The Klan In Rhode Island? SPLC Exaggerates Again

Mark Potok

The Southern Poverty Law Center has issued its latest screaming report: “Patriot” Groups, Militias Surge in Number in Past Year.

Unfortunately, the hype surrounding the SPLC report is just another indication that SPLC has lost its way and has become a primary source to smear anyone who is against the liberal dogma of big government.

As Robert Stacy McCain documents, the portion of the SPLC report dealing with “patriot militias” is both exaggerated in numbers (for example, if one group has 50 state branches, that counts as 50 groups in the report) and in scope (standard libertarian groups without any “militias” are included).

I pointed out last October the depths to which SPLC goes to smear political opponents, when SPLC falsely accused a black female law professor of being an “apologist for white supremacists.”

So it is not surprising that SPLC includes libertarians (whose positions on many issues resemble those of the far left) in the list of “patriot” groups. Nor is it surprising that SPLC, through some linguistic slights of hand, tries to smear the Tea Party movement:

The Patriot movement has made significant inroads into the conservative political scene, according to the new report. “The ‘tea parties’ and similar groups that have sprung up in recent months cannot fairly be considered extremist groups, but they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism,” the report says.

But there was one aspect of the report which really caught my eye. SPLC’s report lists Rhode Island as having three hate groups, but the SPLC “hate map” indicates only a single Ku Klux Klan chapter in Rhode Island.

Even that seemed strange to me, because in the 17 years I have lived in Rhode Island, I never had heard of the Klan being active in Rhode Island.

A Resource for Information on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Source:
The Klan In Rhode Island? SPLC Exaggerates Again
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