brauner sent a 25-page “mem- Terry Lee Brauner says no. He told the his properties, leaving Kelly with only orandum of law” to officials explaining Intelligence Report that his whole inter- 60 days to regain them by settling the why he didn’t need a driver’s license. est has been to “make a pile of money” tax debt. Although that worked out to an According to the Courier, he also “pro- based on the boom in the Bakken Shale average of just $504.28 per home, Kelly vided legal education on topics such Formation, although that possibility was unable to come up with the money as personal liberty, travel, distinctions seems to have faded dramatically with and lost out to DTM. between the terms ‘driver’ and ‘opera- the plunge in oil prices and the near-halt Around the same time, Kelly began ,’ licenses, traffic, surrender of rights in fracking for oil in shale sediments. to research the men he’d initially wel- and taxing power.” Brauner described “We come in there as businessmen, comed to town. He is still amazed at what himself as a “Citizen of the Republic of just regular, ordinary businessmen, with he found out about the two who said Montana” as opposed to the “munici- a million dollars in our pocket,” he said. they were partners in DTM — Terry Lee pal corporate State of MONTANA,” typ- “We assumed that the oil boom was going Brauner and Merrill Leon Frantz. ical sovereign verbiage. His affidavit, the to come all the way over. It got within 50 paper reported, referred to himself at the miles of [St. Marie] and stopped.” Curiouser and Curiouser end as “Terry-Lee, a sovereign being.” Pat Kelly, for his part, doesn’t believe Both Brauner and Frantz, it turned out, Much less is known about Frantz, who that. He worries that DTM is spearhead- are self-described “sovereign citizens.” is listed as the registered agent of DTM ing an effort to make St. Marie a sover- The term describes antigovernment Enterprises by the Montana Secretary of eign enclave, and that without a local

16 splc intelligence report police department the com- munity could do little to stop that. “Researching them,” he said, “you find that they’re big in the [sovereign] movement.” Kelly has some histori- cal reasons to be concerned. It was just two years ago that , a foul-mouthed neo-Nazi, attempted to take control of another near ghost town, Leith, N.D., to build a white supremacist enclave. And just two hours’ drive from St. Marie, the Montana Freemen, whose beliefs were close to those of today’s sovereigns, declared their own independent “Justus Township” in 1996. That group engaged in an 81-day standoff before finally surren- dering to the FBI. And sovereigns in general don’t have a good reputation. In 2010, a sovereign father- son team murdered two police officers in West Memphis, Ark., and recent surveys have shown that sovereigns are a top concern of police. In 2011, the FBI sovereign ideology promoted by the anti- Terry Lee Brauner says he’s merely trying to released a report calling sovereign citi- Semitic Posse Comitatus in the 1980s. make money with the purchase of hundreds of zens “a domestic terrorist movement.” “Everybody’s an American, even the empty homes in St. Marie. His neighbors are not so sure. Brauner and Frantz, aside from blacks are American,” he said. “We’re Brauner’s run-in with police over his all Americans, but it’s whether you’re a refusal to get a driver’s license or insure federal citizen, with benefits and privi- But Brauner insists that he’s genu- his vehicle, apparently have not employed leges, or a state citizen. … There are two inely trying to spark development, and illegal tactics in their attempts to win different citizenships.” The Posse used that opponents are hurting St. Marie. control over St. Marie properties. Still, to say only whites could be true sover- “They don’t want to see any develop- Brauner, at the very least, is clearly a true eigns, or state citizens, because black ment,” he complained. “They have cost believer in classic sovereign ideology. people were granted citizenship by the the county and state of Montana over Reached by telephone, Brauner 14th Amendment and so were beholden $10 million in lost property tax reve- refused to speak to an Intelligence to the federal government. nues because they stop every movement Report writer until the writer had read That idea of different types of cit- of guys like me coming in here to develop Plantation America, a book by longtime izenship is a core belief of the sover- the place.” Apparently referring to Kelly, sovereign theorist Anthony L. Hargis. eign movement, although it does not Brauner added, “Trying to force us out The book argues that the federal gov- always take the racist form plugged by of there so he can take control, it’s all ernment is working to enslave every U.S. the Posse. “Once you understand how this is about.” citizen and rob them of their rights. In they’ve taken control of everybody,” Meanwhile, residents can only shake 2005, it was advertised in the pages of Brauner said in an apparent reference their heads and wonder. As DeAnn an infamous anti-Semitic tabloid called to the federal government, “it just blows Ketchum of the St. Marie property own- American Free Press. me away that nobody stopped this from ers association told the Billings Gazette, When Brauner finally did speak to the happening and educated everybody to “We all find it a little bit, I don’t know —

AP IMAGES/BILLINGS GAZETTE/LARRY MAYER (AERIAL AND BRAUNER); RYAN LENZ (SIGN) RYAN AND BRAUNER); (AERIAL MAYER GAZETTE/LARRY AP IMAGES/BILLINGS Report, he referenced a racist version of the two citizenships.” I want to use the term unbelievable.”p

spring 2016 17 18 splc intelligence report ‘CULTURE JAMMING’ How the extremist right hijacked ‘,’ Taylor Swift and the Mizzou student protests to promote

BY KEEGAN HANKES ILLUSTRATION BY SIMON PRADES

As online platforms like Twitter and One of the foremost practitioners of Using the hashtags #Mizzou and Facebook become increasingly important both types of campaign is , #PrayForMizzou, Anglin manipulated for the dissemination of breaking news, administrator of , a neo- the audience following the situation racist leaders are quickly recognizing the Nazi website that thrives on the type of online to unwittingly spread reports that power of subverting mainstream cover- vicious racism formerly confined to anon- the University of Missouri police were age in the service of their own agendas. ymous boards such as and . complicit with the Ku Klux Klan and that So far, this subversion has manifested In recent years, the site has originated rac- crosses were being burned on the univer- itself in two major campaign styles: ist campaigns targeting both the main- sity lawn — an effort apparently meant to overtly, with memes and images designed stream media and social justice organizers. show that overly sensitive anti-racist pro- to elicit outrage and disrupt messaging, During last fall’s protests calling for testers will believe anything. When his and covertly, through the spread of dis- the resignation of Tim Wolfe, president efforts were discovered, Twitter banned information, fraudulent eyewitness of the University of Missouri, over his his username. But the damage had been accounts and fake news reports. handling of a series of racist incidents done. Anglin touted his efforts as a major But no matter the method, the racists on campus, Anglin was able to generate success and called for similar campaigns behind the tactics have one goal: hijack- thousands of retweets and “likes” for as soon as possible. ing the media in the service of more false information purportedly coming It didn’t take long for copycats to fol- “racially awakened” . from the demonstrations. low .

spring 2016 19 Several weeks after Anglin’s troll- of anonymous Internet trolls. (To get a messages and claims. In that context, it ing of the Mizzou protests, dozens of sense of Anglin, consider that his website has sometimes been referred to as “sub- White Student Union (WSU) pages is named for Der Stürmer, the obscene vertising” or “guerrilla communication.” began appearing on Facebook. The reac- and gutturally anti-Semitic rag published tion from students and administrations by , a Nazi leader who ‘Holocaust Humor’ alike was predictable condemnation and was executed for crimes against human- “Anglin’s tactics, really a bastardized outrage. After one such response from ity after being tried in Nuremberg.) form of cultural jamming, have many the administration at the University of “You are having a quite remarkable effects. One of them is to discredit the at Urbana-Champaign, Anglin effect. I would say that this recent troll- official narrative. Another one is to sow copied the idea for another one of his ing campaign of yours, I thought, was seeds of doubt and to suggest a false own campaigns of organized subversion. pretty incredible to get all of that main- equivalency between viewpoints and “So, guys. Here’s the plan: Make stream coverage and all of that abso- positions where there truly is a right more of the White Student Union pages lute hysteria about Ku Klux Klan on the and a wrong,” Mark Dery, a culture critic on Facebook for various universities. Mizzou [University of Missouri] cam- who writes about the dark side of the You don’t have to go there. Make one pus,” Anglin’s Radio Stormer co-host American psyche, told Hatewatch. for Dartmouth, Princeton, etc.,” Anglin Sven Longshanks said. “Apart from being “Another tactical move Anglin is wrote on his website. “If they won’t let it hilarious, it really did make a point of attempting is to simply stress the main- on Facebook, put it on tumblr or word- how easy it was to stir these blacks up.” stream media. … It’s never been less eco- press or whatever. Get it up, then forward Using platforms like Twitter is old nomically viable to run a really rigorous the links to local media.” hat for the more savvy Internet rac- investigative news operation. If you can What followed was massive media ists who have long taken advantage just distract reporters and stretch their coverage — from ABC News, USA Today, of online anonymity to spread racist resources thin, sending them on a wild and others — all messages like “#WhiteGenocide” and goose chase for what is effectively a asking if the pages were authentic. Only “The Mantra,” a screed devised by Bob media , in a sense you’ve already a handful of the WSUs seemed to be real Whitaker, the 2016 presidential candi- won because they’re not covering sto- groups. However, in a matter of a day, date for the American Freedom Party ries that need to be covered, and they’re Anglin was able to help propel extrem- (AFP), that reads, in part, “Asia for the squandering resources on something that ist ideas from the neo-Nazi fringe into Asians, Africa for the Africans, White doesn’t pan out.” the mainstream, and it took no time for countries for everybody!” Last month, using more overt tactics, other white supremacists to take notice. Seeding false news stories on this scale, racists from around the globe managed however, is new for racists like Anglin. to get the hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII ‘Sock Puppets’ and the Klan “I’m just one guy. This could have to trend over a supposed “anti-white” “It doesn’t matter who started them been done by anybody,” Anglin said. agenda — based on the casting of a or why, whether it was ‘real’ or a sat- “What I’m saying about the Holocaust, female and a black man as the film’s ire, spontaneous or coordinated: A few and joking about ‘Gas the Kikes’ is that leads — without the help of the main- dozen Facebook pages made the concept you’re using the same methods they used stream media. Director J.J. Abrams was of White Student Unions real through to destroy our traditional systems against the primary target for supposedly leading manipulated tension and predictable them. … In many ways, it’s the whole con- a campaign of “white genocide” through media amplification,” wrote Abigail cept behind the Daily Stormer.” his casting choices. The attack generated James on the white nationalist journal Acknowledging that he has his own enough attention to elicit headlines from Radix. “Worst-case scenario, this par- “sock puppet” accounts — accounts reg- news organizations like , ticular incident fizzles out and we learn istered to a fake name — Anglin and his the Daily , Wired and . a few new tricks. If we’re sensitive to co-host encouraged listeners to strike Another popular series of memes has opportunities and smart about it, it can out on their own and impersonate peo- been built around attaching anti-Semitic be done again.” ple of color and women in order to con- quotes, including some from Hitler, to Radix’s endorsement of tactics pop- duct “culture jamming.” Longshanks images of Taylor Swift. Although primar- ularized by the comparatively lowbrow went as far as to suggest purchasing dis- ily born in noxious environments such Daily Stormer is perhaps even more posable mobile phones to avoid detection as the depths of Reddit, as well as 4chan remarkable than the media coverage and banishment from social media plat- and 8chan’s /pol/ sections, they can be itself. Radix and its publisher Richard forms like Twitter. found with some frequency in the com- Spencer claim to be the bourgeois Culture jamming is a tactic normally ment threads of mainstream sites. thought catalog of the “,” and associated with anti-consumerist move- Anonymity binds most of these cam- they were suddenly heaping praise and ments, and typically uses satire and irony paigns together. With the exception of taking cues from neo-Nazi Anglin’s legion to discredit commercial or political known leaders on the radical right who

20 splc intelligence report “So, guys. Here’s the plan: Make more of the White Student Union pages on Facebook for various universities. You don’t have to go there. Make one for Dartmouth, Princeton, etc.”

often organize and initiate them, these “They’re actually doing what the con- “I wouldn’t exalt [Anglin’s] perspicacity projects rely on the velocity and strength servative-, mainstream-, corporate- or and penetration of these issues too much. of legions of anonymous users dissemi- ideologue-funded right, that is to say the He isn’t framing it consciously in terms nating memes and using hashtags simul- GOP and its fellow travellers, have been of its effects. He’s loaded his blunderbuss taneously. Perceived humor, often of the doing for decades, which is simply sow- up with every bent nail and twisted screw darkest variety, is what allows them to ing the seeds of doubt in the media nar- in his drawer and is kind of firing away at be perpetuated so effectively. Reactions rative,” Dery explained. “In other words, the broadside of the barn culturally, but of outrage by the targeted demographics you don’t have to win the climate change there’s no nuance to the analysis.” only add fuel to the fire. debate, you don’t have to win the frack- Anglin did not respond to an E-mail “My inclination is that ‘gas the kikes’ ing debate, you don’t have to win the from the Intelligence Report request- is ridiculous enough that it will immedi- debate on rape in the military, if you just ing comment. ately be recognized as humor — if dark create the illusion that there’s another The existence of these campaigns, humor — by any normal person who side to this.” nuanced or otherwise, as well as the hears it, and that the media repeating As Angelo John Gage, the former con- energy expended by the perpetra- this phrase would desensitize the pub- gressional candidate for AFP, pointed out tors, serves as one more example of the lic to Holocaust humor,” Anglin wrote. during the #BoycottStarWarsVII cam- Internet as the new battleground for paign, “no one cares about a black dude organized racism. Whether covertly Sowing Doubt having the lead in #BoycottStarWarsVII, derailing social justice campaigns or The culture jamming tactics co-opted by the whole point was to seed the meme attacking perceived hypocrisy in the Anglin present a Catch-22 for the main- #whitegenocide & it worked lol.” mainstream through overt memes, the stream media. Writing about their cam- Indeed, Anglin, Gage and their battle for hearts and minds is being paigns generates precisely the publicity legions of followers are simply making fought online. and desensitization that bad actors with a scene to force an audience, wittingly What used to exclusively dwell in the nothing to lose, like Anglin, are after. His or not, to consider an extreme political darkest corners of the web has now crept hypothesis is that regular viewers exposed position. Given the anonymity of those into the mainstream. Understanding the to a of seemingly hyperbolic images exposed to their handiwork, it’s diffi- tactics being deployed is essential in will eventually begin to laugh, even if cult to measure their efficacy outside countering these racist campaigns, and reluctantly, creating a new status quo for of the headlines they have managed a trained eye is the only feasible way to what passes as acceptable content across to generate. flush these subversions out of the main- the mainstream Internet and ostensibly But Dery has doubts about the prow- stream and back to the swamps in which redefining the rules of the debate. ess of ringleaders like Gage and Anglin. they bred. ▲

spring 2016 21 ARYAN DEFLATIONS

A dozen years after the death of its founder, the remnants of the once-infamous have just about disappeared BY BILL MORLIN

The Aryan Nations — once the best- of North Idaho — deliberately burned to known white supremacist group in the the ground after a devastating civil suit nation — all but faded into racist history brought by the Southern Poverty Law as 2015 drew to a close. Center (SPLC) and the group’s resulting A mere 12 years after the death of bankruptcy in 2000 — white suprema- Aryan Nations founder Richard Girnt cists have regrouped largely through Butler, there is no longer an official Internet connections and forums, along “Aryan Nations World Headquarters” with small in-person gatherings. SPECIAL (AN CHURCH); CORBIS/EVAN HURD/SYGMA (BUTLER) or a website promoting his racist ideol- There are, however, groups that still ogy, which mixed anti-Semitic Christian revere the name. Identity theology, Hitler-worship and the A motorcycle club called the Sadistic of the Ku Klux Klan. Souls and based in Grovespring, Mo., That’s not to say, of course, that white claims allegiance to the Aryan Nations, supremacy, bigotry, racism, neo-Nazi and it recently struck up an alliance with ideas and a lingering fascination with the United Klans of America. But the Butler have disappeared. Sadistic Souls bikers appear more inter- But rather than gathering at Butler’s ested in riding their machines, swilling Aryan church and clubhouse in the woods beer and posing for photos with their

22 splc intelligence report Aryan Nations: A Timeline April 1973: Richard Butler moves to ARYAN Hayden Lake, Idaho. April 1980: Butler attends the first Aryan Nations (AN) Congress in Within three days of that, Gulett took Kansas, calling for unity of white down the Aryan Nations website where supremacists. Future congresses will he regularly posted his racist sermons, be held at the Idaho AN compound. thick with invocations of Butler’s name DEFLATIONS April 1984: Members of the white and legacy and photos of the former Aryan compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho. supremacist terrorist group The Order, Gulett didn’t offer a detailed explana- who support AN, rob an armored car. tion. It may be that the man who spent December 1984: After shootouts time in prison for an assortment of in Idaho and Oregon, four Order crimes simply couldn’t attract and keep members are arrested on Whidbey many followers or enough financial sup- Island, Wash. port. He certainly didn’t admit failure. April 1985: A federal grand jury Meanwhile, August Byron Kreis III, questions Butler and indicts 23 the other man who spent time over members of The Order. the last decade claiming to be Butler’s rightful successor as the head of Aryan September 1986: A series of bomb- Nations, was convicted last year of child ing incidents aimed at human rights rape. The 61-year-old racist was sen- activists are tied to AN security tenced in November to 50 years in prison, chief David Dorr. where he will almost certainly die. January 1991: AN supporter Randy Other would-be Aryan Nations lead- Weaver is arrested on weapons ers — Paul Mullet, Gerald O’Brien, Drew violations. The incident triggers Bostwick and Charles Juba — seem to the 1992 , Idaho, siege. have vanished from the racist forefront, Weaver’s son and wife and a deputy and Butler understudies Neuman Britton U.S. marshal are killed. and Ray Redfeairn have died. middle fingers extended than the orga- After a version of this piece was first July 1998: Victoria and Jason nized racism once practiced by Butler. published on SPLC’s Hatewatch news Keenan are shot at during a car The last self-proclaimed leader of the blog in December, long-time movement chase from the AN compound. Aryan Nations, Morris L. Gulett, who racist Billy Roper posted a comment January 1999: AN and Butler are briefly was aligned with the Sadistic claiming that Mullet had just formed named defendants in a civil suit filed Souls and its leader, Dennis McGiffen, a new church, The by the Southern Poverty Law Center suddenly closed up shop in November Nation of True , in Bainbridge, Ohio. on behalf of the Keenans, who ulti- at his “headquarters” in Converse, La. “Aryan Nations is not embodied in a mately are awarded $6.3 million. That likely was a surprise to the world single person [but] is an idea, a belief sys- of white supremacists. Only six months tem, and an article of faith,” wrote Roper, October 2000: Butler files for bank- earlier, Gulett was boldly and pub- calling himself the “minister of publi- ruptcy and the AN is later auctioned licly praising accused mass murderer cations” for the new white suprema- off, its buildings destroyed. Dylann Storm Roof, whose racist mind- cist church. April 2002: August Byron Kreis III, set apparently led to the June “Whether or not the ‘Church of Jesus who had previous ties with the Klan, of nine people at Emanuel AME Church Christ Christian’ [an alternative name sets up an AN in Pennsylvania and in Charleston, S.C. for Aryan Nations that emphasizes its claims he, Ray Redfeairn and Mor- Now, suddenly — without capitulat- Christian Identity beliefs] continues as ris Gulett are the triumvirate now ing, apologizing or retreating from his an organization is immaterial,” Roper heading the Aryan Nations. Butler racist views — Gulett bluntly says he is said, claiming that “many loyal and cou- denounces all three. retiring from the front lines. The Aryan rageous former Aryan Nations members September 2004: Butler dies. Nations “no longer exists with the verac- and supporters” will now flock to Mullet. ity that it once had [and] therefore it That certainly remains to be seen. December 2015: After years of deserves to be respectfully laid to rest,” Mullet, who has served prison time squabbling and infighting by various Gulett announced. in Minnesota and Ohio for theft and AN successors, no more versions of the group are left. spring 2016 23 Among the many wannabe führers of Aryan Nations are Dennis McGiffen (top left), August Kreis (bottom left) and Morris Gulett (far left), who recently praised mass murderer Dylann Roof (middle left). fraud, has bounced all over the rac- “The group that produced some of the Released from federal prison in 2010, ist world in the past two decades — nation’s worst racial terrorists is finally Gulett said he has spent the past five from the Ku Klux Klan to the neo-Nazi dead,” Potok said. years and “countless thousands of dol- National Socialist Movement to various In an odd twist, one of the men who lars [trying] to rebuild Aryan Nations to Aryan Nations splinter factions — with- once claimed to lead the Aryan Nations its former glory with the same Christian out establishing a real foothold or track agrees, more or less, with these senti- [Identity] standards Pastor Butler always record anywhere. ments. “For all intents and purposes, demanded of the membership. But in YOUTUBE (GULETT); AP IMAGES/BRIAN BOHANNON (MCGIFFEN); AP IMAGES/CHARLESTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE (ROOF); LEXINGTON COUNTY DETENTION CENTER (KREIS) Even as the flames of the Aryan the Aryan Nations Pastor Butler created these the last days, it is futile.” Nations’ burning cross seem to have flick- in the mid-seventies is dead and gone,” “Therefore today,” Gulett said in ered out, the group’s name still is revered Gulett said in his Nov. 17 posting, which his final public announcement, “I and bandied about, particularly in pris- came 23 years after he was “ordained” am announcing my retirement from ons and on racist websites and forums. as a pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ Aryan Nations.” But the organization’s emblem — a Nazi Christian by Butler. “I will never lose respect for the noble superimposed on a Christian All that remains, Gulett said, “are a few and honorable organization that Pastor cross — and a storefront no longer are good dedicated souls and a good many Butler created 40 years ago,” Gulett said, easily found. malcontents who wrongfully call them- “but our Holy White Race has evidently The downhill slide began with the selves Aryan Nations, but will never be lost the will to live.” SPLC’s 2000 civil suit against the group, anything but degenerate prison gangsters Gulett added that a “race war is swiftly which resulted in a $6.3 million judg- and filthy unwashed wanna be bikers.” approaching [and] most of the white race ments against it that led in turn to its fil- That is an apparent reference to will without a doubt perish.” ing for bankruptcy. It accelerated greatly McGiffen and the Sadistic Souls. Gulett “No doubt some will continue to with Butler’s death in 2004. also had a falling out marked by similar haul Aryan Nations through the mud by SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok name-calling earlier this year with Shaun attaching its Christian standard to their said the Aryan Nations was for decades Patrick Winkler, another former Butler filthy unwashed lives,” Gulett said. “probably the best known, if not the most protégé who failed in his 2012 attempt The Sadistic Souls responded in important, neo-Nazi group in America.” to build a new Aryan Nations compound kind, calling Gulett a Jewish “rabbi” “Now, 38 years after its founding, after in North Idaho. Winkler now lives in and saying that neither he nor Kreis it was brought to its knees by [the SPLC] Mississippi and says he’s affiliated with possessed the skills needed to suc- suit, embarrassed by revelations about the International Keystone Knights of ceed Butler. the pornographic habits and extreme vio- the Ku Klux Klan. “Many have failed Pastor Butler, lence of some of its principals, and gut- “The Aryan Nations name has such a August Kreis III being the latest,” the ted by the deaths of its most charismatic negative stigma attached to it these days Sadistic Souls said of the pair on the club leaders, the group is essentially defunct,” because of these types of people that it has website. “WOW!! Pastor Butler must be Potok said. no real value to it any longer,” Gulett said. proud of you two.” s

24 splc intelligence report After years of avoiding conspiracy theories, anti-Indian activists now see a global communist plot behind a UN plan

BY RYAN LENZ ILLUSTRATION BY STEVEN WILSON

spring 2016 25 IOLENT HOSTILITY where she worked to challenge various Agenda 21 and the Indians toward American Indians sovereign rights of the Oneida Indians Agenda 21 is not, in fact, a communist may be our original hatred, as an official of the city of Hobart. She plot. It is not an international treaty or going back to more than 250 came because she fears the final approval an enforceable legal document. It cannot years before the American Revolution of a long-contested water compact make anyone do anything at all. and even predating the anti-black rac- between the state of Montana and the Agenda 21 is an innocuous plan ism that was long nourished by slavery. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes aimed at helping communities around Indigenous peoples have been the vic- (CSKT) portends disaster. the world develop sustainability plans tims of massacres, exploitation, cultural “I became convinced the CSKT meant to preserve their resources and annihilation and a litany of hate violence Compact is a template for federalizing make wise use of them. It was signed that continues to this day. They are weak, all state waters and implementing com- without controversy in 1992 by then- marginalized and ignored. munalism and consistent with President George H.W. Bush, along Still, the organized anti-Indian move- Agenda 21, and that it is intentionally with the leaders of 177 other nations ment has in recent decades adopted the aligned to spread tribalism as a governing who had gathered in Brazil for a United language of the . system while eliminating State authority,” Nations summit on development and Although its claims are clearly disin- she wrote to a newspaper earlier in 2015. the environment. genuous, they are cloaked in terms of Yet in the hands of groups like the “equality,” complaints about govern- Birch Society and a growing array of ment favoritism, and calls for repealing others on the radical right, it has been treaties and “special” rights for Indians transformed into a nefarious conspir- in favor of treating all American citizens acy by UN officials and other grasping alike. Anti-Indian activists rarely talk globalists to impose a collectivist world about their enemies in the openly con- government known as the “New World temptuous ways favored by other parts Order,” trampling American freedoms in of the radical right. the process. Until now, that is. The Agenda 21 conspiracy theory In the last year or two, some of the has pushed its way into parts of the nation’s leading anti-Indian activists and “I became convinced political mainstream. In early 2012, the groups have added a completely new twist the CSKT Compact is a Republican National Committee adopted to their attempts to wrest away water, a resolution denouncing the plan as template for federalizing fishing and other rights legally granted to a “destructive and insidious scheme” Indians under an array of treaties: the idea all state waters and aimed at imposing a “socialist/commu- that power-mad globalists are using an implementing communalism nist redistribution of wealth.” After Mitt entirely voluntary UN sustainability plan and socialism consistent Romney was nominated as the GOP to wipe out property rights, local demo- with Agenda 21.” presidential candidate later that year, cratic government and freedom itself. that language disappeared in favor of a “The language of Agenda 21, and the — ELAINE WILLMAN calmer critique, but the plan has contin- language of the United Nations’ indig- ued to cause heated political controversy, enous people’s declaration, signed by “It is my belief that Montana is Ground even provoking an Alabama law intended President Obama, is now being incor- Zero for test-driving this model in a to outlaw its feared effects. porated into federal regulations,” Elaine highly-prized state of small population. Now, thanks to CERA and others in Willman, the silver-haired matriarch I so seriously believe this peril is a fight the anti-Indian world, Agenda 21 is being of the movement, claimed in Kalispell, worth fighting that I have walked away reimagined as a plot to use Indian water Mont., last fall. “Federal Indian policy is from an excellent employer and moved and other rights as the leading edge of an tying in and being coordinated with inter- my family, household and consulting effort to destroy state government, feder- national and United Nations goals, and business to Ronan, Montana,” she said. alize ownership of natural resources, and the long-term goal of the United Nations In a June interview with the John force the United States to cede its inde- and Agenda 21 is that states will go away.” Birch Society — the same group that pendence to politically correct globalists. Willman was speaking to a con- once accused President Dwight D. In her interview with the Birch ference hosted by the Citizens Equal Eisenhower of being a Communist Society’s New American magazine, Rights Alliance (CERA), arguably the agent — Willman, a CERA board mem- Willman put it like this: “There seems most important anti-Indian group in the ber, put it more bluntly. The UN plot to to be a movement to just tear down the nation, at Kalispell’s Red Lion Hotel last impose socialism in the state, she raged, fabric of this country. It’s hard to envi- September. Just five months earlier, she amounts to “Revolutionary War for citi- sion us in the long term being the United YOUTUBE had moved to Montana from Wisconsin, zens of Montana.” States with [the] combined marriage of

26 splc intelligence report the federal executive branch, and the United Nations and Agenda 21 folks, and the environmental groups and the big billionaires, and then when they’ve got 566 tribal governments and little reserva- tions to use as little launch pads, you can tear up this country pretty quick. So this Indian policy is but one tool.” These ideas are not limited to Willman. For instance, according to reports last fall by two anti-racist groups, the Montana Human Rights Network and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, another speaker at the Kalispell conference has been even as they push the idea that there Ancestors of today’s Confederated Salish and preaching the conspiracy theory. is nothing racial in their opposition. Kootenai Tribes negotiated an 1855 treaty with Debbie Bacigalupi, a activ- Indeed, the agenda for the Kalispell con- the government that guaranteed water rights on the Flathead Reservation in Montana. ist who gave a presentation on the topic ference last September — titled “This in Montana, has described Agenda 21 as Land is our Land … Or IS it?” — was “communistic history in the remaking emblazoned with a quote meant to show Among others, Vandemoer has … [b]ut in America” and “a demonically that CERA sought only equality. “There featured on her show Martin “Red” inspired dynamic.” is only one race … the human race,” it Beckman, a radical tax protester and quoted Edward James Olmos saying. an anti-Semite who wrote The Church Of Treaties and Race “There are hundreds of wonderful cul- Deceived, in which he asserted that the The Confederated Salish and Kootenai tures but only one race.” Holocaust was God’s punishment of the Tribes, as part of the Hellgate Treaty of But CERA’s aims are intrinsically radi- Jews for worshipping Satan. Beckman 1855 that also created the 1,938-square- cal. It has sought to end Indian tribal gov- was long known as the “Father of the mile Flathead Reservation, was awarded ernments, abrogate treaties signed with .” water rights “for time immemorial” that the tribes, and overturn a series of legal The of CERA and oth- included water flowing in from elsewhere. decisions favoring such treaties. The ers in the anti-Indian movement comes Since 2001, the state has been in negotia- Montana Human Rights Network, which in the context of growing antagonism tions with the tribes and others to come has monitored anti-Indian bias for years, among radical Patriots toward the fed- up with a compact that would quantify says “the anti-Indian movement is a sys- eral government and the federal agen- just what those water rights guarantee. tematic effort to deny legally established cies that regulate land use, especially in According to the anti-racist groups, rights to a group of people who are iden- the rural states of the West and Pacific the CSKT agreed to serious conces- tified on the basis of their shared culture, Northwest. Most notoriously, Nevada sions, forgoing rights that they had a history, religion and tradition. rancher in 2014 faced off strong legal claim to on water from vari- “That makes it racist by definition.” against the Bureau of Land Management, ous “non-irrigation, small groundwater, There were also other signs of the which was trying to enforce a court and most upstream users.” “That means growing radicalization of the move- order to seize Bundy’s cattle after he that all domestic, commercial, munic- ment. One local group — the Concerned refused for 20 years to pay grazing fees. ipal, industrial, stock, and other non- Citizens of Western Montana, which Hundreds of radical militiamen came to irrigation water rights that exist when raised the money to pay for Elaine defend Bundy, threatening law enforce- and if the compact is ratified will be Willman’s move to the state — recruited ment officials with heavy weapons until entirely protected, both on and off the a hydrologist several years ago to use the officials backed down. reservation,” the Montana Human Rights as an “expert” in lobbying against any The adoption by CERA of the Agenda Network reported. water compact with the CSKT. Whatever 21 conspiracy theory, not to mention its While an earlier compact was rejected, her expertise in water and the law, Dr. deepening flirtation with the John Birch the state legislature and governor Catherine Vandemoer also has a docu- Society, makes it clear that large parts of approved the version in April. If mented history as a “birther” who ques- the anti-Indian movement in America it also wins approval from the Congress, tions President Obama’s citizenship. And have increasingly melded with other sec- the Montana Water Court and the CSKT Vandemoer hosts an online radio show tors of the truly radical right. It remains Tribal Council, it will become law. that affords antigovernment “Patriots” to be seen whether or not this radicaliza- CERA and a number of other groups a place to advocate for a “Second tion will finally make the implicit white

NORTHWEST MUSEUM OF ARTS AND CULTURE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS AND CULTURE/WIKIMEDIA OF ARTS MUSEUM NORTHWEST have vigorously opposed the compact, Constitutional Republic.” nationalism of these groups explicit. ▲

spring 2016 27 Anti-Muslim hatred ratcheted up sharply after the Islamic State attacks in Paris. Then came San Bernardino and Donald Trump BY LEAH NELSON

Standing with President Francois Hollande of Calif. “We cannot turn against one another by let- France 11 days after Islamic State terrorists slaugh- ting this fight be defined as a war between America tered 130 people and injured more than 350 others in and ,” he said. three coordinated attacks in Paris, President Barack Despite the president’s words — and warnings

Obama told Americans to refuse to give in to fear. from the Pentagon that alienating Muslims would AP IMAGES/FBI (MALIK); AP IMAGES/CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES (FAROOK) “There have been times in our history, in endanger national security — there was an extraor- moments of fear, when we dinary flood of anti-Muslim have failed to uphold our attacks in the wake of the Paris highest ideals, and it has been and San Bernardino massa- to our lasting regret. We must cres. There had already been uphold our ideals now. Each several noteworthy attacks on of us, all of us, must show Muslims in 2015, particularly that America is strengthened the February killings of three by people of every faith and young Muslim Americans in every background,” he said at Chapel Hill, N.C., by a man the Nov. 24 press conference. known for his hatred of reli- Obama took up the same theme on Dec. 6, gion. But after the Nov. 13 mass murder in Paris, van- three days after a married couple, inspired by dalism and arson, shootings and beatings, along with Islamic State , murdered 14 in a ter- threats and declarations of hatred and everlasting rorist attack at an office party in San Bernardino, war against Islam, seemed to explode. Egged on by a

28 splc intelligence report steady drumbeat of propaganda from Islamophobes On Nov. 19, a sixth-grader in Bronx, N.Y., was One day after and given a megaphone by the press and a presiden- attacked by classmates who called her “ISIS,” put Tashfeen Malik and tial frontrunner given to racist and Muslim-hating her in a headlock, punched her, and tried to rip off her husband, Syed Farook, murdered 14 oratory, already-simmering anti-Muslim sentiment her hijab. The next day in Pittsburgh, a Muslim cab people in the name of in the U.S. reached a fever pitch. driver was shot in the back by a passenger who had Islam, Donald Trump Two days after the Paris attacks, a University of inquired about his religious affiliation and spent the proposed a ban on Cincinnati pre-med student wearing a hijab had ride ranting about Islam. Muslim immigration to be snatched out of the way of a car that acceler- On Dec. 8, a Queens, N.Y., convenience store to the U.S. ated toward her, its driver honking and calling her owner reported being beaten by a customer who a terrorist. The next day, a Muslim family in Orange punched him in the head and said, “I want to kill County, Fla., returned home from a charity event to Muslims.” Two days later, the Council on American- find bullets lodged in their garage and master bed- Islamic Relations buildings in Washington, D.C., and room. That same day, an Uber passenger in Charlotte, Santa Clara, Calif., were evacuated after receiving N.C., mistook his Ethiopian Christian driver for a letters containing white powder, which was eventu- Muslim and attacked, punching and threatening to ally found to be harmless. A few days later, a Muslim shoot him in the face, and in Norman, Okla., a man woman was nearly shot by an unknown person allegedly told police, “[I’m] going to go out there and who fired at her as she left a Tampa, Fla., . just start shooting anything that looks like a Muslim.” Another Muslim woman driving away from another He was shot and wounded by officers responding to mosque in the area said a man threw rocks at her

GETTY IMAGES/SCOTT OLSON GETTY IMAGES/SCOTT his home after he allegedly pointed a gun at them. and then tried to run her off the road.

spring 2016 29 Islamist terror attacks Meanwhile, other were shot at, men- attacks. In February 2015, Mayor Beth Van Duyne like those in Paris aced with fake explosive devices, firebombed, reacted with outrage to the existence, in nearby (clockwise from right) threatened and protested. One had a severed pig’s Dallas, of an Islamic tribunal whose purpose is to and San Bernadino, Calif., have caused head tossed at it, and still another’s copy of the use Shariah law to settle civil disputes within the world leaders like Koran was smeared with feces. local Muslim community. Though , French President Catholics, Amish, and other religious groups use Francois Hollande and An Example in Texas religious tribunals on a voluntary basis to settle President Obama to Irving, Texas, was a sort of microcosm of the rest of civil disputes (but not criminal matters) amongst AP IMAGES/PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS (HOLLANDE AND OBAMA); AP IMAGES/LEWIS JOLY/SIPA (EIFFEL TOWER); AP IMAGES/MICAH ESCAMILLA/LOS ANGELES NEWS GROUP increase cooperation. the nation. A Dallas suburb of 230,000 that is home themselves, Van Duyne condemned the medi- to one of the largest mosques in America, Irving ation panel in the strongest of terms, suggest- was the site of multiple anti-Muslim demonstra- ing it was a stealth effort to replace American tions and events. law with Shariah. In March, she asked the Irving On Nov. 21, about a dozen armed protesters car- City Council to endorse a state bill outlawing the rying long guns and signs gathered outside the already illegal use of foreign law, including Shariah, Islamic Center of Irving. Explaining his decision to in state criminal courts. bring a 12-gauge hunting rifle to the peaceful subur- That wasn’t the end of it. In September, Irving ban scene, protest organizer David Wright told The school officials made national headlines when they Dallas Morning News, “I’m not going to lie. We do sent Ahmed Mohamed, a nerdy ninth-grader, out of want to show force. … It would be ridiculous to pro- the school in handcuffs after accusing him of mak- test Islam without defending ourselves.” ing a fake bomb. The bomb turned out to be a home- Four days later, Wright published the names and made clock, and, for his troubles and his smarts, the addresses of local Muslims and “Muslim sympathiz- 14-year-old landed an invitation to the . ers” on Facebook, as well as a message: “We should But his family, shaken by the incident, withdrew all stop being afraid to be who we are! We like to have their children from Irving’s schools and said they guns designed to kill people that pose a threat in a were moving to Qatar. very efficient manner.” In the weeks that followed, For his part, armed protest organizer Wright a sort of counter-protest movement evolved, with claimed to represent a new group called the Bureau individuals who are not Muslim but support the of American Islamic Relations (an obvious mimick- right of Muslims to worship in peace showing up ing of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a to defy Wright’s group. But the protests showed no Muslim civil rights group). He is also allegedly asso- signed of stopping — in one case, the Texas Rebel ciated with the so-called III Percenters, a national Knights of the Ku Klux Klan announced plans to movement of gun-toting, antigovernment “Patriots” demonstrate at the mosque in May 2016. that takes its name from the discredited myth that As in the rest of America, was only 3% of colonists fought against the English in a problem in Irving well before the latest Paris the American Revolution.

30 splc intelligence report III Percenters have planned or led anti-Mus- lim gatherings across the country, rallied via social media by hardliner Jon Ritzheimer, who also threatened at one point to personally arrest U.S. Sen. (D-Mich.) for having voted in favor of Obama’s arms deal with Iran. “We III Percent, we militiamen, are standing at the ready across our nation,” Ritzheimer said in an August YouTube video promoting the armed protest idea. “And when you strike, we will strike back. We will level and demolish every mosque across this country.”

Out of the Frying Pan The ramping-up of anti-Muslim sentiment — in Irving and across the country — did not begin only after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks of late 2015. Recently released FBI hate crime statistics for 2014 show that hate crimes against Muslims rose that year by about 14%, even as hate crimes in every other major category dropped. The increase was apparently driven by reports of atrocities by the Islamic State, mainly in Africa and the Middle East. Although the 2014 rise was relatively small, there seems to be little doubt that when the 2015 num- bers are published by the FBI in late 2016, they will reflect a dramatic jump. The tone for 2015 already was set in January with the deadly assault by jihadist terrorists on Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, and other French targets. After that, it seemed American Muslims were powerless to cool the growing ardor of their haters. When a group gathered in Garland, Texas, later that month for an event themed “Stand Emerson claimed that certain parts of Europe are Muslims on the with the Prophet against terror and hate,” anti-Mus- “no-go zones” where “non-Muslims just simply don’t defensive: Recent lim protests followed. “They were not grateful that go” — a baseless myth that earned him international attacks on Muslims have victimized the local Muslim-Americans had taken it upon them- criticism and mockery. Emerson later apologized, but offices of the Council selves to combat extremism, but rather outraged that did not stop other Fox pundits and politicians on American-Islamic that Muslim-Americans would dare to gather pub- from repeating and amplifying Emerson’s assertion Relations (clockwise licly at all,” observed Vox’s Max Fisher. — among them Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a for- from bottom right), Other attacks — mostly abroad but also including mer GOP presidential candidate whose claims about three people murdered in North Carolina, and a thwarted attempt by two jihadists to shoot people British no-go zones were similarly ridiculed. Sarkar Haq, who was gathered at a deliberately provocative Muhammad The problem goes beyond right-wing conspir- beaten in New York. Art Exhibit and Contest held in Texas in May, and acy theorists and haters on the Internet, and beyond the July murders of four Marines and a sailor in the shows that regularly offer platforms Chattanooga, Tenn., by a Muslim gunman — only to paranoid Islamophobes like Emerson and hate fueled the fire. group leaders like Robert Spencer. Liberal satirist So did a media landscape that treats every issue Bill Maher, an outspoken atheist whose broad cri- as if it’s up for debate, fails to fact-check before it tique of religion has become increasingly ugly when broadcasts, and repeatedly showcases pundits with it comes to Islam, said of the faith: “What we’ve histories of demonizing, ill-informed and factually said all along, and have been called bigots for it, is inaccurate statements. when there’s this many bad apples, there’s some- Following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, for thing wrong with the orchard.” Richard Dawkins,

GETTY IMAGES/AFP PHOTO/JEWEL SAMAD (HAQ); AP IMAGES/RAAD ADAYLEH (NORTH CAROLINA VICTIMS); AP IMAGES/PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS (COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS) (COUNCIL MONSIVAIS MARTINEZ AP IMAGES/PABLO VICTIMS); CAROLINA (NORTH ADAYLEH AP IMAGES/RAAD (HAQ); SAMAD PHOTO/JEWEL GETTY IMAGES/AFP instance, Fox News “terrorism expert” Steve an abrasive British scientist and fellow atheist, has

spring 2016 31 also been relentless on the subject. “To hell with he responded to a supporter who claimed Obama their culture!” he said of Muslims on Maher’s tele- was a Muslim and asked “When can we get rid of vision show in November. them?” by saying, “We’re going to be looking at that and many other things.” Speaking of Syrian refugees The Candidates Join In at a New Hampshire rally later that month, he told But increasingly as 2015 drew to a close, the loudest supporters, “If I win, they’re going back.” Islamophobic voices came from Republican presi- Also in September, GOP presidential candi- dential candidates — most notably Donald Trump, date Ben Carson, Trump’s chief competitor for the who had also suggested that Mexico was deliber- “outsider” vote, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that ately sending “rapists” and “drug dealers” over the he doesn’t believe Islam is consistent with the U.S. GETTY IMAGES/ CHIP SOMODEVILLA(MOHAMED); AP IMAGES/LM OTERO (MAYOR); AP IMAGES/RICK SCUTERI (RITZHEIMER); GETTY IMAGES/JOHN MOORE (RALLY) border, endorsed and publicized utterly bogus sta- Constitution and that “I would not advocate that we tistics about black crime that originated with an put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely apparent neo-Nazi, and even declined to condemn would not agree with that.” the roughing up of a black protester by members of Trump and Carson were speaking to a like-minded the audience at one of his rallies. base. That same month, a survey by Public Policy In September, Trump seemed to endorse the Polling, a Democrat-affiliated polling outfit, found notion of expelling Muslims from America when that 72% of North Carolina GOP primary voters thought a Muslim should not be president and 40% believed Islam should be illegal in the United States. Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric amplified expo- nentially following the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, as he endorsed the notion of a database or national ID card for Muslim Americans, shutting down mosques that support extremism, and vastly increasing sur- veillance of American Muslims. Asked how the idea of a national Muslim registry differed from the treat- ment of Jews in in the mid-1930s, Trump responded repeatedly, “You tell me.” “We’re going to have to do things that we never did before,” he told Yahoo News. “And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learn- ing about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”

Ahmed Mohamed, 14, met with President Obama after he was dragged out of school in handcuffs in Irving, Texas, where Mayor Beth Van Duyne has made a series of anti- Muslim comments, because teachers mistook a clock he built for a bomb. Jon Ritzheimer (with sunglasses) led an armed anti-Mus- lim march outside a Phoenix mosque, while the so-called Bureau of American- Islamic Relations held a similar rally in Richardson, Texas.

32 splc intelligence report Other GOP presidential candidates were little better. On Nov. 15, responding to Democratic can- didate ’s avoidance of the term “radi- cal Islam” to describe Islamic State terrorists, Marco Rubio compared Muslims to Nazis: “I don’t under- stand it. That would be like saying we weren’t at war with the Nazis, because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi Party, but weren’t violent themselves,” he said. “This is a clash of civilizations.” On Nov. 16, New Jersey Gov. , another GOP presidential candidate, said the United States should not admit a single refugee from the Syrian civil war — not even “orphans under age 5.” He was quickly joined by more than half of the nation’s governors, including fellow GOP presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, in saying Syrian refugees would not be wel- come in their states. Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and , meanwhile, proposed the use of religious tests to bar Muslim Syrian refugees while admit- ting Christian ones. “We can’t roll the dice with shutdown of Muslims the safety of Americans and bring in people for entering the United States whom there is an unacceptable risk that they could until our country’s repre- be jihadists coming here to kill Americans,” said sentatives can figure out Cruz. But, he added, “there is no meaningful risk of what is going on,” began a Christians committing acts of terror.” press release that Trump GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee read aloud to a crowd. seemed to agree, saying, “I don’t know of any other “It is obvious to any- group of people uniquely that are targeting inno- body the hatred is beyond cent civilians and committing these acts of mayhem.” comprehension. Where Cruz’s and Huckabee’s assertions about the suppos- this hatred comes from edly unique danger posed by Muslims are telling in and why we will have to determine. Until we are Islamist attacks like light of the fact that since Sept. 11, 2001, domestic able to determine and understand this problem and the one that left five right-wing extremists have been responsible for the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot servicemen dead in Chattanooga, Tenn., about the same number of deaths in the United States be the victim of horrendous attacks by people that helped spark anti- as radical Muslims (48, as opposed to 45 killed by believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason Islam rallies like a jihadists, according the New America Foundation) or respect for human life.” recent gathering in — including, most recently, the November murder That announcement set off a firestorm of criti- Garland, Texas. of three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood cism. Some leaders within the GOP establishment, clinic (see story, p. 7) by a man who had earlier pro- which previously trod very lightly on the subject fessed admiration for anti-abortion terrorists. of Trump, spoke out forcefully. Even some arch- Trump, meanwhile, continued to ratchet up conservatives condemned the proposal, includ- his rhetoric. On Nov. 21, he revived a completely ing former Vice President , who said: debunked anti-Muslim myth when he claimed “[T]his whole notion that somehow we can just say to remember seeing “thousands and thousands” no more Muslims, just ban a whole religion, goes of Muslims in New Jersey cheering as the World against everything we stand for and believe in. I Trade Center collapsed following the 9/11 attacks. mean, religious freedom has been a very impor- Confronted with police and media investigations tant part of our history and where we came from.” that concluded decisively that such celebrations did GOP National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus not happen, Trump simply refused to back down. echoed him, saying, “We need to aggressively take On Dec. 7, he made his most extreme proposal yet. on radical but not at the expense

AP IMAGES/TONY GUTIERREZ (RALLY); AP IMAGES/DOUG STRICKLAND, CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS (SERVICEMEN) TIMES FREE PRESS CHATTANOOGA STRICKLAND, AP IMAGES/DOUG GUTIERREZ (RALLY); AP IMAGES/TONY “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete of our American values.”

spring 2016 33 “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete

And Paul Ryan, speaker of the House of shutdown of Muslims entering Representatives, added: “This is not . the United States until our What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly, it’s not what this country’s representatives can country stands for. Not only are there many Muslims figure out what is going on.” serving in our armed dying for this coun- try, there are Muslims serving right here in the House, working every day to uphold and defend the Constitution. Some of our best and biggest allies in Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the highest this struggle and fight against radical Islamic terror levels of government, once called for the revival of 72% are Muslims. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of HUAC-like panels to grill American Muslims about of North Carolina whom are peaceful who believe in pluralism, free- their loyalties, and thinks the bomb- GOP voters think dom, democracy, individual rights.” ing may have been the work of Saddam Hussein. a Muslim shouldn’t Even so, Ryan and many other Republican lead- That Gaffney is so extreme that he’s been banned be president ers have pledged to support whoever gets the par- from the Conservative Political Action Conference, ty’s nomination, and polling suggests that 25% of the conservative movement’s premiere yearly gath- American voters, and 42% of Republicans, approve ering, probably earns him points with Trump, who of Trump’s plan to temporarily halt Muslim immi- takes obvious pleasure in insulting establishment gration to America. politicians on both sides of the aisle. What may be most disheartening is that Trump’s 40% Bogus Statistics for a Bogus Plan rhetoric is only keeping pace with the worst instincts of North Carolina Meanwhile, in announcing his proposal, Trump of a large portion of the population that, frightened

GOP voters think cited data from a poll by the Center for Security by world events and goaded by many media outlets AP IMAGES/RAINIER EHRHARDT (CRUZ); AP IMAGES/CHUCK BURTON (CHRISTIE); AP PHOTO/CHUCK BURTON (HUCKABEE); AP IMAGES/J PAT CARTER (TRUMP); Islam should be Policy supposedly showing that “25% of those polled that encourage “debate” about the basic humanity illegal in the U.S. agreed that violence against Americans here in the of Muslims, has embraced a xenophobic and nation- United States is justified as a part of the global jihad” alistic world view. and that 51% “agreed that Muslims in America In his comments on Dec. 6, Obama reiterated that should have the choice of being governed accord- Americans forget our values at our peril. “[J]ust as ing to Shariah.” The statistics came from an “opt- it is the responsibility of Muslims around the world in” poll that was unscientific and contradicted by to root out misguided ideas that lead to radicaliza- AP IMAGES/ALAN DIAZ (CARSON); AP IMAGES/PATRICK SEMANSKY (RUBIO); AP IMAGES/DAVID GOLDMAN (BUSH) others with starkly different results. tion, it is the responsibility of all Americans — of This reference also provided powerful evidence every faith — to reject ,” the president that Trump had not come up with these anti-Mus- said. “It is our responsibility to reject religious tests lim ideas all by himself. Instead, he apparently was on who we admit into this country. It’s our respon- relying on the baseless claims of Center sibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans for Security Policy founder Frank should somehow be treated differently. Because Gaffney, an anti-Muslim conspir- when we travel down that road, we lose.” s acy theorist who believes that the

34 splc intelligence report The number of hate and antigovernment ‘Patriot’ groups grew last year, and terrorist attacks and radical plots proliferated

BY MARK POTOK ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX WILLIAMSON

Charleston. Chattanooga. Colorado The armed violence was accompanied White supremacist forums are awash Springs. In these towns and dozens of by rabid and often racist denunciations with electoral joy, having dubbed Trump other communities around the nation, of Muslims, LGBT activists and others — their “Glorious Leader.” And Trump has 2015 was a year marked by extraordi- incendiary rhetoric led by a number of repaid the compliments, retweeting hate nary violence from domestic extremists mainstream political figures and ampli- posts and spreading their false statistics — a year of living dangerously. fied by a lowing herd of their enablers in on black-on-white crime. Antigovernment militiamen, white the right-wing media. Reacting to demo- In the midst of these developments, supremacists, abortion foes, domes- graphic changes in the U.S., immigration, hate groups continued to flourish. The tic Islamist radicals, neo-Nazis and the legalization of same-sex marriage, the number of groups on the American rad- lovers of the Confederate battle flag tar- rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, ical right, according to the latest count geted police, government officials, black and Islamist atrocities, these people fos- by the Southern Poverty Law Center, churchgoers, Muslims, Jews, schoolchil- tered a sense of polarization and anger expanded from 784 in 2014 to 892 in 2015 dren, Marines, abortion providers, mem- in this country that may be unmatched — a 14% increase. bers of the Black Lives Matter protest since the political upheavals of 1968. The increase in hate groups was not movement, and even drug dealers. When it comes to mainstream poli- even across extremist sectors. The hard- They laid plans to attack court- tics, the hardcore radical right typically est core sectors of the white suprem- houses, banks, festivals, funerals, schools, says a pox on both their houses. Not acist movement—white nationalists, mosques, churches, synagogues, clinics, this time. Donald Trump’s demonizing neo-Nazis and racist —actu- water treatment plants and power grids. statements about Latinos and Muslims ally declined somewhat, a reflection, They used firearms, bombs, C-4 plastic have electrified the radical right, lead- perhaps, that hate in the mainstream had explosives, knives and grenades; one of ing to glowing endorsements from white absorbed some of the hate on the fringes them, a murderous Klansman, was con- nationalist leaders such as But there were significant increases in victed of trying to build a death ray. and former Klansman David Duke. Klan as well as black separatist groups.

spring 2016 35 Klan chapters grew from 72 in 2014 to the euphoria felt in antigovernment cir- propaganda about black-on-white 190 last year, invigorated by the 364 pro- cles after armed activists forced federal crime from the website of the Council Confederate battle flag rallies that took officials to back down at gunpoint from of Conservative Citizens, a hate group place after South Carolina took down the seizing cattle at Cliven Bundy’s ranch that enjoyed the attention of Republican battle flag from its Capitol grounds fol- to pay his grazing fees. So emboldened lawmakers in the 1990s, and ended with lowing the June massacre of nine black were activists by the failure of the federal the June massacre in Charleston. Like churchgoers by a white supremacist flag government to arrest anyone following increasing numbers in white suprem- enthusiast in Charleston, S.C. Rallies in their “victory” at the Bundy ranch that acist circles, Roof was convinced after favor of the battle flag were held in 26 armed men, led by Bundy’s son, began drinking radical-right Kool-Aid on the states — concentrated, but by no means occupying a wildlife refugee in Oregon Internet claiming that limited to the South — and reflected in January 2016 as a protest against fed- worldwide were the targets of genocide. widespread white anger that the tide in eral land ownership in the West. the country was turning against them. The 2015 hate group count almost Violence Hits a New Peak On the opposite end of the political certainly understates the true size of the Last year brought more domestic polit- spectrum, black separatist hate groups American radical right. White suprem- ical violence, both from the American also grew, going from 113 chapters in 2014 acists are increasingly opting to oper- radical right and from American jihad- to 180 last year. The growth was fueled ate mainly online, where the danger of ists, than the nation has seen in many largely by the explosion of anger fostered public exposure and embarrassment is years (see timeline of violence, below). by highly publicized incidents of police far lower, where younger people tend to According to a year-end report from the shootings of black men. But unlike activ- gather, and where it requires virtually no Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “domes- ists for racial justice such as those in the effort or cost to join in the conversation. tic extremist killers” slew more people in Black Lives Matter movement, the black The major hate forum now 2015 than in any year since 1995, when separatist groups did not stop at demands has more than 300,000 members, and the the left 168 men, for police reforms and an end to structural site has been adding about 25,000 regis- women and children dead. Counting racism. Instead, they typically demonized tered users annually for several years — both political and other violence from all whites, gays, and, in particular, Jews. the size of a small city. extremists, the ADL said “a minimum Just as the number of hate groups The milieu of the web is an ideal one of 52 people in the United States were rose by 14% in 2015, so did the number for “lone wolves” — terrorists who oper- killed by adherents of domestic extrem- of conspiracy-minded antigovernment ate on their own and are radicalized ist movement[s] in the past 12 months.” “Patriot” groups, going from 874 in 2014 online. Dylann Roof is the perfect exam- Another tally, by the respected New to 998 last year. The growth was fueled by ple. His journey began with absorbing America Foundation, found that by

A TIMELINE JAN. 7 FEB. 14 FEB. 16 On Valentine’s Day, FBI agents arrest Jonathan Leo THE YEAR IN Schrader, a West Virginia man who officials say regu- AP IMAGES/AURORE MARECHAL, SIPA USA (CHARLIE HEBDO); AP PHOTO/GREG LINDSTROM, larly espoused “venomous antigovernment, anti-law DOMESTIC enforcement rhetoric.” They The year has hardly begun David Joseph Lenio is find C-4, dynamite and when two Islamist gun- arrested in Montana after other weapons he allegedly men burst into the offices allegedly tweeting repeat- TERROR intended to use to attack a of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical edly about shooting up a federal courthouse, a bank, magazine in Paris that pub- school — “I bet I could get The year 2015 was remarkable for the proliferation of rad- and the Mountain State lished what were deemed at least 12 unarmed sitting ical-right and jihadist conspiracies, terrorism and related Forest Festival in Elkins. blasphemous cartoons of ducks” — and a rabbi. After violence in America — a situation so bad, in fact, that the Schrader also allegedly the prophet Muhammad. being released from jail Anti-Defamation League reported in December that more planned to use a sniper rifle The pair murder 12 people, pending trial, Lenio, an anti- people were killed by political extremists last year than in to shoot at first responders and five more are killed in Semite who also accuses any year since 1995, when the Oklahoma City bombing left to the scenes of the explo- related assaults in the next Jews of being behind 9/11, 168 people dead. What follows is a timeline of key events. sions he plotted. days, provoking an anti-ter- sends out a series of simi- ror march by 2 million peo- lar tweets, apparently vio- ple and 40 world leaders. lating the terms of his FLATHEAD BEACON (LENIO) Although the attack by Al release. Lenio is vocally sup- Qaeda occurs in France, it ported by Karl Gharst, a for- stokes fears in America of mer leader of the neo-Nazi Islamist violence. Aryan Nations.

36 splc intelligence report year’s end, 45 people in America had Several political figures have harnessed situation appears likely to get worse, not been killed in “violent jihadist attacks” that fear, calling for bans on mosques, better, as the country continues to come since the Al Qaeda massacre of Sept. 11, Muslim immigrants and refugees fleeing to terms with its increasing diversity. 2001, just short of the 48 people killed violence in the Middle East. And terror in the same 14-year period in “far right can breed hate crimes, as evidenced by What’s Going On? wing attacks.” (Unlike the ADL, the foun- a string of physical attacks on mosques Eight years after the election of our first dation does not count non-political vio- and Muslims, particularly after a jihad- black president, two years after the birth lence by extremists.) ist couple in San Bernardino, Calif., mur- of the Black Lives Matter movement, and The impact of terrorism goes far dered 14 people in December. half a year after same-sex marriage was beyond the body count. Violence moti- From start to finish, the year 2015 was legalized, Americans are arguably as vated by racial, ethnic or religious ani- remarkable for its terrorist violence, the angry as they have been in decades. mus fractures society along its most penetration of the radical right and its The bulk of that anger is coming from fragile fault lines, and sends shock conspiracy theories into mainstream beleaguered working-class and, to a lesser waves through entire targeted commu- , and the boost far-right ideas extent, middle-class white people, espe- nities. More hatred and fear, particu- and groups received from pandering cially the less educated — the very same larly of diversity, are often the response. politicians like Donald Trump. And the groups that most vociferously support

HATE GROUPS 1999–2015 1002 1018 1007 926 932 939 888 892 844 803 784 751 762 708 676 602

457

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

MARCH 24 MARCH 25 APRIL 2 APRIL 4 APRIL 11-12 A longtime racist - Authorities in St. Louis, Robert Doggart, who in head named Steven Snyder Mo., arrest David Michael 2014 came in third in a robs a bank in Wausaukee, Hagler, seizing a stockpile race to represent the 4th Wis., murders a man as of 20 guns and thousands Congressional District in he hijacks a car a half hour of rounds of ammuni- Tennessee, is accused of later, and shoots to death tion. They cite informants plotting to use guns and a pursuing state trooper who describe Hagler as a fire to destroy a commu- Three alleged members of Militiamen and fellow even as the trooper fatally “Rambo” character who nity of black Muslims in the Traditionalist American travelers gather at the shoots him. It is unclear was living “off the grid” and upstate New York. Officials Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Bunkerville, Nev., ranch what Snyder, who has a plotting “mass attacks on say Doggart tried to recruit who are current or former of Cliven Bundy. They are 20-year history of violence [police] officers at funer- “patriots” to join him in the employees of the Florida there to celebrate the fact and onetime ties to the als or fundraisers.” Four attack on Islamberg, near Department of Corrections that a year after their armed neo-Nazi National Alliance, months later, they accuse Hancock, N.Y., and also said are arrested in a plot to mur- standoff with law enforce- may have been planning. Hagler of a bizarre plot to kill he would use machetes der a black former inmate. ment, no one has been police, then glue a gun to a to “cut them to shreds.” Thomas Jordan Driver, arrested or charged despite black man’s hand and shout Doggart pleads guilty to David Elliot Moran and the promises of authorities “gun,” leading officers to kill communicating threats Charles Thomas Newcomb, and the fact that several of the man. The informants shortly after his arrest, but is who all worked at one time Bundy’s entourage pointed describe Hagler as filled with indicted later on additional at the department’s Lake firearms at officials, a -fel hate for the government, law federal charges that could Butler intake facility, are ony. The Bundys’ apparent enforcement, Muslims and bring him 10 years in prison. charged with conspiracy. imperviousness to arrest African Americans, whose clearly fosters their willing- protests in nearby Ferguson ness to engage in further infuriated him.

AP PHOTO/UNION COUNTY, FLA., SHERIFF’S OFFICE/ ALACHUA COUNTY JAIL (KKK); AP PHOTO/JOHN LOCHER (BUNDY) LOCHER (KKK); AP PHOTO/JOHN JAIL COUNTY OFFICE/ ALACHUA FLA., SHERIFF’S COUNTY, AP PHOTO/UNION antigovernment actions.

spring 2016 37 1360 Trump. They are angry over the com- ‘PATRIOT’ GROUPS 1995–2015 1274 ing loss of a white majority (predicted for 2043 by the Census Bureau), the fall- ing fortunes of the white working class, 1096 worsening income inequality, the rise of left-wing movements like Black Lives 998 Matter, major advances for LGBT people, growing numbers of refugees and undoc- 874 858 umented workers, terrorism, and more. 824 Their anger, above all, is directed at the government. In November, the Pew Research Center reported poll results showing

that just 19% of Americans trusted the AP IMAGES/JAN BAUER (CLINTON); AP IMAGES/MIKE GROLL (BUSH); AP IMAGES/CAROLYN KASTER (OBAMA) 523 512 federal government always or most of the time, a number that is less than a quar- 435 ter of the 77% level of trust recorded in the late 1950s. Just 20% saw govern- ment programs as being well run, and 217 59% said the government needs “very 194 171 158 152 149 major reform,” up from 37% under 143 132 147 131 President in 1997. A January poll, this one by NBC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 and Esquire, found that the news BILL CLINTON 1993-2001 GEORGE W. BUSH 2001-2009 2009- makes 77% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats angry at least once a day. than 83 percent of the population,” The United States into a nation where oth- Whites were angriest, at 73%, compared New York Times’ Eduardo Porter wrote ers have a shot at power. to Latinos (66%) and blacks (56%). of lower-income whites in a trenchant “Their fear is understandable. In gen- “Such voters are nostalgic for the essay this January. “Today, their share eral, the concerns of Hispanic and black country they lived in 50 years ago, when has shrunk to 62 percent as demo- American voters are often different than non-Hispanic whites made up more graphic change has transformed the those of white voters. But the reaction

MAY 3 JUNE 3 JUNE 17 JULY 16 JULY 21 Former correctional offi- cer Michael O’Neill blows

off his own leg while build- AP IMAGES/MARK GARFINKEL, HERALD (KNIFE); LASTRHODESIAN.COM (ROOF); AP IMAGES/DAVID GOLDMAN (FUNERAL) ing bombs in his parents’ AP IMAGES/LES STUKENBERG, garage in Wheatland, N.Y. While authorities do not know what O’Neill’s plans In Garland, Texas, anti-Mus- A police officer and an FBI In an attempt to start a Four U.S. Marines are might have been, the garage lim propagandist Pamela agent shoot dead Usaamah “race war,” Dylann Roof killed by Kuwaiti-born is hung with white suprema- Geller holds a Muhammad Rahim after he alleg- murders nine black church- Muhammad Youssef THE DAILY COURIER (SIMPSON); AP IMAGES/SALT LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE (SOOFI); cist propaganda — including cartoon contest, an obvious edly lunges at them with goers at Emanuel AME Abdulazeez, a naturalized Nazi symbols, Klan post- provocation that she bills as a military knife in Boston. Church in Charleston, S.C., U.S. citizen, in an Islamist ers and Confederate mem- a “free speech” event. Two Officials say Rahim ini- after accusing African attack on a military recruit- orabilia — and O’Neill is Arizona roommates, Elton tially planned to behead Americans of raping white ing office and a naval ordered held without bail. Simpson and Nadir Soofi, Pamela Geller, but instead women and trying to “take facility in Chattanooga, attempt to attack the gath- attacked officers. over.” The massacre pro- Tenn. Abdulazeez is also ering in the name of radical vokes a major backlash killed. Members of the III Islam, but are almost imme- against the Confederate Percenters, an antigovern- diately killed by a police battle flag, which Roof ven- ment group, later insist on officer with a pistol despite erated, and that in turn fuels guarding a number of other their body armor and semi- enormous rage and pro-flag recruiting centers with guns automatic weapons. rallies on the radical right. despite officials’ requests that they not do so.

38 splc intelligence report of whites who are struggling economi- shown a rise in anti-black racism, and a right, with people like GOP presidential cally raises the specter of an outright November poll by CNN and the Kaiser candidate Mike Huckabee warning that it political war along racial and ethnic Family Foundation found that 49% of would “criminalize Christianity.” Others lines over the distribution of resources all Americans see racism as a “big prob- on the , including Family and opportunities.” lem.” That’s way up from 28% in 2011, Research Council President Tony Perkins, Contributing to this war, remarkably, and eight points higher than the 41% who founder James have been Trump and a number of other thought so in 1995. Dobson and President GOP presidential candidates. Trump, of America may be headed for a bet- Mathew Staver, warned that the decision course, has attacked Muslims, Mexicans ter place. But the Harvard scholar would lead to armed conflict in America. and black people (he re-tweeted a neo- Robert Putnam has argued that as eth- Obergefell was not the only loss for Nazi’s statistics falsely claiming that nic diversity rises, trust both between those opposed to gay rights. A lawsuit blacks are overwhelmingly responsible and within ethnic groups declines. As brought by the Southern Poverty Law for the murder of whites). But Ted Cruz, Putnam argues, that does not mean that Center (SPLC) against JONAH, a New Jeb Bush and others have made inflam- multiculturalism is a failure, but rather Jersey group that claimed to “cure” gay matory comments about Muslims, Carly that inter-communal bridgebuilding people of their , resulted Fiorina has told false stories that demon- is important as diversity increases. In in its shutdown. And Illinois became ize abortion providers, and Ben Carson other words, the road ahead will not be the fourth state in the nation to ban the and others have attacked LGBT activ- an easy one, and Americans of all races provision of JONAH-style “reparative ists and the Supreme Court over legaliz- and creeds will need to work to rebuild therapy” to minors. ing same-sex marriage. The U.S. House a true national community. Facing so many defeats, anti-LGBT of Representatives took up a bill to end What follows are more detailed looks groups redoubled their efforts to pass the resettlement of refugees, riding a at sectors of the radical right. so-called Religious Freedom Restoration wave of fear after the San Bernardino Acts (RFRAs), meant to allow businesses attacks. And others joined that anti-Mus- ANTI-LGBT GROUPS to claim religious belief as a defense lim parade, ranging from Christian Right Years of fighting a losing battle against against discrimination lawsuits, at the groups such as the American Family human rights for LGBT people culmi- state and federal level. Sixteen states Association to the Klan. nated for anti-LGBT groups in 2015 with considered RFRAs in 2015, and Although many expected race rela- the Supreme Court’s June decision in and passed theirs. But in tions would improve after the 2008 Obergefell v. Hodges, ushering in national Indiana, a major backlash from the pub- election of President Obama, that has marriage equality. The ruling set off near lic and a large number of corporations not been the case. Several studies have hysteria among groups on the religious convinced the legislature to backtrack

JULY 22 JULY 23 AUG. 1 AUG. 4 AUG. 6 Three men in Gaston Charles Smith of Baldwin County, N.C., are arrested Borough, Pa., pleads guilty and accused of stockpiling to possessing an illegal weapons and making bombs destructive device. Police in order to resist a military who raided his home in occupation. Walter Eugene 2014 found 20 bombs and Litteral, Christopher James a podium and business Officials in Arizona arrest John Russell Houser walks FBI agents arrest Shane Barker and Christopher cards that indicated he ran Parris Frazier, Robert into a movie theater in Robert Smith of Whitehall, Todd Campbell alleg- a “White Church” that met Deatherage and Erik Foster, Lafayette, La., shoots two N.Y., for allegedly collect- edly fear that a U.S. mili- there regularly. An array of border vigilantes with the people dead and wounds ing an arsenal, including tary exercise known as Jade white supremacist literature Arizona Special Operations nine others before kill- illegal machine guns and Helm 15 is actually a plot to was also found. A federal Group, and charge them ing himself as police close a silencer, to murder Jews impose martial law, a wide- judge later sentences Smith in an alleged plot to rip in. Earlier, in posts to neo- and African Americans. spread conspiracy theory on to 7½ years in prison. off drug cartels. The men Nazi and racist websites, Smith created the Facebook the far right. allegedly planned to steal Houser praised , page NYND, which is said and sell cocaine. Frazier Timothy McVeigh, David to stand for New York Nazi also is accused of agreeing Duke and attacks, Division, and his interests, to murder a rival. although his motives in the as listed on a Russian social shooting are not clear. He media site, include “preserv- also showed a keen interest ing my race … and destroy- in anti-Semitism. ing the government.” FACEBOOK (FRAZIER); AP IMAGES/LAFAYETTE POLICE DEPARTMENT (HOUSER); FACEBOOK (SMITH) (HOUSER); FACEBOOK POLICE DEPARTMENT (FRAZIER); AP IMAGES/LAFAYETTE FACEBOOK

spring 2016 39 and approve an amendment saying that CSP to claim that a quarter of American BLACK SEPARATIST GROUPS the new state law could not be used to Muslims support violent jihadists like the Together with Klan groups, the category deny service to anyone. members of the Islamic State — a com- of black separatist groups was the other Anti-LGBT groups also ramped plete falsehood, according to several area of dramatic growth among hate up efforts to deny transgender people serious polls and studies. Like Trump, groups in 2015, with several new groups access to bathrooms of their choice, two other GOP presidential hopefuls, forming and existing ones growing, often notably in Houston, where voters Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, spoke at one substantially. The number of these black repealed an anti-discrimination ordi- or more CSP “National Security Action separatist group chapters went up by nance. Trans women, who the SPLC has Summits” last year. There was also a 59%, from 113 in 2014 to 180 last year. found are the most targeted community smattering of armed anti-Muslim pro- It seems clear that what drove this in America by hate criminals, suffered tests at mosques in Phoenix and else- growth was an intense, nationwide focus through a terrible year, with at least 23 where that were staged by groups even on issues enraging many Americans, of them murdered — nearly double the more radical than CSP. especially those of color, including the known number in 2014. The country’s most influential anti- killings by police of black men, continu- Muslim groups, CSP and ACT! for ing institutional racism and other mis- ANTI-MUSLIM GROUPS America, turned their attention about treatment of black people, often brought The year started out badly for Muslims, mid-year to opposing immigration by to public attention via homemade vid- with the attack on the Charlie Hebdo refugees from the Syrian civil war, draft- eos or cameras mounted on police cars satirical magazine in Paris, and ended ing model statutes meant to ban the ref- or uniforms. But unlike activists in the even worse, with an Islamic State mas- ugees at the county level. Some 30 state Black Lives Matter movement and their sacre in Paris and the similar mur- governors also said they would pro- sympathizers, black separatist groups der of 14 people at a San Bernardino, hibit refugees. are more interested in demonizing “the Calif., office party — not to mention After the San Bernardino attack in Jews” and whites than working for solu- the call by Donald Trump for a ban on December, Muslim activists and oth- tions to the very real racial problems in Muslim immigration. ers reported an enormous surge of the country. Groups like Frank Gaffney’s Center anti-Muslim hate crimes, including The new groups included the Black for Security Policy (CSP), which is being shootings, mosque arsons, Koran des- Hebrew Israelites in ; the newly listed by the SPLC as a hate group, ecrations, assaults and the bullying of Israelite School of Universal Practical thrived in the wake of jihadist atrocities schoolchildren. As the new year began, Knowledge (11 chapters, based in and counterattacks like that from Trump. there was little evidence that the hatred Baltimore), and Israel United in Christ In fact, Trump used a bogus “poll” from was diminishing. (based in Newburgh, N.Y., with 33

AUG. 21 AUG. 28 AUG. 31 SEPT. 4 SEPT. 22 Three Georgia militia mem- Police in West Virginia bers — Terry Eugene Peace, arrest an antigovernment

Brian Edward Cannon and “sovereign citizen,” part of AP IMAGES/SKIP DICKSTEIN, Cory Robert Williamson — a movement of people who are sentenced to 12 years don’t believe most laws apiece for conspiring to use apply to them, and charge weapons of mass destruc- him with plotting to over- Glendon Scott Crawford is In Olathe, Kan., long-time A Planned Parenthood clinic tion. They hoped to attack throw the state govern- THE ALBANY TIMES UNION (CRAWFORD); /ALISON (MILLER); LONG/ KANSAS CITY STAR /POOL convicted in upstate New neo-Nazi Frazier Glenn in Pullman, Wash., is fire- power grids and water treat- ment and execute officials. York in connection with his Miller is convicted of the bombed, the first major ment facilities in a bid to Thomas David Deegan, who protracted attempt to build murder of three people he attack on such a facility start a war with the gov- allegedly tried to recruit a massive X-ray weapon mistakenly thought were since the Center for Medical AP IMAGES/CHAD SOKOL, (PLANNED PARENTHOOD); THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW ernment, force it to impose like-minded radicals to join with which he and a co-con- Jewish at two Jewish institu- Progress’ deceptive videos martial law, and then bring him in a series of confer- spirator planned to mass- tions in Overland Park, Kan. about the organization were in other militias to win ence calls, thought rebel- murder Muslims. Crawford Miller, who sieg-heiled the released two months earlier. the struggle. lions in other states would was a member of the United jury after he was convicted, There were smaller arsons at soon follow. Northern and Southern is later sentenced to death, abortion clinics in Aurora, Ill., Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. as he said he expected. and New Orleans on July 19 and Aug. 1.

40 splc intelligence report chapters). Others expanded enormously, The year also saw the rise of new in the group. Two lieutenants left the including the New Black Panther Party Klan groups and the reappearance of Anniston, Ala., Police Department — one (based in , from nine to 18 chap- older ones. The new groups were the resigned and one was fired — after their ters); the Israelite Church of God in Confederate White Knights of the Ku attendance at a group convention came to Jesus Christ (, from 18 to Klux Klan, the Knights of the light. In addition, Alabama State Auditor 29); the Black Riders Liberation Party Ku Klux Klan (with 20 chapters), the Jim Zeigler defended himself heat- (Los Angeles, from two to eight); and All Texas Rebel Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, edly against widespread criticism of his Eyes on Egipt Bookstore (Milledgeville, the Rebel Brigade Knights of the True speech to the group’s Alabama chapter. Ga., from two to 10). Invisible Empire, and the Traditional The league took a leadership role Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux among the many groups, including Klan KU KLUX KLAN GROUPS Klan. And the United White Knights of groups, supporting the Confederate battle The year saw an apparent comeback of the Ku Klux Klan came roaring back to flag after the Charleston massacre. Neo- Klan groups, going from 72 in 2014 to life with 31 chapters. The Texas Knights Confederates in general were heavily rep- 190 last year. But that growth is proba- of the Ku Klux Klan grew from one chap- resented at the 364 documented pro-flag bly mainly accounted for by the disap- ter in 2014 to 21 last year, and the Original rallies that took place across the country pearance last year of two major groups Knight Riders of the Ku Klux Klan went in the six months after the murders. — the Fraternal White Knights of the Ku from nine to 15 chapters. Klux Klan and the Knight Rider Knights NEO-NAZI GROUPS of the Ku Klux Klan — and their mem- NEO-CONFEDERATE GROUPS The main drama on the neo-Nazi scene bers’ likely move into other groups, many The nation’s premier neo-Confederate last year was the continuing meltdown of them newly formed. group, the , contin- of the remains of the National Alliance, Still, Klan groups were to some extent ued to grow more radical last year, with once the best organized and financed genuinely revitalized last year, especially founder fantasizing about hate group in America. Following the because of the post-Charleston denun- a “race war” which, he warned, black 2014 handoff of the group’s leadership by ciation of the Confederate battle flag people will surely lose. The group also to longtime activist William and other Confederate symbols. That trafficked even more openly in anti-Sem- White Williams, scandals multiplied. attack led to a backlash from the Klan itism, culminating in The Barnes Review, First, Williams got into a battle with and other groups, which collectively the nation’s leading journal of Holocaust his accountant, Randolph Dilloway, who held at least 364 pro-Confederate flag denial, publishing a Hill essay. had been trying to explain that the group rallies in 26 states as well as the District That radicalism stirred up increasing needed to deal with various tax problems. of Columbia. controversy for public officials involved Dilloway ended up fleeing the group’s

NOV. 9 NOV. 13 NOV. 23 NOV. 27 DEC. 2 The FBI arrests Robert C. Doyle and Ronald Beasley Chaney III in Virginia for

(DEAR); (DEAR); attempting to buy guns and explosives from undercover agents that they allegedly THE DENVER POST intended to use to attack Members of the Islamic An apparent white suprem- In Colorado Springs, Colo., An Islamist couple in San black churches and syn- State launch a series of acist, one of several Robert Lewis Dear Jr. alleg- Bernardino, Calif., appar- agogues. The men, who coordinated attacks in Paris who have been infiltrat- edly rampages through a ently inspired by the Islamic investigators say are plan- and its suburb Saint-Denis, ing and filming protests of local Planned Parenthood State, massacres 14 people ning for “the coming race killing 130 people and injur- police shootings by Black clinic, using a semiauto- at a work party before being war,” are described as ing hundreds more. While Lives Matter members in matic gun to kill three peo- shot to death themselves adherents of the Asatru the massacre does not Minneapolis, shoots and ple and wound nine others. by police. In the weeks neo-Pagan theology, occur in the United States, wounds five protesters after Dear, who is described by an that follow, a frightening which is popular among it again raises the specter being chased into an alley. ex-wife as a longtime oppo- spate of anti-Muslim hate white supremacists. of mass-casualty terrorism Police later charge Allen nent of abortion, reportedly crimes, including attacks on against the West. Less than “Lance” Scarsella with five tells an arresting officer “no mosques, sweeps the coun- a month later, Donald Trump counts of second-degree more baby parts,” making it try in response to the killings. will falsely claim that a quar- assault and three of his clear he saw or knew about ter of American Muslims associates with armed sec- July’s anti-abortion videos. support violent jihad. ond-degree riot. A local prosecutor says there is “no doubt” that the shootings

AP IMAGES/BALKIS PRESS, SIPA USA (ISLAMIC STATE); FACEBOOK (SCARSELLA); AP IMAGES/ ANDY CROSS, CROSS, ANDY AP IMAGES/ (SCARSELLA); FACEBOOK (ISLAMIC STATE); USA SIPA PRESS, AP IMAGES/BALKIS BERNADINO) (SAN AND BORDER PROTECTION U.S. CUSTOMS AP IMAGES/ were “racially motivated.”

spring 2016 41 West Virginia headquarters under police But Williams was arrested twice in one its founder in 2004 (see story, p. 22). escort, and then gave the SPLC extensive week for violating those orders and was Already, the group’s once infamous com- details of the group’s shady practices. asked to stay out of the state until a court pound outside Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, had Then, by December, the always com- hearing. The local prosecutor said Williams been sold, its building burned and its bative Williams was in similar fights with was under investigation for other possible members split into squabbling factions. two other staffers — Garland DeCoursy crimes, including battery and larceny. In November, the group’s last self-pro- and Michael Oljaca — who had moved to The year also brought what seems claimed leader, Morris Gullet, shut down the compound following Dilloway’s depar- to be the final demise of another neo- his organization, which he had based ture. After Williams allegedly assaulted Nazi group, the Nations, which in Converse, La. Shortly before that, DeCoursy in Oljaca’s presence, both has been in trouble since a successful another former leader, August Kreis III, obtained restraining orders against him. SPLC lawsuit in 2000 and the death of was sentenced to 50 years in prison on three counts of sexually abusing a child.

WHITE NATIONALIST GROUPS ‘Nativist Extremist’ Groups Dwindling Away White nationalists — racists who gen- The number of “nativist extremist” groups — organizations that go beyond mere erally eschew Klan or neo-Nazi uni- advocacy to personally confront suspected undocumented immigrants or those who forms and propaganda in favor of a hire or help them — dropped again last year, falling from 19 to just 17. more genteel, suit-and-tie approach But that slight decline was not a reflection of diminishing hatred directed at — saw two major figureheads of their immigrants to the United States. What appears to have happened is that figures in movement die in 2015: Gordon Baum, the political mainstream, along with numerous state legislatures, have essentially co- founder of the Council of Conservative opted the issue, making the nativist extremist groups’ activism unnecessary. Citizens (CCC), and Willis Carto, who A recent example of that is Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigration was involved in a series of racist orga- and his description of Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers. Immigrant- nizations and publishers and a leader in bashing, whether of Latinos or Muslims, has gone mainstream. denying the Holocaust. The drop last year was the latest since the movement peaked in 2010 with 319 Baum died in March, three months groups. The numbers fell off quickly at first, at a time when state legislatures were before his organization would become passing harsh nativist laws, but have been very low for three years now. infamous for the online postings about What follows is a list of nativist extremist groups active in 2015: black crime that Dylann Roof said radi- calized him and ultimately led to the June ARIZONA (2) MINNESOTA (1) Charleston massacre. Both the CCC’s American Freedom Riders Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform Kyle Rogers, the webmaster who made Phoenix, AZ Hanska, MN those postings, and CCC President Earl Arizona Border Recon NEW JERSEY (2) Holt were dragged through the media for Phoenix, AZ New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control their roles as propagandists. For a brief CALIFORNIA (2) Carlstadt, NJ time, the press was bad enough that the United Patriots of America CCC asked Jared Taylor, a far more artic- Laguna Hills, CA Linden, NJ ulate white nationalist than either of We the People Rising NORTH CAROLINA (1) them, to act as its spokesman during a Claremont, CA North Carolinians for Immigration Reform press barrage. FLORIDA (1) and Enforcement (NCFIRE) Carto, whose racist and anti-Semitic Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, Inc. Wade, NC activism stretched back to the 1950s, Pompano Beach, FL OREGON (1) died in October. He was the founder of GEORGIA (1) Oregonians for Immigration Reform an array of organizations and publica- Dustin Inman Society, The McMinnville, OR tions: the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby, Marietta, GA RHODE ISLAND (1) the Holocaust-denying Institute for IOWA (1) Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Historical Review, , Youth Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Enforcement for Wallace and The Spotlight, American Des Moines, IA Central Falls, RI Free Press and The Barnes Review. (1) TEXAS (2) Although he at one time had friends in Help Save Maryland Stop the Magnet Congress and other centers of power, he Rockville, MD Houston, TX was reviled by most politicians by the (1) Texas Border Volunteers time he died. ▲ Michiganders for Immigration Control Waxahachie, TX and Enforcement Contributors to this report included Heidi Frankenmuth, MI Beirich, Keegan Hankes, Stephen Piggott, and Evelyn Schlatter.

42 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM ACTIVE HATE GROUPS in the United States in 2015

This list of 892 active hate groups (map, p. 43), up from the 784 groups listed a year before, is based on information gathered by the Intelligence Project from hate group publications, citizen reports, law enforcement agencies, field sources, web postings and news reports. Only organizations known to be active in 2015, whether that activity included marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting, publishing literature or criminal acts, among other activities, were counted in the listing. Entities that appear to exist only in cyberspace are not included because they are likely to be individual Web publishers who like to falsely por- tray themselves as powerful, organized groups. This listing contains all known chapters of hate organizations. If the group has a known headquarters, it appears first in the listing of the group’s chapters and is marked with an asterisk (*).

WA MT ND 8 2 NH 6 6 MN ME 6 VT 3 SD WI 2 OR ID 5 9 9 8 WY MI NY MA 2 IA 19 44 10 NE 5 5 PA 40 RI 3 IL IN OH CT 2 NV 23 16 34 4 UT CO NJ 21 3 16 KS MO WV 5 22 8 VA DE 5 CA KY 13 32 MD 15 DC 18 68 OK TN 41 NC 29 17 AR AZ NM 22 18 3 SC MS AL GA 22 TX LA 19 22 39 84 21

AK FL ACTIVE HATE GROUPS 0 58 BY STATE HI 0

Groups are categorized as KU KLUX KLAN, NEO-NAZI, WHITE NATIONALIST, RACIST , CHRISTIAN IDENTITY, NEO-CONFEDERATE, BLACK SEPARATIST, and GENERAL HATE. Because skinheads are migratory and often not affiliated with groups, this listing understates their numbers. Christian Identity describes a religion that is fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic. Black Separatist groups are organizations whose ideologies include tenets of racially based hatred. Neo-Confederate groups seek to revive many of the racist principles of the antebellum South. White Nationalist groups espouse white supremacy or white separatism but generally avoid anti-Semitism. General Hate groups espouse various ideologies of hatred and include the sub-categories of Anti-LGBT groups, Anti-Immigrant groups, Anti-Muslim groups, Holocaust Denial groups, Racist Music labels, Radical Traditionalist

detailed map inside detailed Catholic groups (which reject core Catholic teachings and espouse anti-Semitism), and Other (a variety of groups OPEN HERE endorsing a hodge-podge of hate doctrines). spring 2016 55 ACTIVEACTIVE HATEHATE GROUPSGROUPS in the United States in 2015

WASHINGTON NORTH DAKOTA MONTANA

MINNESOTA

MAINE

WISCONSIN SOUTH DAKOTA

OREGON IDAHO WYOMING MICHIGAN NEW YORK VERMONT

NEW HAMPSHIRE IOWA NEBRASKA MASSACHUSETTS

PENNSYLVANIA RHODE ISLAND

CONNECTICUT ILLINOIS INDIANA OHIO

NEVADA UTAH NEW JERSEY COLORADO

KANSAS MISSOURI WEST VIRGINIA MARYLAND KENTUCKY VIRGINIA WASHINGTON, D.C. CALIFORNIA

TENNESSEE NORTH CAROLINA OKLAHOMA

ARKANSAS ARIZONA SOUTH CAROLINA MISSISSIPPI ALABAMA GEORGIA 892 TEXAS ACTIVE HATE GROUPS

LOUISIANA KU KLUX KLAN 190 ALASKA NEO-NAZI 94 WHITE NATIONALIST 95 RACIST SKINHEAD 95 FLORIDA CHRISTIAN IDENTITY 19 NEO-CONFEDERATE 35 BLACK SEPARATIST 180 GENERAL HATE 184

FOR SPECIFIC DETAILS ABOUT HATE GROUPS IN YOUR STATE, GO TO SPLCENTER.ORG/HATEMAP THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

190 KU KLUX KLAN Knoxville, TN With its long history of violence, the Klan is the most infamous — and oldest — of Memphis, TN American hate groups. When the Klan was formed in 1865, it was a single, unitary Mooresburg, TN organization. Today, there are dozens of competing Klan groups. Although black Nashville, TN Americans have typically been the Klan’s primary target, it has also attacked Jews, Paris, TN immigrants, homosexuals, and Catholics. Gatesville, TX Loyal White Knights Aryan Nations Knights Alabama Willits, CA of the Ku Klux Klan of the Ku Klux Klan Monticello, AR Colorado Springs, CO Leasburg, NC* Converse, LA Georgia Cape Coral, FL Cullman, AL Confederate White Knights Mississippi Hudson, FL Springdale, AR of the Ku Klux Klan Taylors, SC Kokomo, IN California Rosedale, MD Nashville, TN Muncie, IN Ellijay, GA East Coast Knights Of The Karolina Knights of Harrodsburg, KY Clay City, IL True Invisible Empire the Ku Klux Klan Springfield, MO Kokomo, IN Delaware* Holly Springs, NC Hickory, NC Florida Scranton, PA KKKRadio Plattsburgh, NY Iowa Wilkes-Barre, PA Harrison, AR Wheelersburg, OH Louisiana Eastern White Knights Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Tulsa, OK Mississippi of the KKK, The Harrison, AR Bally, PA New Hampshire Parkersburg, WV* Knights Party Oil City, PA New Mexico North Carolina Veterans League Wormleysburg, PA Hampton Bays, NY Imperial Klans of America Harrison, AR Belvidere, TN Norlina, NC Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Ku Klos Knights of Butler, TN Pelham, NC Dawson Springs, KY the Ku Klux Klan Chattanooga, TN Ohio International Keystone Church Hill, TN* Erwin, TN Oklahoma City, OK Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Hazel Green, AL Franklin, TN Export, PA Vanndale, AR* Vance, AL Kingsport, TN South Carolina

WA MT ND 0 0 NH 1 0 MN ME 1 VT 1 SD WI 1 OR ID 0 0 0 0 WY MI NY 0 IA 0 3 MA 0 NE 1 RI 1 PA 9 0 IL IN OH CT 1 NV 3 3 5 NJ 1 0 UT CO DE 2 0 1 KS MO WV 0 2 4 VA MD 2 CA KY 4 6 DC 1 3 OK TN 16 NC 8 10 AR AZ NM 8 2 1 SC MS AL GA 4 TX LA 7 9 4 52 8

AK FL 0 5

HI 0

221 190 163 THE COURSE OF THE MODERN 72 KU KLUX KLAN 28 1990 2010 2013 2014 2015

44 splc intelligence report If the group has a known headquarters, it appears first in the listing of the group’s chapters and is marked with an asterisk (*). THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

Tennessee Virginia Rockledge, GA RACE AND RACISM Texas Soldiers of the Cross United White Knights A brief look at contemporary reality Martinsville, VA Training Institute of the Ku Klux Klan West Virginia Harrison, AR New Boston, TX* Militant Knights Ku Texas Knights of Lake Charles, LA 17 Klux Klan the Ku Klux Klan Leesville, LA Dixonville, PA* New Boston, TX* Ruston, LA Alabama Atlanta, TX Shreveport, LA 1965 Arizona Austin, TX West Monroe, LA Arkansas Avery, TX Broken Bow, OK 83 California Beaumont, TX Haworth, OK Cleveland, TX Hugo, OK Washington, DC Dallas, TX Lawton, OK Illinois DeKalb County, TX Atlanta, TX In 1965, 83% of voters were Maine Fort Worth, TX Austin, TX non-Hispanic whites. Minnesota Gatesville, TX Canton, TX Mississippi Greenville, TX Clarksville, TX New Jersey Killeen, TX Cleveland, TX New York, NY Lufkin, TX Dallas, TX Gallia, OH Marshall, TX Fort Worth, TX Rhode Island New Braunfels, TX Gainesville, TX 38 South Carolina San Antonio, TX Greenville, TX 1965 Gladeville, TN Simms, TX Houston, TX Virginia Temple, TX Killeen, TX 62 Burlington, VT Texarkana, TX Longview, TX West Virginia Tyler, TX Lufkin, TX Mississippi White Knights Waco, TX Maud, TX of the Ku Klux Klan Texas Rebel Knights Marshall, TX In 2015, 62% of voters were Bruce, MS* of the Ku Klux Klan Mt. Pleasant, TX non-Hispanic whites. Oklahoma Knights Quinlan, TX* Paris, TX of the Ku Klux Klan Shepherd, TX Sulphur Springs, TX Broken Bow, OK Traditional Confederate Texarkana, TX Idabel, OK Knights Tyler, TX Hugo, OK Winfield, AL Waco, TX 1995 Original Knight Riders Traditionalist American Western White Knights Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of the Ku Klux Klan Beckley, WV* Potosi, MO* Hualapai, AZ* 41% Alabama Highland City, FL Texas Delaware Traditional Rebel Knights White Camelia Knights 2011 Florida of the Ku Klux Klan, The of the Ku Klux Klan Georgia Braddock Heights, MD* Cleveland, TX* Kentucky Youngstown, OH Pasadena, TX 28% Louisiana Philadelphia, PA Mississippi Trinity White Knights 2015 Moyock, NC of the Ku Klux Klan Ohio Dry Ridge, KY Pennsylvania True Invisible Empire 49% South Carolina Knights In 1995, 41% of Americans Tennessee Elkmont, AL thought racism was a “big Livingston, TX United Dixie White Knights problem.” In 2011, the third Virginia Leakesville, MS* year of Barack Obama’s Rebel Brigade Knights of Jackson, MS presidency, that number had the True Invisible Empire United Klans of America dropped to only 28%. By last Buchanan, VA* Ashland, AL year, however, it had shot back North Carolina United Northern and up to 49%. Oklahoma Southern Knights of Texas the Ku Klux Klan Martinsville, VA , IL*

spring 2016 45 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

94 NEO-NAZI North Carolina These groups share a hatred for Jews and an admiration for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Cleveland, OH Germany. While they also hate other minorities, homosexuals, and even sometimes Toledo, OH Christians, they perceive “the Jew” as their cardinal enemy and trace social Oregon problems to a Jewish conspiracy that supposedly controls governments, financial Pennsylvania institutions, and the media. Rhode Island Myrtle Beach, SC HATE BY STATE AL Å Gallows Tree Tucson, AZ Tennessee The arrows at AK - Westland, MI* Alliance Fresno, CA Dallas, TX right indicate AZ Å Rialto, CA Grand Rapids, MI* , CA Utah whether the AR Å Texas Paso Robles, CA Yucca Valley, CA Vermont number of CA Å Virginia Panama City Beach, FL Colorado Chesterfield, VA hate groups CO Å West Virginia Tallahassee, FL Connecticut Washington in each state CT å Aryan Nations (Louisiana) Cedar Rapids, IA Delaware Wisconsin rose or fell in DE Å Converse, LA Indiana Florida Wyoming the last year. DC Å Aryan Nations Worldwide Wichita, KS Tallahassee, FL New Order The three FL Å Villa Rica, GA Mauriceville, TX Atlanta, GA Milwaukee, WI highlighted GA Å Christian Defense League Savannah, GA NS Publications states saw HI - Mandeville, LA Astoria, NY Chicago, IL Wyandotte, MI the steepest ID å Alliance, The National Alliance Idaho Sadistic Souls inclines and IL Å Georgia Laurel Bloomery, TN* Indiana Motorcycle Club declines. IN - Pennsylvania Hillsboro, WV Des Moines, IA Grovespring, MO* IA Å South Carolina National Alliance Reform Iowa Florida KS Å Utah and Restoration Group Kentucky Louisiana KY å Middlebury, VT Carson City, NV Louisiana Crestline, OH LA Å Creativity Movement, The National Socialist Maine Virginia ME - Bloomington, IL* Freedom Movement Maryland Mount Vernon, WA MD - Arizona Tulsa, OK Massachusetts Wisconsin MA å California National Socialist German Mississippi Third Reich Books MI Å Michigan Workers Party Springfield, MO Fairbury, NE MN å North Dakota Lincoln, NE Montana White Aryan Resistance MS å Oregon National Socialist Movement Nebraska Warsaw, IN MO Å South Dakota Detroit, MI* New Hampshire White Church, The MT å Texas Alabama New York Pittsburgh, PA NE å Wisconsin Arkansas Syracuse, NY NV å NH - NJ å WA MT ND 2 1 NH 1 NM - 1 MN ME 0 VT 2 NY - SD WI 1 NC Å OR ID 1 4 2 1 WY MI NY ND - 1 IA 5 3 MA 1 NE 3 RI 1 OH Å PA 3 3 IL IN OH CT 1 OK Å NV NJ 0 UT CO 2 3 3 OR - 1 KS MO WV DE 1 2 1 MD 1 PA Å 1 2 2 VA CA KY 1 3 DC 0 RI Å 6 OK TN 2 NC 1 SC Å 1 AR AZ NM 1 SD Å 2 0 SC 2 TN Å MS AL GA 1 1 4 TX Å TX LA 4 4 UT å VT å AK FL VA Å 0 5 WA å WV å HI 0 WI å WY Å

46 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

95 WHITE NATIONALIST Free White nationalist groups espouse white supremacist or white separatist ideologies, Sagle, ID often focusing on the alleged inferiority of non-whites. Groups listed in several Heritage and Destiny other categories — Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederate, neo-Nazi, racist Skinhead, and Silver Spring, MD Christian Identity — could also be described as white nationalist. H.L. Mencken Club Elizabethtown, PA Advanced White Society Confederate Patriot Foundation, Inc. Identity Vanguard Pemberton Township, NJ* Voters United St. Louis, MO Grovetown, GA Alabama Baldwyn, MS Counter-Currents Malevolent Freedom Delaware Council of Conservative Publishing Lowell, MA Maryland Citizens San Diego, CA National Association Mount Airy, NC St. Louis, MO* Daily Stormer, The for the Advancement New York, NY Eufaula, AL Worthington, OH of America Ohio Silver Spring, MD European American Action McComb, MS Tennessee St. Louis, MO Coalition Alternative Right New York, NY Pittston, PA Savannah, GA Atlanta, GA Springboro, OH European National Policy Institute American Eagle Party Summerville, SC Baldwyn, MS Whitefish, MT Gatlinburg, TN Franklin, TN Faith and Heritage National Youth Front American Freedom Party Memphis, TN Southeast Texas Oakdale, CA New York, NY* Irving, TX Fitzgerald Griffin Northwest Front Los Angeles, CA Council for Social and Foundation, The , WA Bradenton, FL Economic Studies Vienna, VA Occidental Dissent Lakewood Ranch, FL Washington, DC Free American Eufaula, AL Indiana County, IN Conservative Citizens Tucson, AZ continued » Montana Baldwyn, MS WA MT ND Grand Forks, ND 1 1 NH 0 5 MN ME Oregon 0 VT 0 Granbury, TX SD WI 0 OR ID 0 1 Wisconsin 2 1 WY MI NY American Nationalist 1 IA 2 7 MA 1 NE 0 RI 0 Association PA 3 0 IL IN OH CT 0 Porterville, CA NV 0 2 5 NJ 1 1 UT CO DE 1 American Nationalist Union 0 1 KS MO WV 0 4 0 VA MD 3 Las Vegas, NV CA KY 1 4 DC 2 American Renaissance/ 6 OK AR TN 7 NC 2 AZ NM 0 0 SC Oakton, VA 3 0 MS AL GA 5 Bob’s Underground TX LA 4 3 4 Graduate Seminar/BUGS 5 1 Columbia, SC carolynyeager.net AK FL Kerrville, TX 0 5 HI 0

KILLINGS 2015 52 20/19 45/48 The minimum number of people in The number of deaths attributed to white Since September 11, 2001, the number the United States who were killed supremacists vs. the number of deaths of people killed in America in "violent by adherents of domestic extremist attributed to domestic Islamic extremists, jihadist attacks" vs. the number killed in movements, according to one recent study. according to another study. "far right wing attacks."

spring 2016 47 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

WHITE NATIONALIST CONT'D Renegade Broadcasting Stormfront White Advocacy Occidental Quarterly/ Sorrento, FL West Palm Beach, FL Movement Charles Martel Society Right Wing Resistance Traditionalist Worker Party Florida Atlanta, GA Arizona Cincinnati, OH* White Rabbit Radio Pacifica Forum California Madisonville, KY Dearborn Heights, MI Eugene, OR Missouri Knoxville, TN White Trash Rebel Patriotic Flags New York, NY Traditionalist Keller, TX Charleston, SC Pennsylvania Youth Network White Voice, The Pioneer Little Europe South Carolina Cincinnati, OH* New York, NY Kalispell Montana Scott-Townsend Publishers Tucson, AZ World View Foundations Kalispell, MT Washington, DC North Carolina Porterville, CA Political Cesspool, The Social Contract Press VDARE Foundation Wolves of Vinland Bartlett, TN Petoskey, MI Warrenton, VA Lynchburg, VA* Racial Nationalist Party Project Washington Summit Colorado of America Mandeville, LA* Publishers Wyoming Lockport, NY New York Whitefish, MT WTM Enterprises Radix Journal South Knox Ten Milers Whitakeronline Roanoke, IN Whitefish, MT Knoxville, TN Columbia, SC

95 RACIST SKINHEAD

Racist skinheads form a particularly violent element of the white supremacist Florida movement and have often been referred to as the “shock troops” of the hoped-for West Virginia revolution. The archetypal skinhead look is a shaved head, black with red Blood and Honour laces, jeans with suspenders, and an array of typically racist tattoos. Skinheads are Social Club migratory and often not affiliated with groups. Greensboro, NC* Colorado AC Skins American Vikings Indiana Florida Atlantic City, NJ Knightstown, IN Kentucky Georgia American Front Aryan Strikeforce Massachusetts Illinois Sacramento, CA* Somerville, NJ* Missouri Indiana Iowa Arizona New York Michigan Hackensack, NJ Pine Bluff, AR Ohio New York Haledon, NJ Colorado Pennsylvania Ohio Roselle, NJ Florida Virginia Pennsylvania Aryan Terror Brigade South Carolina Haddon Township, NJ* Tennessee WA MT ND Virginia 2 0 NH 2 0 MN ME Blood and Honour U.S.A. 1 VT 0 SD WI 0 Woodbridge Township, NJ OR ID 2 0 California Skinheads 0 2 WY MI NY 0 IA 2 2 MA 1 California NE 1 RI 1 Confederate 0 PA 6 IL IN OH CT 0 Georgia NV 3 4 4 NJ 10 0 UT CO Jacksonville, FL 0 2 KS MO WV DE 0 2 2 1 VA MD 2 North Carolina CA KY 1 3 DC 0 Columbia, SC 10 OK TN 5 NC 5 0 AR Nashville, TN AZ NM 1 2 0 SC Richmond, VA MS AL GA 2 Crew 38 TX LA 0 2 4 Birmingham, AL* 1 0 Huntsville, AL California AK FL 0 7 Florida Georgia HI Idaho 0 Wichita, KS

48 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

Baltimore, MD New Hampshire 19 CHRISTIAN IDENTITY North Carolina South Dakota Christian Identity describes a religion that is fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic. Portland, TN It asserts that whites, not Jews, are the true Israelites favored by God in the Bible. Washington In most of its forms, Identity theology depicts Jews as biologically descended from Eastern Hammerskins Satan, while non-whites are seen as soulless “mud people” created with the other Allentown, PA* Biblical “beasts of the field.” Some groups listed in other categories, such as the neo- New Hampshire Nazi Aryan Nations and several Klan groups, also hold Christian Identity beliefs. Florida United St. Cloud, FL Golden State Skinheads WA MT ND 1 0 NH 0 Northern California 0 MN ME 1 VT 0 Southern California SD WI 0 Hated, The OR ID 0 0 0 1 WY MI NY Toms River, NJ 0 IA 1 0 MA 0 NE Rhode Island 0 RI 0 1 PA 0 CT 0 Keystone State Skinheads IL IN OH NV 2 0 1 NJ 0 0 UT CO DE 0 Harrisburg, PA* 0 1 KS MO WV 0 2 0 VA MD 0 Philadelphia, PA CA KY 2 1 DC 0 Maryland State Skinheads 0 OK TN 0 NC 0 Baltimore, MD* 0 AR AZ NM 3 Midland Hammerskins 0 0 SC 0 Wichita, KS MS AL GA TX 0 0 1 South Dakota LA 0 1 Northern Hammerskins Chicago, IL AK FL Detroit, MI 0 0 Seattle, WA HI Northwest Hammerskins 0 Idaho Fostoria, OH Old Glory Skinheads Our Place Fellowship Mt. Airy, NC* America’s Promise Faith Baptist Church Colville, WA Sacto Skins Ministries and Ministry Scriptures for America Sacramento, CA Sandpoint, ID Houston, MO Ministries Sadistic Souls Skinheads Christian Revival Center Fellowship of God’s Laporte, CO Wood River, IL* Harrison, AR Covenant People Thomas Robb Ministries Supreme White Alliance Church of the Sons of YHVH Union, KY Bergman, AR Cincinnati, OH* Converse, LA Kingdom Identity Virginia Publishing Chatsworth, GA Covenant People’s Ministry Ministries Company Missouri Brooks, GA Harrison, AR Lynchburg, VA Montpelier, OH Divine International Kinsman Redeemer Watchmen Bible Allentown, PA Church of the Web Ministries Study Group Clarksville, TN Morton, IL Alexandria, KY Wappapello, MO Oak Ridge, TN Ecclesiastical Council Mission to Israel Weisman Publications Vinlanders for the Restoration of Scottsbluff, NE Apple Valley, MN Knightstown, IN* Covenant Israel (ECRCI) Non-Universal Yahweh’s Truth Tucson, AZ Chicago, IL Teaching Ministries Linwood, MI San Diego, CA Florida Minnesota Cameron, NC TOP FIVE STATES FOR HATE GROUPS 2015 Cherry Hill, NJ Point Pleasant Beach, NJ 1. TEXAS Though the number of hate Texas 2. CALIFORNIA groups fluctuates each year, Warlord Skins 3. FLORIDA states with large populations Placer County, CA 4. TENNESSEE like Texas, California and Florida Western Hammerskins 5. PENNSYLVANIA regularly have the most. San Diego, CA* Menifee, CA

spring 2016 49 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

35 NEO-CONFEDERATE Arkansas Many groups celebrate traditional Southern culture and the Civil War’s dramatic Jacksonville, FL conflict between the Union and the Confederacy. But neo-Confederate groups Morganton, GA go further and embrace racist attitudes toward blacks and white separatism. Fruit Hill, KY Neo-Confederate groups seek to revive many of the racist principles of the Louisiana antebellum South. Maryland Mississippi Dixie Republic Macon, GA Virginia West Plains, MO Travelers Rest, SC Crofton, KY Mary Noel Kershaw North Carolina Kingdom Treasure Logansport, LA Foundation Tennessee Ministries Clements, MD Lobelville, TN Travelers Rest, SC Owasso, OK West Plains, MO Pace Confederate Depot Texas League of the South Collinsville, MS Baldwyn, MS Southern Nationalist Killen, AL* Wilmington, NC Southern National Network Wetumpka, AL Aiken, SC Congress Aiken, SC Harrison, AR Lobelville, TN Alexandria, VA* Southern Patriot Shoppe Jacksonville, FL La Porte, TX Wetumpka, AL Abbeville, SC

WA MT ND 0 0 NH 0 0 MN ME 0 VT 0 SD WI 0 OR ID 0 0 0 0 WY MI NY 0 IA 0 0 MA 0 NE 0 RI 0 PA 0 0 IL IN OH CT 0 NV 0 0 0 NJ 0 0 UT CO DE 0 0 0 KS MO WV 0 2 0 VA MD 2 CA KY 2 2 DC 0 0 OK TN 3 NC 2 1 AR AZ NM 2 0 0 SC MS AL GA 5 TX LA 3 3 2 2 2

AK FL 0 2

HI 0

180 BLACK SEPARATIST Jesus Christ, The Black separatist groups are organizations whose ideologies include tenets of New York, NY* racially based hatred. These groups typically oppose integration and racial Washington, DC intermarriage, and want separate institutions — or even a separate nation — for Fort Myers, FL blacks. Most forms of black separatism are strongly anti-white and anti-Semitic. Miami, FL Orlando, FL All Eyes on Egipt Bookstore Detroit, MI Oakland, CA West Palm Beach, FL Milledgeville, GA* Cleveland, OH San Diego, CA Baltimore, MD Orlando, FL Brooklyn, NY Miami, FL Minneapolis, MN Macon, GA Black Hebrew Israelites Chicago, IL Kansas City, MO Monticello, GA San Francisco, CA Detroit, MI Omaha, NE Scottdale, GA Black Riders New York Fayetteville, NC Chicago, IL Liberation Party Virginia Wilmington, NC Boston, MA Los Angeles, CA* Israelite Church of God in Camden, NJ

50 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

Oklahoma City, OK Pine Bluff, AR Jefferson City, MO Dallas, TX Portland, OR Phoenix, AZ Kansas City, MO Fort Worth, TX Allentown, PA Compton, CA St. Louis, MO Houston, TX Philadelphia, PA Los Angeles, CA Holly Springs, MS Norfolk, VA Pittsburgh, PA Oakland, CA Southaven, MS Richmond, VA Israelite School of Rialto, CA Charlotte, NC Milwaukee, WI Universal Practical San Diego, CA Durham, NC New Black Panther Party Knowledge Stockton, CA Greensboro, NC Atlanta, GA* Baltimore, MD* Denver, CO Greenville, NC Daytona Beach, FL San Diego, CA Washington, DC Raleigh, NC Jacksonville, FL Washington, DC Wilmington, DE Winston-Salem, NC Miami, FL Atlanta, GA Fort Lauderdale, FL Camden, NJ Orlando, FL Chicago, IL Gainesville, FL Newark, NJ Tallahassee, FL Indianapolis, IN Miami, FL New Brunswick, NJ Tampa, FL New York, NY Orlando, FL Plainfield, NJ Vero Beach, FL Syracuse, NY Pensacola, FL Willingboro, NJ Augusta, GA Oregon City, OR St. Petersburg, FL Columbus, OH Waycross, GA Philadelphia, PA Atlanta, GA Cleveland, OH Springfield, IL West Virginia Augusta, GA Brooklyn, NY St. Louis, MO Israel United In Christ Brunswick, GA Buffalo, NY Hattiesburg, MS Newburgh, NY* Columbus, GA Harlem, NY Newark, NJ Birmingham, AL East St. Louis, IL Rochester, NY Dayton, OH Phoenix, AZ Rockford, IL Akron, OH Nashville, TN California Indianapolis, IN Dayton, OH Houston, TX Denver, CO Lexington, KY Springfield, OH Virginia Beach, VA Washington, DC Baton Rouge, LA Youngstown, OH War On The Horizon Miami, FL Monroe, LA Tulsa, OK Washington, DC Orlando, FL New Orleans, LA Harrisburg, PA Tallahassee, FL Shreveport, LA Philadelphia, PA Atlanta, GA Boston, MA Wilkinsburg, PA Savannah, GA Springfield, MA Charleston, SC Chicago, IL Baltimore, MD Columbia, SC Kansas City, KS Benton Harbor, MI Chattanooga, TN Louisville, KY Detroit, MI Memphis, TN New Orleans, LA Grand Rapids, MI Austin, TX Boston, MA Detroit, MI WA ND St. Louis, MO MT NH 0 0 0 0 MN Charlotte, NC VT 0 ME 1 0 Las Vegas, NV SD WI OR ID 0 1 New Jersey 3 0 WY MI NY Bronx, NY 0 IA 6 11 MA 4 NE 0 RI 0 Ohio PA 8 1 IL IN OH CT 0 Oklahoma City, OK NV 8 2 9 NJ 8 1 UT CO DE 1 Oregon 0 2 KS MO WV 1 6 1 VA MD 3 Pittsburgh, PA CA KY 2 5 DC 5 Memphis, TN 12 OK AR TN 4 NC 9 Austin, TX AZ NM 3 1 SC Corpus Christi, TX 2 0 MS AL GA 2 Dallas, TX TX LA 3 4 14 Houston, TX 10 5 San Antonio, TX Richmond, VA AK FL 0 22 Chicago, IL* HI Birmingham, AL 0 Mobile, AL Montgomery, AL

spring 2016 51 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

184 GENERAL HATE Mission: America These organizations are subdivided into anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant, Holocaust Columbus, OH denial, racist music, and radical traditionalist Catholic groups. A final “other” Pacific Justice Institute sub-category includes groups espousing a variety of hateful doctrines. Sacramento, CA Pass the Salt Ministries ANTI-IMMIGRANT (12) New York, NY Citizens for Community Hebron, OH American Border Patrol ProEnglish Values Pilgrims Covenant Church Sierra Vista, AZ Arlington, VA Cincinnati, OH Monroe, WI American Immigration US Border Guard Conservative Republicans Pray in Jesus Name Control Foundation/ Mesa, AZ of Texas Project, The Americans for Immigration ANTI-LGBT (48) Houston, TX Colorado Springs, CO Control Abiding Truth Ministries D. James Kennedy Probe Ministries Monterey, VA Springfield, MA Ministries Plano, TX Americans Have American College Fort Lauderdale, FL Providence Road Had Enough of Pediatricians Faith Baptist Church Baptist Church Mauldin, SC Gainesville, FL Greenville, GA Maiden, NC Americans for Legal American Family Faith2Action Public Advocate of Immigration (ALIPAC) Association North Royalton, OH the United States Raleigh, NC Tupelo, MS* Family Research Council Falls Church, VA Californians for Franklin, PA Washington, DC Ruth Institute Population Stabilization Family Research Institute San Marcos, CA Santa Barbara, CA Powder Springs, GA Colorado Springs, CO Save California Sacramento, CA Sons of Liberty Media WA MT ND 2 0 NH 2 Annandale, MN 0 MN ME 2 VT 0 Stedfast Baptist Church SD WI 0 OR ID Fort Worth, TX 2 3 MI 2 3 WY NY TC Family (Traverse 0 IA 3 18 MA 3 NE 0 RI 0 City Family) PA 11 0 IL IN OH CT 0 Traverse City, MI NV NJ 1 UT CO 5 2 7 Tom Brown Ministries 1 KS MO WV DE 0 1 8 VA MD 2 El Paso, TX 1 2 KY 0 0 CA 8 DC 10 Traditional Values Coalition 31 OK TN 4 NC 2 Washington, DC* 2 AR AZ NM 6 Anaheim, CA 7 2 SC MS AL GA 2 True Light Pentecost Church TX LA 1 0 6 Spartanburg, SC 10 0 Family Watch United Families International International Gilbert, AZ AK FL Gilbert, AZ Westboro Baptist Church 0 12 Friendship Assembly Topeka, KS HI Americans for Truth of God Church Windsor Hills Baptist Church 0 About Homosexuality Colorado Springs, CO Oklahoma City, OK Naperville, IL Generations With Vision World Congress of Camp LoneStar ATLAH World Missionary Elizabeth, CO Families/Howard Center for Brownsville, TX Church (All The Land Heterosexuals Organized Family, Religion, and Society Colorado Alliance for Anointed Holy) for a Moral Environment Rockford, IL Immigration Reform New York, NY (H.O.M.E.) ANTI-MUSLIM (34) Lakewood, CO Campus Ministry USA, The Downers Grove, IL ACT for America Federation for American Terre Haute, IN Illinois Family Institute Virginia Beach, VA Immigration Reform Center for Family and Carol Stream, IL American Defence Washington, DC Human Rights (C-FAM) Jewish Political Action League, The National Coalition for New York, NY* Committee New York, NY Immigration Reform Washington, DC New York, NY American Freedom Huntington Beach, CA Liberty Counsel Defense Initiative New Yorkers for Vallecito, CA Orlando, FL New York, NY Immigration Control and Christ the King Church Mass Resistance American Freedom Enforcement (NYICE) Larkspur, CO Waltham, MA Law Center

52 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

HATE GROUP COUNT BREAKDOWN IN PERCENTAGES

22 22 21 21 12 8 20 17 12 4 4 10 2005 2010 2015 13 14 15 14 20 11 2 2 4 7 14 11

KU KLUX KLAN NEO-NAZI WHITE NATIONALIST RACIST SKINHEAD CHRISTIAN IDENTITY BLACK SEPARATIST NEO-CONFEDERATE GENERAL HATE Over the last decade, the composition of the hate movement has changed. The percentage of neo-Nazi hate groups has dipped, while the share of black separatist groups has grown. Rising anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT sentiment has contributed to considerable growth in the general hate category.

Ann Arbor, MI (and a big stack of What Did Mohammad Do? Nottingham, MD Atlas Shrugs dead bodies) Hemet, CA Micetrap Distribution New York, NY Marietta, GA HOLOCAUST DENIAL (10) Maple Shade Township, NJ Bare Naked Islam Islamthreat.com Barnes Review/Foundation MSR Productions Marina del Rey, CA Walnut Creek, CA for Economic Liberty, Inc. Wheat Ridge, CO Bosch Fawstin Washington, DC NSM88 Records New York, NY Sherman Oaks, CA Campaign for Radical Truth Detroit, MI Bureau on American Political Islam in History Poker Face Islamic Relations Nashville, TN Coeur d’Alene, ID Allentown, PA Irving, TX Prophet of Doom Castle Hill Publishers Casa D’Ice Signs Saint Louis, MO New York, NY Chicago, IL North Versailles, PA Radio Jihad Committee for Open Stahlhelm Records Center for Security Policy New York, NY Debate on the Holocaust Milwaukee, WI Washington, DC Religious Awareness Drums, PA Tightrope Christian Action Network Network Inconvenient History Calico Rock, AR Forest, VA Washington, DC San Diego, CA RADICAL TRADITIONAL Christian Guardians Shoebat Foundation, The Institute for Historical CATHOLIC (17) San Francisco, CA Newtown, PA Review Alliance for Catholic Citizens for National Silver Bullet Gun Oil Fountain Valley, CA Tradition Security Courtland, VA Institute for Historical Pleasant Unity, PA Boca Raton, FL Stop the Islamization Review Store Catholic Action Resource Citizen Warrior of America (SIOA) Newport Beach, CA Center Nashville, TN New York, NY International Orlando, FL Counter Jihadist Coalition Stop the Islamization Conspiratological Catholic Counterpoint of Southern California of the World Association, The Broomall, PA Santa Monica, CA Houston, TX Coeur d’Alene, ID Catholic Family News/Cath- Sultan Knish a blog Irving Books olic Family Ministries, Inc. Freedom Center by Daniel Greenfield Key West, FL Niagara Falls, NY Los Angeles, CA New York, NY Noontide Press Christ or Chaos Faith Freedom Straight Way and More, The Newport Beach, CA West Chester, OH Bellevue, WA Venice, FL HATE MUSIC (10) Culture Wars/Fidelity Press Islam: Making a True Tennessee Freedom Heritage Connection South Bend, IN Difference in the World -- Coalition Harrison, AR Fatima Crusader, The/ One Body at a Time Nashville, TN ISD Records International Fatima Marietta, GA United West, The Lancaster, OH Rosary Crusade islam: the Religion of Peace Lake Worth, FL Label 56 continued »

spring 2016 53 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

GENERAL HATE CONT'D Washington, DC Tampa, FL Newmanstown, PA Constable, NY Artisan Publishers Fundamentalist Latter Rense Radio Network IHM Media Muskogee, OK Day Saints Ashland, OR Richmond, NH As-Sabiqun Hildale, UT* Repent Amarillo IHS Press Washington, DC* Colorado City, AZ Amarillo, TX Norfolk, VA Los Angeles, CA Custer, SD Samanta Roy Institute of In the Spirit of Oakland, CA Geauga Constitutional Science and Technology Chartres Committee Sacramento, CA Council Shawano, WI Carrollton, VA San Diego, CA Mayfield Heights, OH Sharkhunters International Most Holy Family Monastery Philadelphia, PA Holy Nation of Hernando, FL Fillmore, NY Bill Keller Ministries Kingsburg, CA Society for the Practical OMNI Christian Book Club St. Petersburg, FL Insight USA Establishment and Palmdale, CA Brother Nathanael Longwood, FL Perpetuation of the Ten Remnant, The/ Foundation, The Invictus Books Commandments The Remnant Press Frisco, CO Wentzville, MO Eatonton, GA Forest Lake, MN Chick Publications Jamaat al-Muslimeen Sons of Aesir Robert Sungenis Ontario, CA Baltimore, MD Motorcycle Club State Line, PA Christian Anti-Defamation Jewish Task Force Irapuato, AZ Slaves of the Immaculate Commission Fresh Meadows, NY Tea Party Nation Heart of Mary Vista, CA Lordship Church Franklin, TN Richmond, NH Concerned Citizens Coeur d’Alene, ID Tony Alamo St. Michael’s Parish/ and Friends of Illegal Masjid al Islam Christian Ministries Mount St. Michael Immigration Law Oakland, CA Fouke, AR* Spokane, WA Enforcement National Prayer Network Fort Smith, AR Tradition in Action Framingham, MA Clackamas, OR Canyon Country, CA Los Angeles, CA Cultural Studies Press New Nation Productions New York, NY OTHER (53) New York, NY Shamokin, PA Texarkana, TX a2z Publications Dakota Voice, The Official Street Preachers Truth At Last Las Vegas, NV Rapid City, SD Los Angeles, CA Marietta, GA Active Democracy European-American Ozark Craft, LC Home School Washington, DC Evangelistic Crusades Harrison, AR Resource Center Aggressive Christianity Carmichael, CA Power of Prophecy Bergman, AR s Fence Lake, NM* Faithful Word Baptist Church Austin, TX Berino, NM Tempe, AZ Reformation-Bible American Free Press Florida Family Association Puritan-Baptist Church

GENERAL HATE COUNT BREAKDOWN ANTI-LGBT ANTI-IMMIGRATION ANTI-MUSLIM HOLOCAUST DENIAL RACIST MUSIC RADICAL TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC OTHER

2011 27 11 30 9 15 17 81 190

2012 34 11 36 9 11 17 80 198

2013 40 11 36 10 9 17 68 191

2014 44 10 24 10 11 17 49 165

2015 48 12 34 10 10 17 53 184

The mix of certain types of hate groups has changed over the last five years. The anti-LGBT movement has steadily expanded as battles over same-sex marriage and related issues spread. Racist music groups have declined as the selling of hate music has spread to more mainstream websites. Other sectors, such as the radical traditional Catholic and anti-immigration groups, have remained steady for several years.

54 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM ACTIVE ANTIGOVERNMENT GROUPS in the United States in 2015

WA MT ND 34 4 NH 9 11 MN ME 11 VT 6 SD WI 12 OR ID 6 16 18 20 WY MI NY 8 IA 32 40 MA 8 NE 9 RI 12 PA 60 5 IL IN OH CT 9 NV 36 26 52 NJ 21 20 UT CO DE 4 9 19 KS MO WV 7 41 4 VA MD 14 CA KY 13 41 DC 7 55 OK TN 18 NC 20 10 AR AZ NM 9 31 17 SC MS AL GA 14 TX LA 27 17 22 54 11

AK FL ACTIVE ANTIGOVERNMENT 11 33 GROUPS BY STATE HI 5

THE INTELLIGENCE PROJECT IDENTIFIED 998 EXTREME ANTIGOVERNMENT GROUPS THAT WERE ACTIVE IN 2015. Of these groups, 276 were militias, marked with an asterisk, and the remainder included “common-law” courts, publishers, ministries, and citizens’ groups. Generally, such groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order,” engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines. Listing here does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, or are racist. The list was compiled from field reports, group publications, the Internet, law enforcement sources and news reports. Groups are identified by the city, county or region where they are located.

spring 2016 55 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

ALABAMA (17) Anchorage Statewide Alabama Constitutional South Central Patriots* ARKANSAS (9) Anaheim Militia* Wasilla Arkansas State Apple Valley Verbena - Militia Corps* Citrus Heights Bibb Rifles Militia* III%ers, The Fayetteville Escondido Shelby County Statewide Constitution Party Huntington Beach Constitution Party ARIZONA (31) of Arkansas Merced of Alabama American Patriot Fayetteville Orange County Montgomery Friends Network Redding Eagle Forum Peoria Little Rock Riverside Birmingham American Patriot Party Get Out Of Our House Roseville Freedom Yell Statewide (GOOOH) Sacramento Ozark Arizona Militia* Statewide San Diego County Free Patriot Press Glendale Oath Keepers San Luis Obispo Birmingham Arizona State Militia* Van Buren Victorville Get Out Of Our House Flagstaff Secure Arkansas West Sacramento (GOOOH) Kingman Little Rock Post Sustainability Jefferson County Parker Three Percenters- Institute, The Phoenix III%ers, The Santa Rosa Mobile Sierra Vista Faulkner County Pro Trust Academy LewRockwell.com Tucson We the People Oakland Auburn Committee of Safety North Little Rock Radio Liberty Oath Keepers Mesa Russellville Soquel Bay Minette Constitutional Sheriffs and CALIFORNIA (55) Resistance--Mark Dice’s Outlaw Militia* Peace Officers Association III% United Patriots* Official Website, The Shelby County Higley Sunnyvale San Diego South Alabama Militia* Constitution Party American Independent Second Amendment Dothan Tempe Party Committee Southeast Constitutional Eagle Forum Vacaville Hanford Militia* Glendale Christian Exodus Southern California Statewide Freedom’s Phoenix Citrus Heights State Militia* THREE%ER Glendale Constitution Club, The Riverside Pinson Get Out Of Our House Hemet San Diego Three Percenters- (GOOOH) Constitution Party Tenth Amendment Center III%ers, The Statewide Statewide Los Angeles Shelby County Hour of the Time DEMOCRATS AGAINST Three Percenters- Republic for the united Eagar U.N. AGENDA 21 III%ers, The States of America Molon Labe Santa Rosa Fresno County Dothan Phoenix Dprogram.net Three Percenters Club* Watchmen of Alabama* Oath Keepers Sebastopol Statewide Statewide Chino Valley Eagle Forum Truth Radio ALASKA (11) Green Valley Santa Rosa Nipomo Alaska Citizens Militia* Maricopa County Educate Yourself United States Justice Nikiski Pima County Costa Mesa Foundation Anchorage Municipality Pinal County Freedom Advocates Ramona Defense Force* Prescott Valley Santa Cruz Ventura County Tea Party Anchorage Statewide Freedom Law School Ventura County Central Alaska Militia* Outpost of Freedom Phelan Washitaw Empire de Delta Junction Tucson Free Enterprise Society Dugdahmoundyah Fairbanks Riders United for a Fresno San Pedro Constitution Party Sovereign America, Corp. Free Republic Watchmen of California of Alaska Phoenix Fresno Statewide Haines Surprise Guardians of the Oath We Are Change Eagle Forum Surprise Orange County Bakersfield Cordova Three Percenters- HISAdvocates.org Banning Get Out Of Our House III%ers, The Costa Mesa Fresno (GOOOH) Navajo County Jeremiah Films Orange County Statewide We the People Los Angeles Riverside Kenai Peninsula Militia* Phoenix Liberty Under Fire San Diego Kenai Scottsdale Freedom Fighters San Francisco Oath Keepers You Have the Right Taft San Leandro

56 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

COLORADO (19) of Delaware III%ers, The Jefferson American Constitution Bear Orange County Marietta Party Get Out Of Our House Tri-County Tea Party Richmond Hill Arvada (GOOOH) Oxford Woodstock American Freedom Statewide We Are Change HAWAII (5) Network Oath Keepers Orlando Eagle Forum Johnstown Statewide Palm Beach Honolulu American Patriot Party Three Percenters- Port Saint Lucie Get Out Of Our House Statewide III%ers, The Tampa (GOOOH) Christian Exodus Kent County We the People Statewide Loveland DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (7) Cape Coral Three Percenters- Discharge Debt Constitutional Rights PAC Dunedin III%ers, The Broomfield Washington, DC Fort Lauderdale Honolulu County Eagle Forum National Committee Hudson We Are Change Against the U.N. Takeover Jacksonville Maui Freedom First Society Washington, DC Naples Pahoa Colorado Springs Renew America New Port Richey IDAHO (20) Get Out Of Our House Washington, DC North Palm Beach AVOW (Another Voice (GOOOH) Special Operations Speaks Sanford of Warning) Statewide Washington, DC Tampa Rigby Oath Keepers We Are Change Tarpon Springs Constitution Party of Idaho Aurora Washington, DC GEORGIA (22) Coeur d’Alene SteveQuayle.com WND Books American Patriot Party Eagle Forum Pueblo West Washington, DC Statewide Ada County Team Law WorldNetDaily Constitution Party Get Out Of Our Grand Junction Washington, DC of Georgia House (GOOOH) Three Percenters- FLORIDA (33) Woodstock Statewide III%ers, The Agenda21Today Discount Book Distributors/ Idaho Light Foot Militia* Douglas County Shady Grove The Patriot Depot Ada County We Are Change American Coalition Powder Springs Benewah County Fort Collins 4 Property Rights Eagle Forum Bonner County Lakewood Indian River Marietta Boundary County La Veta Martin Freedom Fighter Radio Canyon County Statewide Palm Beach Martinez Gem County Walsenburg St. Lucie Get Out Of Our Kootenai County We the People American Patriot Party House (GOOOH) Priest River Colorado Springs Statewide Statewide Shoshone County Delta Constitution Party John Birch Society Idaho Observer CONNECTICUT (9) of Florida Barnesville Spirit Lake Connecticut Survivalist The Villages Liberty Alliance Micro Effect, The Alliance Eagle Forum Powder Springs Kamiah Middlefield Sanibel Moorish Science Temple Oath Keepers Eagle Forum Get Out Of Our House of America 1928, The Moyie Springs Ridgefield (GOOOH) Atlanta Outlaw Militia* Get Out Of Our House Statewide Oath Keepers Butte County (GOOOH) Florida Militia* Duluth Three Percenters- Statewide Tampa Southeast Constitutional III%ers, The John Birch Society Freedom Law School Militia* Lemhi County Statewide Brooksville Statewide We Are Change Oath Keepers John Birch Society Sovereign Filing Lewiston Hartford Pensacola Morrow We the People Post & Email, The KrisAnne Hall Three Percenters- Parma Stafford Wellborn III%ers, The ILLINOIS (36) Three Percenters- Now the End Begins Wilkinson County American Patriot Party III%ers, The Jacksonville True Patriots Statewide Hartford County Sarasota Patriots Dallas Constitution Party We Are Change Sarasota We the People of Illinois Wallingford Southeast Constitutional Atlanta Belleville Waterbury Militia* Cumming Eagle Forum DELAWARE (4) Sarasota Duluth Arlington Heights Constitution Party Three Percenters- Gainesville Get Out Of Our House

spring 2016 57 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

(GOOOH) Garrett III%ers, The Perspectives Incorporated Statewide Hardinsburg Ellsworth County Bangor Illinois Sons of Liberty* Holton KENTUCKY (13) Get Out Of Our House Adams County Indianapolis Central-Kentucky Militia* (GOOOH) Brown County Kingman Lexington Statewide Bureau County Kokomo Constitution Party Maine Militia* Champaign Kurtz of Kentucky Bangor Clark County Lyons Lexington Oath Keepers Clay County New Castle Eagle Forum Gardiner Cook County Plymouth Frankfort Three Percenters- Ford County Speedway Get Out Of Our House III%ers, The Hamilton County Warren (GOOOH) Piscataquis County Henry County Oath Keepers Statewide Watchmen of Maine* Jackson County Bedford Kentucky Tea Party Kennebunkport Kane County Outlaw Militia* Statewide Sanford Kankakee Hamilton County KY County Rangers* We Are Change Macoupin County Three Percenters- Bath County Bangor McHenry County III%ers, The Oath Keepers We the People Peoria Hamilton County Ekron Warren Rockford Three Percenters Club* Rowan County York County Saline County Statewide PatriotResistance.com MARYLAND (14) Shelbyville Watchmen of Indiana* Lexington III Percent Patriots Statewide Statewide Take Back Kentucky Gaithersburg St. Clair County We Are Change Clarkson American Patriot Party Warren County Lafayette Three Percenters- Statewide Will County IOWA (9) III%ers, The America’s Survival, Inc. Martial Law Survival American Patriot Party Bullitt County Owings Thomson Statewide Watchmen of America Cecil County Patriots Oath Keepers Constitution Party of Iowa Lexington Elkton Woodstock Eldon We Are Change Constitution Party Restore the Republic Eagle Forum Ashland of Maryland Northbrook Orange City LOUISIANA (11) Rockville Three Percenters- Get Out Of Our House American Patriot Party Eagle Forum III%ers, The (GOOOH) Statewide Frederick DeWitt County Statewide Constitution Party Get Out Of Our House Three Percenters Club* Oath Keepers of Louisiana (GOOOH) Springfield Iowa Minden Statewide We Are Change Three Percenters- Eagle Forum Institute on the Constitution Chicago III%ers, The Shreveport (aka American View), The Rockford Story County Get Out Of Our House Pasadena We the People Three Percenters Club* (GOOOH) Kerodin.com Chicago Des Moines Statewide Gaithersburg Evanston We the People Oath Keepers Oath Keepers INDIANA (26) Burlington Baton Rouge Statewide American Patriot Party Davenport Covington Save A Patriot Fellowship Statewide KANSAS (7) Lake Charles Westminster Constitution Party American Patriot Party Ville Platte Three Percenters- of Indiana Statewide Outlaw Militia* III%ers, The Evansville Eagle Forum Tangipahoa Parish Maryland Constitution Preservation Olathe Three Percenters- Three Percenters Club* Hammond Get Out Of Our House III%ers, The Baltimore Eagle Forum (GOOOH) Avoyelles Parish We the People Indianapolis Statewide Three Percenters Club* Frederick Get Out Of Our Oath Keepers Alexandria MASSACHUSETTS (8) House (GOOOH) El Dorado MAINE (12) Constitution Party Statewide Patriot Freedom Alliance Citizens of the American of Massachusetts Indianapolis Baptist Temple Hutchinson Constitution Framingham Indianapolis Prophecy Club Resources, Bingham Get Out Of Our House Indiana Sons of Liberty* The Eagle Forum (GOOOH) Chandler Topeka South Portland Statewide DeMotte Three Percenters- EPI - Environmental John Birch Society

58 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

Worcester Kent County East Central Lebanon Oath Keepers Ionia County Northeast Maysville Ware Montcalm County Northwest Rolla Three Percenters- West Michigan Southeast Springfield III%ers, The Volunteer Militia* Southwest St. Joseph Worcester County Kent County Statewide St. Louis Watchmen of Muskegon County West Central West Plains Massachusetts* Newaygo County Mississippi Tea Party Oath Keepers Statewide Oceana County Jackson Clinton We Are Change Ottawa County Oath Keepers Jackson County Springfield We the People Saucier Joplin Worcester County West Bloomfield Outlaw Militia* St. Louis MICHIGAN (32) MINNESOTA (11) Leake County Power Hour, The American Patriot Party American Patriot Party Southeast Constitutional Versailles Alger County Statewide Militia* Three Percenters- Constitution Party (U.S. Central Minnesota Statewide III%ers, The Taxpayers Party of Tea Party Three Percenters- Cole County Michigan) Central Minnesota III%ers, The We the People Grand Rapids Constitution Party Petal Cedar Hill Delta 5 Mobile Light of Minnesota Three Percenters Club* High Ridge Infantry Militia* Redwood Falls Jackson William Lewis Films Calhoun County Eagle Forum We the People Columbia Eaton County St. Paul Oxford MONTANA (11) Eagle Forum Genesis Communication Perkinston Eagle Forum Birmingham Network MISSOURI (41) Billings Heartland USA, The Eagan 2nd Amendment Get Out Of Our House Crystal Falls Oath Keepers Patches.com (GOOOH) Jack Van Impe Ministries Aitkin Halltown Missoula International Hennepin County Constitution Party John Birch Society Troy Three Percenters- of Missouri Great Falls Liberty Tree Radio III%ers, The Piedmont Liberty Defense League Dexter Crow Wing County Eagle Forum Kalispell Lost Horizons Three Percenters Club* Statewide Lincoln County Watch Commerce Township Saint Paul Get Out Of Our House Bozeman Michigan Downriver We Are Change (GOOOH) Oath Keepers Volunteer Militia* Cedar Falls Statewide Helena Wayne County We the People Heal Our Land Ministries Kalispell Oath Keepers Duluth Branson Townsend Jackson MISSISSIPPI (27) John Birch Society Stand Up America U.S. Marquette County Citizens Militia of St. Louis Bigfork Orion Charter Township Mississippi* Missouri Citizen Militia* Three Percenters- Southeast Michigan Batesville Adair County III%ers, The Volunteer Militia* Calhoun County Cooper County Fergus County Genesee County DeSoto County Crawford County We the People Livingston County Forrest County Daviess County Billings Monroe County Hancock County Greene County NEBRASKA (5) Southwest Michigan Harrison County Johnson County III% United Patriots* Volunteer Militia* Itawamba County Oregon County Comstock Ingham County Webster County Ste. Genevieve County American Patriot Party Lapeer County Constitution Party of Texas County Statewide Shiawassee County Mississippi Warren County Eagle Forum Three Percenters- Seminary Washington County Bancroft III%ers, The Eagle Forum Wayne County Oath Keepers Isabella County Jackson Missouri Militia* Omaha Three Percenters Club* Get Out Of Our House Cameron Three Percenters- Lansing (GOOOH) Cape Girardeau III%ers, The We Are Change Statewide Columbia Custer County Detroit Mississippi Militia* El Dorado Springs NEVADA (20) Grand Rapids Southaven Houston Constitution Party West Central Michigan Mississippi Preparedness Joplin (Independent American Volunteer Militia* Project* Kansas City Party)

spring 2016 59 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

Carson City John Birch Society New York Cape Carteret Get Out Of Our House Cranford Buffalo Get Out Of Our House (GOOOH) Flemington Get Out Of Our House (GOOOH) Statewide Hainesport (GOOOH) Statewide Eagle Forum Holmdel Statewide NCRenegade Elko Mantua Township John Birch Society Raleigh Nevada Light Foot Militia* Mercer County Nassau County NORTH-CAROLINA Churchill County Ringwood New York American Republic Douglas County Oath Keepers New York Mutual Charlotte Elko County Cape May Assistance Group* Gaston County Eureka County Manville Suffolk County Haywood County Humboldt County Morristown Oath Keepers Lincoln County Lander County Newton Elmira Rowan County Lyon County Southampton Township Erie County Rutherford County Pershing County Statewide Franklin County Yadkin County Storey County R.V. Bey Publications Fulton County Oath Keepers Washoe County Pleasantville Herkimer Faith White Pine County Three Percenters- Livingston County Mount Gilead Oath Keepers III%ers, The Madison County Statewide Las Vegas Monmouth County Malone Stokes County Militia* Save Our Sheriff tomatobubble.com Marion County Pinnacle Las Vegas Saddle Brook Nassau County Three Percenters- Southern Nevada Militia* We the People New York County III%ers, The Clark County Monmouth Ontario County Wake County Three Percenters- Ocean Township Orange County We the People III%ers, The NEW MEXICO (17) Otsego County Winston-Salem Statewide Christian American Rochester NORTH DAKOTA (4) We Are Change Patriots Militia* Schenectady County Eagle Forum Henderson Bernalillo County Staten Island Bismarck Las Vegas Constitution Party of Statewide Get Out Of Our House NEW HAMPSHIRE (9) New Mexico Swan Lake (GOOOH) American Patriot Party Los Lunas Thornwood Statewide Statewide Eagle Forum Warren County Oath Keepers Constitution Party of Alamogordo Sovereign News, The Fargo New Hampshire Get Out Of Our House Old Chelsea Station Three Percenters- Auburn (GOOOH) Three Percenters- III%ers, The Eagle Forum Statewide III%ers, The Sheridan County Merrimack New Mexico Citizen’s Herkimer County OHIO (52) Get Out Of Our House Militia* We the People American Patriot Party (GOOOH) Chaves County Albany Statewide Statewide Doña Ana County Binghamton Constitution Party John Birch Society Grant County Cooperstown Eaton Conway Otero County Lake Luzerne Eagle Forum Oath Keepers Sandoval County Lewis Uniontown Alstead San Juan County Middletown Get Out Of Our House Three Percenters- Southern New Mexico New Baltimore (GOOOH) III%ers, The Militia* Pleasant Valley Statewide Belknap County Doña Ana County Syracuse John Birch Society We Are Change Eddy County Queensbury Columbus Manchester Grant County Watertown Delaware What Really Happened Lea County NORTH CAROLINA (20) Oath Keepers Concord Three Percenters- American Patriot Party Akron NEW JERSEY (21) III%ers, The Statewide Columbus Constitution Party Torrance County America’s Remedy Dayton New Jersey We the People Charlotte Marietta Palmyra Albuquerque Constitution Party of Statewide Eagle Forum Los Lunas North Carolina Toledo Bergenfield NEW YORK (40) Charlotte Ohio Defense Force Get Out Of Our House American Patriot Party Eagle Forum Home Guard* (GOOOH) Statewide Statewide Northeast Statewide Constitution Party of Free North Carolina Northwest

60 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

Southeast Outlaw Militia* Allentown New Kensington Southwest Creek County Armstrong WING TV Zanesville Overpasses for America Berks County State College Ohio Minutemen Militia* Tecumseh Bucks County RHODE ISLAND (12) Adams County Three Percenters- Cambria County American Patriot Party Ashtabula County III%ers, The Carlisle Statewide Athens County Pottawatomie County Chester Oath Keepers Auglaize County We the People Clinton County North Kingstown Belmont County Tulsa Crawford County Smithfield Clark County OREGON (18) Girard Statewide Clinton American Patriot Party Greensburg Rhode Island Citizen Militia* Coshocton County Ashland Huntingdon County East Providence Defiance County Statewide Hyndman Middletown Franklin County Eagle Forum Jim Thorpe North Smithfield Gallia County Portland Lackawanna County Richmond Geauga County Embassy of Heaven Lake Ariel Statewide Hamilton Stayton Lancaster County West Warwick Hardin County Get Out Of Our House Lebanon County Three Percenters- Jefferson County (GOOOH) Luzerne County III%ers, The Licking County Statewide Lycoming County Statewide Lorain County McCutcheons Ink. Mifflin County We Are Change Lucas Central Point Millersburg Providence Morrow County News With Views Monroe County SOUTH CAROLINA (14) Perry County Merlin Montgomery Christian Exodus Pike County Oath Keepers New Brighton Fort Mill Preble County Douglas County Northampton Constitution Party of Putnam County Josephine County Perry County South Carolina Richland County Portland Pike County Taylors Sandusky Redmond Pittsburgh Eagle Forum Stark County Oregon Light Foot Militia* Punxsutawney Columbia Statewide Josephine County Reading Get Out Of Our House Union County Oregon Militia Alliance* Schuylkill County (GOOOH) Washington County Bend Somerset County Statewide Wyandot County Three Percenters- Statewide Oath Keepers Silver Shield Xchange III%ers, The Sugar Grove Charleston Cleveland Crook County Susquehanna County Outlaw Militia* Sons of Liberty Academy Three Percenters Club* Tioga County Horry County Cleveland Bend Union County South Carolina Light Three Percenters- Voice of Freedom, The Uniontown Foot Militia* III%ers, The Klamath Falls Washington County Horry County Knox County We the People Pennsylvania American Southeast Constitutional Three Percenters Club* Grants Pass Patriot Radio Militia* Columbus Junction City Crawford County Statewide We the People PENNSYLVANIA (60) Pennsylvania Light Three Percenters- Lebanon Alt Market Foot Militia* III%ers, The OKLAHOMA (10) Pittsburgh Cumberland County Sumter County American Patriot Party American Patriot Party Jefferson County (2) Three Percenters Club* Statewide Statewide Lackawanna County Columbia Constitution Party Constitution Party Three Percenters- We Are Change of Oklahoma of Pennsylvania III%ers, The Columbia Chandler Osceola Northumberland County Myrtle Beach Eagle Forum Eagle Forum Three Percenters Club* We the People Oklahoma City Pittsburgh State College Fort Mill Oath Keepers West Chester Unsolicited Opinion with Rock Hill Oklahoma City Get Out Of Our House Maggie, The SOUTH DAKOTA (6) Oklahoma Defense Force* (GOOOH) Norristown Constitution Party of Inola Statewide Western PA Liberty Forum South Dakota OK SAFE, Inc. (Oklahomans Liberty Dollar Grove City Sioux Falls for Sovereignty and Free of Chambersburg We the People Eagle Forum Enterprise) Marion Delaware County Pierre Tulsa Oath Keepers Greensburg Get Out Of Our House

spring 2016 61 THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

(GOOOH) Church of God Evangelistic San Antonio Herndon Statewide Association We Are Change Eagle Forum Oath Keepers Waxahachie Dallas Statewide Sioux Falls Constitution Party of Texas El Paso Get Out Of Our House Three Percenters- Princeton Fort Worth (GOOOH) III%ers, The Dallas City Troop (DCT)* Houston Statewide Stanley County Carrollton Lubbock GrassTopsUSA Inc. Three Percenters Club* Eagle Forum Waco Lorton Kennebec Anderson We the People TENNESSEE (18) Freedom School Austin Springfield Black Robe Regiment Austin Conroe IRS Zoom Springfield Get Out Of Our House Dallas Arlington Christian Exodus (GOOOH) Denton Oath Keepers Savannah Liberty Hill Grapevine Accomac Eagle Forum Golden Triangle Militia* Guyton Alleghany County Nashville Orange Hideaway Bedford County East Tennessee Mountain Groups Against Agenda 21 Point Botetourt County Militia* Sulphur Springs Tyler Charlottesville Knoxville Infowars.com UTAH (9) Chesterfield Get Out Of Our House Austin American Patriot Party Craig County (GOOOH) John Birch Society Statewide Culpeper Statewide Houston Constitution Party of Utah Forest Lawful Path Temple Bountiful Franklin County Lynnville Oath Keepers Eagle Forum Fredericksburg Oath Keepers Dallas South Jordan Goochland Knoxville Houston Liberty RoundTable Hampton Outlaw Militia* Operation Patriot Highland Madison Davidson County Rally Point* Oath Keepers Mechanicsville Salt and Light Institute Tarrant County Salt Lake City Mecklenburg County Nashville Outlaw Militia* Three Percenters- Middlesex County Southeast Constitutional Hamilton County III%ers, The Montgomery County Militia* Republic Broadcasting Sevier County Norfolk Statewide Round Rock Three Percenters Club* Orange Three Percenters- Republic of Texas Gunnison Prince William County III%ers, The Bastrop County Utah Light Foot Militia* Roanoke Smith County Radio Tooele County Scottsville Three Percenters Club* Austin We the People Staunton Nashville Silver Bear Café Ogden Vinton United States Patriots Garland VERMONT (6) Winchester Union, The Texas Eagle Forum Eagle Forum Outlaw Militia* Hermitage Dallas Burlington Albemarle County Veteran Defenders Texas Lightfoot Militia* John Birch Society Rappahannock Guard* of America Cherokee County Statewide Fredericksburg Dickson Smith County Oath Keepers TAX-FREEDOM.com We the People Texas Militia, The* Randolph Arlington Etowah Conroe Three Percenters- Three Percenters- Fayetteville Corpus Christi III%ers, The III%ers, The Maryville Dallas Orange County Buckingham County Nashville Huntington We Are Change We Are Change TEXAS (54) Lubbock South Burlington Blacksburg Adask’s Law Midland We the People We the People Statewide Williston Fredericksburg American Open Currency Victory County VIRGINIA (41) WASHINGTON (34) Standard, The Waco American Patriot Party American Patriot Party Frisco Three Percenters- Statewide Statewide American Patriot Party III%ers, The American Policy Center Church of Sovereigns: Statewide Comanche County Remington Sacred Family Temple Anti-Shyster Magazine Three Percenters Club* Constitution Party of the Living Saint Utopia Austin of Virginia Satsop Brave New Books TURF - Texans Uniting Vienna Citizen Review Online Austin for Reform and Freedom Declaration Alliance Sequim

62 splc intelligence report THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM

ANTIGOVERNMENT 'PATRIOT' ORGANIZATIONS IN PERCENTAGES

26 24 22 23 28 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 74 76 78 77 72

TOTAL 1274 TOTAL 1360 TOTAL 1096 TOTAL 874 TOTAL 998

MILITIA GROUPS OTHER PATRIOT GROUPS

The number of “Patriot” antigovernment groups has fluctuated wildly in the last two decades, peaking in 2012 with 1,360 groups. But the percentage of the count that consists of militias, meaning groups that actively engage in military-style training, has diminished over the years. This may be the result of several criminal conspiracies involving militias in recent years that led to the demise of some of them.

Constitution Party Southeast Washington Constitution Party Natural News of Washington Southwest Washington of Wisconsin Cody Spokane Valley Three Percenters- Milwaukee Oath Keepers DTM Enterprises III%ers, The Eagle Forum Cody Ephrata Pierce County Milwaukee Three Percenters- Get Out Of Our House Three Percenters Club* John Birch Society III%ers, The (GOOOH) Yakima Appleton Fremont County Statewide We Are Change John Birch Society Shop Three Percenters Club* John Birch Society Spokane Appleton Casper Lynden We the People Oath Keepers We the People National Association of Bellevue Port Washington Casper s Rural Landowners (NARLO) Camas Three Percenters- Fall City McKenna III%ers, The Issaquah Olalla Marathon County Oath Keepers Onalaska Three Percenters Club* Colville Prosser Wausau Sovereign-Citizenship.net WEST VIRGINIA (4) We Are Change Satsop Constitution Party of Marinette Sovereign Project, The West Virginia Milwaukee Clark County Martinsburg We the People Stevens County Assembly Oath Keepers Janesville Chewelah Statewide Madison Washington Lightfoot Three Percenters- Peshtigo Militia* III%ers, The Wisconsin Light Benton County Statewide Foot Militia* Clark County Three Percenters Club* Wood County Cowlitz County Sutton WYOMING (8) Grant County WISCONSIN (16) American Patriot Party Skamania County :David-Wynn: Miller Statewide Spokane County Milwaukee Constitution Party Yakima County American Opinion of Wyoming Washington State Militia* Foundation, Inc. Torrington Central Washington Appleton Get Out Of Our House Northeast Washington American Patriot Party (GOOOH) Northwest Washington Statewide Statewide

spring 2016 63 LIFE AFTER HATE Staffed by former racists, an ‘exit’ program aimed at disillusioned white supremacist radicals in the U.S. is picking up steam

There is a life after hate. And there are people who know the road there. The first of what have become known as “exit” programs developed in the 1990s in Sweden, based in part on the ideas of Tore Bjørgo, a social anthropologist interested in helping racist activists abandon white supremacy. The Swedish program also found ideas in a pre-existing Norwegian program, Project Exit: Leaving Violent Youth Gangs, not specifically tailored to people on the radical right, according to the London-based Institute of Race Relations (IRR). In 1998, the idea was exported to Germany, which like the Scandinavian nations had experi- enced a dramatic upsurge in neo-Nazi activity in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet bloc early in the decade. In the years since, similar programs have appeared in and . In 2011, an international network called Against with complementary aims was inaugurated by Google Ideas, and in 2013, 26 organizations from 14 members of the European Union formed the Europe Network of Deradicalisation, the IRR reported. Last year, a major gathering was held in the to explore the possibility of building an exit program in that country, the IRR said. And also in 2014, the European Commission recommended that all European Union members set up programs of their own, aimed at transforming radicalized individuals. Now, a Chicago-based group called Life After Hate is starting an American program. The group’s recently inaugurated ExitUSA program (www.exitusa.org) is mainly staffed, like most exit programs around the world, by former racist activists. “At ExitUSA,” the group says, “we are dedicated to helping individuals leave the white-power movement and start building a new life, just like we did.” Some of the older exit programs have come under occasional criticism for ignoring the social basis for racism, for glorifying former extremists as newly minted “experts,” for fail- ing to root out participants’ ingrained racism and anti-Semitism, and for being used by state security apparatuses. But there seems to be little question that in at least some cases, they have done important work. To better understand the significance of exit programs and in particular the work of ExitUSA, the Intelligence Report talked to five people. Three of them — Christian Picciolini, Tony McAleer and Angela King — are former white-power activists and principals of Life After Hate. Two others — Pete Simi of the University of Nebraska and Kathleen Blee of the University of Pittsburgh — are academics who have investigated the radical right. Both Simi and Blee were funded by the National Institute of Justice for an ongoing study, “Research and Evaluation on Domestic Radicalization to Violent Extremism: Research to Support Exit USA.”

64 splc intelligence report CHRISTIAN PICCIOLINI ANTONY McALEER LIFE AFTER HATE, CO-FOUNDER AND BOARD CHAIR LIFE AFTER HATE, PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Tell us about the beginnings of Life How does understanding that reality As a former racist, please describe the After Hate. lead to a successful “intervention” to get process of leaving the movement. Life After Hate initially started as a someone out of an extremist movement? It breaks down into two components of literary magazine for us to basically It’s about changing their perspective the journey. And that is disengagement publish short stories about our lives. just a little bit. Because often when you and deradicalization. What the research It was a blog, essentially. We quickly change their perspective just a little bit, shows is that the number one issue for started to realize that people from all it allows them to see the cracks in the someone entering an extremist group is around the country and all around the foundation of the ideology that they childhood trauma. That information is world had similar stories they wanted believe in. I don’t force it. I let them useless from a preventative standpoint, to share about the mindset of some- come to the conclusion on their own. At but from an understanding of why peo- one who goes from a relatively normal least that’s the goal. ple get into those movements, I think kid to somebody who is politicized I approach every one of these cases it’s crucial. and brought into this violent extrem- differently. I do my homework. I try ism subculture. to build a rapport and I try to listen, How so? mostly, and I offer opportunities and From my own personal journey, I grew In the time you’ve spent helping people solutions that will take them out of the up in a middle-class family. I was a bright, leave the movement, are there some lifestyle into a better place, because you sensitive kid in a house where it wasn’t overarching truths you’ve been able talk to just about anybody in the move- safe to be sensitive, where emotions were to discern? ment and they’re miserable. They’re treated as weakness and shamed and rid- Happy people don’t plant bombs, and miserable with their status, they’re iculed. I was beaten at Catholic school happy people don’t behead people, miserable with everything, and they and shut down even further. I came into and happy people don’t paint swasti- can never figure out why. It’s because this world as a very bright, curious kid kas on synagogues. It’s just not the case. of their ideologies, it’s because it can and became a very angry kid with what Disenfranchised, lonely, self-loathing never get better. was happening to me. people do that. There is something miss- I never dealt with the stuff that made ing from their life, something that they me angry and it made the choice to join didn’t get, whether it was as a child or the movement make sense. I went from maybe they were abused or maybe they the skinhead scene to the polar opposite, came from a broken home or something the rave scene. But I never dealt with was missing. Even for me, who came the stuff that got me there. I disengaged from a relatively normal household, from the movement, but I was still an there was something missing. angry person.

INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED BY RYAN LENZ // ILLUSTRATION BY BRETT AFFRUNTI spring 2016 65 So for you, anger was very much a After Oklahoma City, I decided I didn’t finding the human being in myself again, driving force? want to be responsible for that kind of the fallacies, the stereotypes, those white I believe that unresolved anger always destruction. But at the time, I was still lies that are told by the far right, it started expresses itself as violence. And because at a point in my life where I very much to kind of just crumble away on its own. of that, I chose a youth subculture, I needed to belong somewhere. And as we chose a music scene, and ultimately I know from experience, being involved in Are those types of transformative chose a radical ideology that gave me far-right extremism isn’t something that experiences critical in getting permission to justify my anger. leaves someone free to wake up one day someone to leave the movement? And and say, “See you later. I changed my what are they? What led you to finally leave? mind. Have a nice life.” A transformative experience can be any- My daughter. The interesting thing about The turning point came for me when thing. It doesn’t have to be a large-scale young children is it’s safe to love them, I was doing time in a federal prison for event. It could be something as simple as it’s safe to open up, it’s safe to allow your- my part in an armed robbery that was a witnessing an act of kindness. Having a self to feel again with them, because hate crime. family, starting to grow up a little bit and they’re not going to shame you, they’re take responsibility and do some critical not going to ridicule you, they’re not How so? thinking about what we see around us. going to reject you. That started a pro- When I was first incarcerated, I went in Even the smallest thing could be cess of thawing and opening up the heart. with the mentality that I was not respon- enough to plant a seed in a person’s mind sible. I just sat in the car [during the rob- that may not sprout that day. It may not ANGELA KING bery]. But I very much thought I was going sprout in a week or even a month, but at LIFE AFTER HATE, DEPUTY DIRECTOR to be in there fighting for my life every some point that experience, that thought, minute, with my back against the wall. is going to come up and that person is Do you think having personal experi- The most ironic thing happened in willing to think about it. ence in the movement has helped you there. Women of color, women who better understand how to help people I never would have met, who I never KATHLEEN BLEE disengage from hateful ideologies? would have shown any type of respect UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, DISTINGUISHED I think so. We are uniquely positioned or human kindness toward, showed me PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY to draw from our experiences, being kindness and compassion even knowing “formers” ourselves. We are able to that I was a skinhead and serving time Why do you think programs like look back in retrospect at the cata- for a hate crime. ExitUSA are important? lyst that drove us into the far right, Up until that point in my life, I dealt They’re important because leaving a rac- whether that be specific experiences or with everything pretty much with anger, ist group is a process. It’s a process that a shared misunderstanding. aggression and violence. And to be shown requires people to rebuild their iden- kindness, it completely disarmed me. I tity, rebuild their social network, often Was there also a catalyst for your had no idea how to react to that. Once I rebuild their economic livelihood. leaving the movement? started to kind of re-form the bonds of For all those things, people need a There was, actually: Timothy McVeigh. human connection and started actually great deal of support. If people are going

66 splc intelligence report to successfully leave racist groups, they PETE SIMI But it is possible? need people they can turn to for advice, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR Yes. The movement’s not really fulfilling people who have been through the same OF SOCIOLOGY their needs the way that they thought. process, people who can help them build They had these expectations going in, a new set of friends and a new set of sup- Do exit programs work? and then their expectations really aren’t porters outside of that racist world. As a social scientist, that’s a very sensitive being met. It’s a learning curve, really. question and one that should be taken At some point you get to where you So the process is a long one? very seriously. When we talk about the realize, “Oh, wait a second, now I’m kind People are not in the group one day and “effectiveness” of exit programs in com- of banging my head against the wall. out of the group another day. Leaving a mon conversation, we use that word far I was hoping that I was going to have racist group is like leaving any kind of a too loosely. this brotherhood, and there was going world that people are in. It can be a real I mean, we still use Scared Straight to be excitement and all these things. I back-and-forth process. People can start programs in our juvenile justice system. was going to be fighting for this cause.” to leave, go back, pull out again, go back You walk into any [juvenile justice] pro- Then, at some point in time, they real- and forth for a long time. gram anywhere in the country and there’s ize they’re going to wind up dead or in Also, people have to exit on many bound to be some project, some pro- prison. Enough of those things pile up levels. They have to exit in the sense of gram, that is based on the logic of Scared and they’re like, “This doesn’t make breaking their ties with people, chang- Straight despite decades and moun- much sense to continue.” ing who they’re hanging around with. tains of evidence that shows that Scared They exit in terms of leaving the lifestyle, Straight programs don’t work and actu- So what’s your conclusion about maybe the criminal actions or the violent ally might even be counterproductive. exit programs? actions they were associated with. And Effectiveness is a tricky thing. Everything always has to be considered they exit in terms of changing their ideas. part of a larger toolbox. There’s never But is there something to experiencing any program that’s ever going to be your How do individual departures affect the transformative moments? catchall. But I think it is an important overall white power movement? We have to be careful about assuming tool in the toolbox. We just don’t know We have to go after the groups by attack- that people, after the fact, when they which way to exactly formulate the tool. ing them at their base and their leader- look back, are identifying these critical I think having programs that try and ship. One of the things that exiting does moments. Interviewing people who have address these issues is critical, but we is it shows people who are currently left not through a program but usually have to figure out how to best do that.▲ in the group that the group has weak- though some naturally occurring set of nesses. One of the reasons these groups events, I find that it seems like it’s a very hold together is because there’s a sense gradual process. They’re experiencing of invincibility. It’s an us-against-them doubts at various points along the way. mentality. Watching people exit can be a They have a lot of personal dissatisfac- really powerful message both to poten- tion with the things that are happening tial recruits and to people in the groups. while they are involved.

spring 2016 67 68 splc intelligence report HATE INCIDENTS IN THE U.S.

For the Record AUGUST —DECEMBER 2015 incidents of apparent hate crimes and hate group activities listed here are drawn primarily from media sources. These incidents include only a fraction of the almost 260,000 reported and unreported hate crimes that a 2012 Bureau of Justice Statistics report estimated occur annually. This listing carries a selection of incidents between August and December of 2015. Any additional listings can be found on the Intelligence Project’s website. SPLCENTER.ORG/GET-INFORMED/HATE-INCIDENTS

ALABAMA found by authorities to have the glass of a door at the Omaha charged with using racial slurs, Cullman County · Dec. 5, 2015 intentionally selected the Islamic Islamic Center. assaulting a man with a stick and Klan fliers were distributed Center of Palm Beach for an attack. NEW JERSEY pulling a gun on him. across the county in an attempt GEORGIA Lyndhurst · Oct. 22, 2015 Lancaster · Nov. 30, 2015 to recruit members to work Villa Rica · Nov. 24, 2015 Fliers advising recipients to A black Franklin & Marshall against the spread of Islam. Ku Klux Klan recruitment fliers join the Ku Klux Klan were College student received ARKANSAS were distributed in driveways. distributed in neighborhoods. racist phone messages and his Jonesboro · Dec. 12, 2015 IDAHO NEW YORK apartment was ransacked. The Fliers depicting and Twin Falls · Dec. 5, 2015 Albany · Dec. 17, 2015 incidents are being investigated other Nazi imagery were placed in The words “Hunt Camp” were Eric Feight, 57, pleaded guilty for as potential hate crimes. mailboxes. They also denounced spray-painted on plywood his role in a 2014 plot to use an Pittsburgh · Nov. 30, 2015 the mayor and a member of the covering the windows of the ‘X-ray machine’ to kill Muslims. A man shot a 38-year-old taxi Jonesboro police force. Twin Falls Islamic Center. He was sentenced to eight years. driver from Morocco in the CALIFORNIA The term is thought to refer to Brooklyn · Nov. 20, 2015 upper back because he assumed the man was involved with the Buena Park · Dec. 14, 2015 Japanese internment camps A postal worker spit on two terrorist group Islamic State. A Sikh temple was vandalized. created during WWII. Muslim women walking with San Bernardino · Dec. 2, 2015 ILLINOIS a child. RHODE ISLAND Two Islamic extremists, Syed Willowbrook · Dec. 16, 2015 New York · Dec. 6, 2015 Providence · Oct. 15, 2015 Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen A 17-year-old pleaded guilty to A teen knocked over and Anti-Semitic and racist fliers, Malik, killed 14 people and punching 53-year-old Inderjit smashed a menorah in a park along with 15 small packets of an injured 21 after opening fire Mukker, whom the teenager near Gracie Mansion on the first unknown substance, were left in at the Inland Regional Center believed was Muslim. night of Hanukkah. Shortly after a neighborhood. during a Christmas party for the KENTUCKY the menorah was put back up, SOUTH CAROLINA health department. Lexington · Dec. 1, 2015 the teen returned to the park and Walterboro · Oct. 24, 2015 Tracy · Dec. 29, 2015 The Islamic Center of Lexington destroyed it again. Ku Klux Klan fliers were left in A Molotov cocktail involving received a phone threat. Patchogue · Dec. 26, 2015 driveways and mailboxes. a wine bottle containing a rag MINNESOTA Racist leaflets were placed on TEXAS cars parked at Brookhaven and accelerant was thrown at Minneapolis · Nov. 24, 2015 Plano · Dec. 7, 2015 Memorial Hospital. a mosque. Four men espousing white A Muslim family had large rocks COLORADO supremacist ideology were NORTH CAROLINA thrown into their windows Colorado Springs · Nov. 27, 2015 arrested for shooting five members Granite Quarry · Dec. 23, 2015 twice, shortly after moving into a Robert Lewis Dear, 57, opened of a Black Lives Matter protest. The East Coast Knights of the new neighborhood. fire in a Planned Parenthood MISSOURI True Invisible Empire placed UTAH fliers in multiple locations. building, killing three people. Blue Springs · Nov. 12, 2015 Salt Lake City · Dec. 14, 2015 Marshall County · Dec. 18, 2015 INDIANA Connor B. Stottlemyre, 19, Two businesses owned by The Loyal White Knights of the Bloomington · Oct. 19, 2015 a Northwest Missouri State Middle Easterners were spray- Ku Klux Klan distributed fliers Ticeten Bickford, 19, was arrested University freshman, was painted with slurs. tucked into small plastic bags. for assaulting a Muslim woman. charged with two counts of VERMONT Bickford attacked the 47-year- making a terrorist threat. He OHIO Burlington · Oct. 31, 2015 old woman and attempted to threatened on social media to Eaton · Dec. 1, 2015 Ku Klux Klan posters were pull off her headscarf, restricting shoot black students. Ku Klux Klan fliers were placed on doors. her . St. Louis · Nov. 12, 2015 distributed at homes. Burlington · Oct. 31, 2015 Henry County · Oct. 1, 2015 Tyler Bradenberg, 19, was charged OREGON Two men, Cameron Cappella, Ku Klux Klan fliers in gravel- with a felony count of making Portland · Nov. 20 2015 18, and Derrik Demone, 18, filled plastic bags were terrorist threats aimed specifically A student from Rwanda at Lewis were charged with vandalizing distributed in several driveways. toward African Americans at the & Clark College was assaulted a mosque. FLORIDA Missouri University of Science on campus by three white men WASHINGTON Jacksonville · Nov. 23, 2015 and Technology. yelling racial slurs. He was hit, Bellingham · Nov. 30, 2015 Ku Klux Klan fliers with anti- NEBRASKA held down and forced to swallow A 19-year-old student at Western LGBT and anti-immigrant Omaha · Oct. 29, 2015 an unknown liquid. Washington University was messages were distributed. A security camera recorded PENNSYLVANIA arrested and jailed on suspicion Palm Beach · Dec. 4, 2015 an image of a masked man Allentown · Oct. 22, 2015 of felony malicious harassment Joshua Warren Killets, 27, was unsuccessfully trying to break Samuel Negron Jr., 46, was involving racist threats. ▲

68 splc intelligence report THE LAST WORD

The Oregon Standoff … After Dark Social media explodes with ‘erotic fan fiction’ lampooning the Bundys, their militia supporters and the standoff in Burns BY RYAN LENZ

In what quickly became a wildly enter- The men inside the wildlife center talking about the packages the men have taining trend, social media users in near Burns, Ore. — who would have much received. In it, he looks none too happy. January began micro-blogging the stand- preferred discussing the Constitution “It was really mind-blowing that off at Oregon’s Malheur Wildlife Refuge and the tyranny of the federal govern- people would … spend and waste their with homoerotic vignettes about the ment — were reduced to opening pack- money of [sic] all this hateful stuff to send macho occupiers and their armed antics. age after package of what turned out to out here to us,” he says, standing in front On Twitter, the hashtag be sex toys. One person even sent a “bag of a table laden with the offending gifts. #BundyEroticFanFic invited users from of dicks” — gummy candies molded into “Rather than going out and doing good, around the world to mock and malign the suggestive shapes. But then, seeking and they spend all their money on hate, and antigovernment “Patriots” who began an surely succeeding in an attempt to outdo hate, and hate, and hate.” armed standoff on Jan. 2 to protest the everyone, Max Temkin, co-founder of The pious anger Ritzheimer displays prison sentences of two local ranchers Cards Against Humanity, sent along toward “hate” is rich. This is a man and demand that federal lands be handed a 55-gallon drum of “Passion Natural who regularly wears T-shirts embla- over to the county. By all accounts, the Water-Based Lubricant,” priced at $1,175. zoned with “Fuck Islam” as he strolls in trend began shortly after the remote front of mosques. He once announced birding refuge was taken over, when plans to “arrest” Sen. Debbie Stabenow Colin Meloy, frontman of the Portland, (D-Mich.) for treason because she sup- Ore.-based indie band, The Decembrists, ported the Iran nuclear deal. The FBI took to Twitter. warned local officials after he posted “Jason pressed Jed against a rack of a YouTube video of himself holding a ‘Birds of Oregon’ books; his breath was firearm and threatening the staff ofThe sweet with jerky,” Meloy tweeted on Islamic Post, which had described him as Jan. 5. “Somewhere an egret cried.” “an American Taliban.” The next day, the wave was born. The mockery seems unlikely to end, Twitter user @asutherl3905 wrote: The Oregon standoff, which was still given the rich material the standoff par- “Ammon put his arm around Jed. ongoing at press time, is a serious busi- ticipants keep producing. Their armed ‘It’s OK. We’re all minute men some- ness. A group of perhaps two dozen men camp has been marked by fistfights, scares times.’” A few hours later, @Rtheny has illegally seized the refuge and they over supposedly imminent raids, the rev- chimed in with, “Zek had fired some have knocked down fences and done elation that one big-time combat veteran big guns before, but this would be his other property damage. But federal and in their midst had never seen fighting at first true magnum.” Hundreds of other local law enforcement officials have been all, and even an arrest for auto theft. Twitter users joined in with savage blue wary of starting a confrontation, wanting In the end, the Bundy bunch — who humor aimed at emasculating the cow- to avoid bloodshed and seeing no imme- also have been ridiculed as “Y’All Qaeda” boy constitutionalists. diate danger in holding back. and “Vanilla ISIS” — will either decide to That kind of mockery of the occupa- That left the job, at least for the finally go home, or law enforcement offi- tion led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy — moment, to the American public. And if cials will find a way to address the crimes sons of the Nevada rancher who led a the goal was to annoy the lawbreakers, they have committed. Perhaps, in that successful 2014 standoff with federal law the public has done rather well. respect, Jon Ritzheimer, for once, has a enforcement officials — didn’t stop with Jon Ritzheimer, the former point worth considering. a few off-color jokes. When the pair sent Marine who once led an armed march “Enough talk,” Ritzheimer roars in out a nationwide call for supplies, asking outside a Phoenix mosque and who his video before violently sweeping box for coffee creamer and tampons, a whole filmed a tearful (and, he said, possibly upon box of dildos, racy gummy bears new world of possible ways to lampoon final) farewell to his family before head- and personal sex toys off the table in

AP IMAGES/RICK BOWMER AP IMAGES/RICK the protagonists revealed itself. ing to Oregon, posted a video of himself front of him. “Now it’s time for action.” ▲

spring 2016 69