Klan growing, fed by anti-immigrant feelings

[almaty 19]

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Ku Klux Klan has rebounded by exploiting current hot-button issues, especially immigration, according to a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League.

The Klan, and other white supremacist groups like skinheads and neo-Nazis, grew significantly more active in the past year, holding more rallies, distributing leaflets and increasing their presence on the Internet -- much of it focused on stirring anti-immigrant sentiment, according to the report.

"Extremist groups are good at seizing on whatever the hot button is of the day and twisting the message to get new members," Deborah M. Lauter, ADL Civil Rights director, said Monday. "This one seems to be taking hold with more of mainstream America than we'd like to see." (Read the full ADL report)

"Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has, in turn, helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity," Lauter said.

Old Klan chapters have been revived and new ones started throughout the South, historically the heart of the group, and in other places such as Michigan, Iowa and New Jersey, says the report.

Last May in Alabama, an anti-immigration rally included slogans such as, "Let's get rid of the Mexicans!" according to the document, titled "Ku Klux Klan Rebounds."

"The Klan is increasingly cooperating with other extremist groups and Neo-Nazi groups," Lauter said. "That's a new phenomenon."

Between 2000 and 2005, hate groups mushroomed 33 percent and Klan chapters by 63 percent, according to Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes.

Precise data are difficult to pin down, but Potok's group counts as many as 150 Klan chapters with up to 8,000 members nationwide. More than 800 hate groups exist around the country, Southern Poverty research shows.

Hate groups were fading in 1990s

In the late 1990s, memberships in such groups was crumbling as they lost leaders and struggled to organize, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Many hit bottom around 2000.

"Whenever you think the Klan is down and out, they find another way to reinvent themselves," he said of the recent resurgence.

Historically, the Klan's focus had been to terrorize African-Americans -- through race riots, lynchings and other killings -- but it reached peak membership at more than 4 million in the 1920s by focusing on immigration.

Newcomers from Ireland and Germany were portrayed as Catholic usurpers invading the United States, taking jobs from native-born Americans and undermining national fabric, Levin said.

Said Potok: "It's remarkable to look back at the nativist sentiments toward Catholics -- it's very similar to what we're seeing with Mexicans now."

Today, many white supremacists blame immigrants, particularly Hispanics, for crime, struggling schools or unemployment, for instance. With many Americans already divided on how to revamp laws and practices to address the nation's swelling immigrant communities, immigration "is an issue that works for hate groups," Potok said.

A burning cross on the front lawn

Many Latinos are feeling the effects firsthand. Last September, a Kentucky family originally from El Salvador found a wooden cross burning on their front lawn just weeks after they moved in.

Earlier last year, a Latino teenager in Houston was brutally beaten and sodomized while one attacker screamed "White Power!" The victim barely survived, and one attacker was sentenced to life in prison.

"I've been doing [Hispanic advocacy work] for a long, long time and the atmosphere has never been as poisonous as it has been in the last few years," said Lisa Navarrete, a vice president at the National Council of La Raza. "The level of vitriol is new."

Increasingly, fear permeates many Hispanic communities as individuals and businesses are targeted. Last year, La Raza held a workshop at its annual convention titled "Keeping Our Institutions Safe."

"It was very well attended, unfortunately," Navarrete said.

[Jenn! 918]

Not at all surprising.

[eric&gen 0]

F@ck the KKK......

[eap620 0]

The world will forever be in need of love!!!!

It's so disturbing to watch such hatred and ignorance. I only hope that intelligence will eventually prevail and we will see a decrease in these hate groups.

[Heracles 417]

It is a bit of a joke that groups like that, who push hate, are allowed to exist. Nothing to do with freedom of speech but more to do with stubbornness and ignorance towards change. I think it's time Americans catch up with the rest of the developed world and clearly re-define the "anything-goes" first amendment. Yes the bill of rights was written 231 years ago to reflect "those" times. Time to get with the program and realize it is 2007 and not 1776. Racism and clownish groups like that should be illegal, period. Most developed and civilized nations draw the line somewhere..

Time to move to the 21 century..

Edited February 6, 2007 by Infidel

[DeadPoolX 9]

It is a bit of a joke that groups like that, who push hate, are allowed to exist. Nothing to do with freedom of speech but more to do with stubbornness and ignorance towards change. I think it's time Americans catch up with the rest of the developed world and clearly re-define the first amendment. Yes the bill of rights was written 231 years ago to reflect "those" times. Time to get with the program and realize it is 2007 and not 1776. Racism and clownish groups like that should be illegal..

Time to move to the 21 century..

In theory, I agree with you. However, when asked, the vast majority of Americans will say "NO WAY!" to changing the First Amendment. In practice, that amendment is virtually sacred to the American way of life -- good or bad.

So yeah, I'd like to see groups like this disbanded, but as it stands right now, they have the right to "peaceful assembly." If they get violent, on the other hand, then they can be arrested and charged with a crime. Until that happens, however, no one can really do anything about it. The best any one can do is just refuse to listen and do everything to oppose groups like the KKK, in a legal fashion.

[almaty 19]

It is a bit of a joke that groups like that, who push hate, are allowed to exist. Nothing to do with freedom of speech but more to do with stubbornness and ignorance towards change. I think it's time Americans catch up with the rest of the developed world and clearly re-define the "anything-goes" first amendment. Yes the bill of rights was written 231 years ago to reflect "those" times. Time to get with the program and realize it is 2007 and not 1776. Racism and clownish groups like that should be illegal, period. Most developed and civilized nations draw the line somewhere..

Time to move to the 21 century..

f##k me!.... i agree with you brother infidel...

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I had all white uniforms in the Navy. Tough to keep clean. That alone will keep me away from the KKK.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Fear and hatred are powerful galvinizers. I think the Hare Krishnas should merge with the KKK - soften them up a bit.

[GaryC 7]

It is a bit of a joke that groups like that, who push hate, are allowed to exist. Nothing to do with freedom of speech but more to do with stubbornness and ignorance towards change. I think it's time Americans catch up with the rest of the developed world and clearly re-define the "anything-goes" first amendment. Yes the bill of rights was written 231 years ago to reflect "those" times. Time to get with the program and realize it is 2007 and not 1776. Racism and clownish groups like that should be illegal, period. Most developed and civilized nations draw the line somewhere..

Time to move to the 21 century..

Wow! Changing the FIRST amendment. First let me say that any hate groups are chopf##ks and the USA would be better off if they all went away. But having said that I really doubt if changing the first amendment will ever happen. But what will probably happen will be a new "interpretation" of the first amendment by the supreme court. Just as they were able to find a right for an abortion in there (the constitution) they could find a way to shut down the KKK. It's already started. If a white kills a white it murder. If a white kills a black in addition to murder it could also be a "hate crime". So the thought police has it's roots started.

Edited February 6, 2007 by Iniibig ko si Luz forever

[Heracles 417]

It is a bit of a joke that groups like that, who push hate, are allowed to exist. Nothing to do with freedom of speech but more to do with stubbornness and ignorance towards change. I think it's time Americans catch up with the rest of the developed world and clearly re-define the "anything-goes" first amendment. Yes the bill of rights was written 231 years ago to reflect "those" times. Time to get with the program and realize it is 2007 and not 1776. Racism and clownish groups like that should be illegal, period. Most developed and civilized nations draw the line somewhere..

Time to move to the 21 century..

Wow! Changing the FIRST amendment. First let me say that any hate groups are chopf##ks and the USA would be better off if they all went away. But having said that I really doubt if changing the first amendment will ever happen. But what will probably happen will be a new "interpretation" of the first amendment by the supreme court. Just as they were able to find a right for an abortion in there (the constitution) they could find a way to shut down the KKK. It's already started. If a white kills a white it murder. If a white kills a black in addition to murder it could also be a "hate crime". So the thought police has it's roots started.

Yep. It just has to be reworded to draw clearly defined lines of what a person can or cannot say or do in society.. Personally I think if someone could go back in time and bring the founding fathers of this nation to 2007 so they can see the outcome of the bill of rights, I think they would most definitely not have written such an open-ended anything-goes style bill of rights. People just seem to take it out of context. I highly doubt the founders intended for it to support groups such as the KKK, Neo Nazis or for child molesters to have the right to discuss kiddy porn etc..

It seems to have caused and still be causing a lot of problems in this country. I too cannot for the life of me see it every changing though..

Edited February 6, 2007 by Infidel

[GaryC 7]

It is a bit of a joke that groups like that, who push hate, are allowed to exist. Nothing to do with freedom of speech but more to do with stubbornness and ignorance towards change. I think it's time Americans catch up with the rest of the developed world and clearly re-define the "anything-goes" first amendment. Yes the bill of rights was written 231 years ago to reflect "those" times. Time to get with the program and realize it is 2007 and not 1776. Racism and clownish groups like that should be illegal, period. Most developed and civilized nations draw the line somewhere..

Time to move to the 21 century..

Wow! Changing the FIRST amendment. First let me say that any hate groups are chopf##ks and the USA would be better off if they all went away. But having said that I really doubt if changing the first amendment will ever happen. But what will probably happen will be a new "interpretation" of the first amendment by the supreme court. Just as they were able to find a right for an abortion in there (the constitution) they could find a way to shut down the KKK. It's already started. If a white kills a white it murder. If a white kills a black in addition to murder it could also be a "hate crime". So the thought police has it's roots started.

Yep. It just has to be reworded to draw clearly defined lines of what a person can or cannot say or do in society.. Personally I think if someone could go back in time and bring the founding fathers of this nation to 2007 so they can see the outcome of the bill of rights, I think they would most definitely not have written such an open-ended anything-goes style bill of rights. People just seem to take it out of context. I highly doubt the founders intended for it to support groups such as the KKK, Neo Nazis or for child molesters to have the right to discuss kiddy porn etc..

It seems to have caused and still be causing a lot of problems in this country. I too cannot for the life of me see it every changing though..

I don't know. Messing around with the bill of rights. I just can't go for that regardless of the reason. A reinterpretation maybe but not changing it.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Wikipedia says the KKK had 3000 members in 2005. Nothing to see here people, move it along.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kkk

[DeadPoolX 9]

To be fair, that is Wikipedia. Anyone can write or edit it, so who knows just how accurate the information is in that Wiki article...

[peejay 327]

I never had any use for the KKK, but I don't quite buy into the notion that if someone disagrees with present immigration policy that they = KKK. When half of the immigration coming into the USA is illegal and most of both legal and illegal comes from one country (Mexico), that is retarded. Not to mention that it is the official policy of the Mexican government to dump its poor and unemployed on America's doorstep to deal with. Yes...I have plenty to say about that. The Mexican government and illegal aliens do not control US immigration policy, but there are enough apologists and enablers to give the impression that they, indeed, do. It needs to change.

Edited February 6, 2007 by peejay