Incensed by the election of the first black US president, right-wing militia groups in the United States are rising again after a decade of decline, said new research on extremist groups released Wednesday.Here is the intro to the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Ideologically driven by racism and a virulent anti-government, anti-immigrant agenda, the homegrown groups that thrived in the 1990s and spurred numerous deadly terrorist attacks are expanding, said the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
"This is the most significant growth we've seen in 10 to 12 years," said a law enforcement official quoted by the SPLC in its special report "The Second Wave: Return of the Militias."
"All it's lacking is a spark," said the official, adding it is "only a matter of time before you see threats and violence." Read more the at AFP
The 1990s saw the rise and fall of the virulently antigovernment "Patriot" movement, made up of paramilitary militias, tax defiers and so-called "sovereign citizens." Sparked by a combination of anger at the federal government and the deaths of political dissenters at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, the movement took off in the middle of the decade and continued to grow even after 168 people were left dead by the 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City's federal building — an attack, the deadliest ever by domestic U.S. terrorists, carried out by men steeped in the rhetoric and conspiracy theories of the militias. In the years that followed, a truly remarkable number of criminal plots came out of the movement. But by early this century, the Patriots had largely faded, weakened by systematic prosecutions, aversion to growing violence, and a new, highly conservative president.Oddly enough, ALIPAC, an anti immigration group, is calling for the resignation of the head of Homeland Security Janet Napalitano because of this report:
They're back. Almost a decade after largely disappearing from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven tax defiers and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers around the country. "Paper terrorism" — the use of property liens and citizens' "courts" to harass enemies — is on the rise. And once-popular militia conspiracy theories are making the rounds again, this time accompanied by nativist theories about secret Mexican plans to "reconquer" the American Southwest. One law enforcement agency has found 50 new militia training groups — one of them made up of present and former police officers and soldiers. Authorities around the country are reporting a worrying uptick in Patriot activities and propaganda. "This is the most significant growth we've seen in 10 to 12 years," says one. "All it's lacking is a spark. I think it's only a matter of time before you see threats and violence." Read more at SPL Center
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is joining the chorus of calls for the resignation or termination of Janet Napolitano due to the Department of Homeland Security's reliance on faulty information from discredited left wing political groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).It's getting weird out there. Our nation is changing and its people are more diverse and for some, that's a little too much to take. People fear that their "white culture" is being stripped away. We have a lot of educating to do.
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