The Alt-Right Has Killed Far More People Than You Likely Are Aware Of & Charlottesville: Race and Terror 7FEB18 & 14AUG17

TOO many Americans are unaware of the the real threat the alt-right presents to national security as well as to democracy and the existence of our Republic. This is not chicken little crying the sky is falling. Just consider the actions of neo-nazis, fascist, white supremacist hate groups and the like in Charlottesville, VA and the reaction of NOT MY pres drumpf/trump and his administration to the violence and the death of a counter protester, Heather Heyer.  This from AlterNet followed by the Vice News Tonight video 'Charlottesville: Race and Terror

The Alt-Right Has Killed Far More People Than You Likely Are Aware Of

By Kali Holloway / AlterNet

February 7, 2018, 12:01 PM GMT

Photo Credit: Michael Candelori / Shutterstock

LLast June, the Trump administration rescinded funds previously earmarked to counter right-wing extremism and white supremacist violence. Just two months later, 19 people were injured and protester Heather Heyer was killed by a neo-Nazi demonstrator in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. Though Charlottesville has become the most cited example of contemporary right-wing terror, it hardly offers a full picture of the threat posed by those Trump described as “very fine people.”

A new study from the Southern Poverty Law Center finds there have been more than “100 people killed or injured by alleged perpetrators influenced by the so-called ‘alt-right’—a movement that continues to access the mainstream and reach young recruits.” The SPLC report tracks the rise in alt-right related violence beginning in 2014, when 22-year-old Elliot Rodger murdered six people and injured 14 others in Isla Vista, California. Like many alt-right adherents, Rodger’s radicalization began in men’s rights forums, which helped stoke his racism, misogyny and self-loathing. The study identifies 13 killers who have collectively killed 43 people and injured 67 others. “While some certainly displayed signs of mental illness,” the media tendency to depict these violent right-wing extremists as troubled loners is conveniently misguided. The SPLC notes that the most conspicuous unifying background trait among these individuals is a “history of consuming and/or participating in the type of far-right ecosystem that defines the alt-right.”

A healthy number of those identified in the report are outspoken fans of Donald Trump, the report notes. Nicholas Giampa, who in December murdered his ex-girlfriend’s parents before killing himself, was an “enthusiastic supporter of then-candidate Donald Trump [who] often used racist slurs to attack Trump’s critics.” Charlottesville killer James Alex Fields’ social media pages were reportedly filled with Trump and Pepe memes. A Daily Beast report found Sean Urbanski, the alleged killer of U.S. Army Lieutenant Richard Collins III, “apparently liked memes about Donald Trump, white supremacy, and the alt-right.” Alexandre Bissonnette, the Quebec mosque murderer and the lone Canadian in the group, was reportedly an avid supporter of both Trump and Marine Le Pen. In July 2017, former Breitbart intern Lane Davis stabbed his father to death; a little over a year before, he wrote a rap ode to Trump he posted on YouTube. (Choice lyrics: “Finger on the trigger/Trump might use a nuke, boy/But he'd rather use a tariff/And that’s superb.”)

The alt-right’s visibility has grown alongside Trump’s political career, and the two appear inextricably linked. Nine of the attacks catalogued by the SPLC occurred in the shadow of the Trump presidency, leading the organization to cite 2017 as the most violent year of the alt-right’s existence thus far. Overall, the mean age of far-right killers is 26, with the youngest just 17. Members of the alt-right have been open about their efforts to appeal to young, impressionable minds. An Anti-Defamation League report released late last month noted that there has been a drastic increase in the amount of “white supremacist propaganda—flyers, stickers, banners, and posters—appearing on college and university campuses.” Racism and misogyny have also been allowed to grow unchecked online in spaces such as 4chan and Reddit, and more recently, “alt-tech” sites such as Gab and WASP.love (a racist dating site).  

Back in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security published a report on right-wing extremism that warned of increasing violence from militias, hate groups and other right-wing terrorists. Following pushback from GOP lawmakers who leaked the report, as well as their conservative reporters, the document was officially retracted by DHS and “the Extremism and Radicalization Branch was quietly dismantled,” according to the New York Times. Yet multiple recent studies have shown that white nationalists now pose a far greater terroristthreat to the U.S. than ISIL. The Trump administration’s sympathy for the alt-right and other white supremacists and its refusal to counter their terror, means these fanatics will likely only grow more dangerous. Daryl Johnson, the counterintelligence analyst pushed out of the DHS for his prescient report, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post just after the Charlottesville tragedy, again attempting to offer a warning.

“Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, militia extremists, and other radical right-wing zealots march side-by-side at pro-Trump rallies across the country,” Johnson wrote. “Trump’s endorsement of the border wall, the travel ban, mass deportations of illegal immigrants—these ideas were touted on white supremacist message boards merely 10 years ago. Now they’re being put forth as official U.S. policy...Extremists no longer hide anymore. They number in the hundreds of thousands and are extremely well-armed. The political apparatus and the news media appears confused in their reporting of the scope of the domestic terrorist threat — some ignoring it completely. When 9/11 happened, the government made an effort to connect the dots beforehand, but failed because of a lack of communication among agencies. In this case, the government isn’t even trying—and worse, it appears to be enabling the threat to flourish.”

Kali Holloway is a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet.

Charlottesville: Race and Terror – VICE News Tonight (HBO)

If there was any doubt about what kind of person went to protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, Vice News’s documentary should put those questions to rest: One side was white supremacists, some of whom openly endorsed violence.

The documentary, posted online on Monday, follows a group of white supremacists, led by white nationalist Chris Cantwell, as they march and protest through Charlottesville — purportedly to stand against the city’s plans to take down Confederate monuments, but really to spread a message of white supremacy.

Here are a few quotes from the white supremacist protests and participants, made up of members of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists:

• “Jews will not replace us! Jews will not replace us! Jews will not replace us!”
• “When the Trayvon Martin case happened, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and all these different things happened, every single case it’s some little black asshole behaving like a savage, and he gets himself in trouble, shockingly enough. Whatever problems I might have with my fellow white people, they generally are not inclined to such behavior — and, you know, you gotta kinda take that into consideration when you’re thinking about how to organize your society.”
• “This city is run by Jewish communists and criminal n*****s! That’s exactly what it is.” “And that’s true, by the way.”
• “We didn’t aggress. We did not initiate force against anybody. We’re not nonviolent. We’ll fucking kill these people if we have to.”
• “Right now we have people on the ground at the statue with equipment, and they’re being told they’re not allowed to have a vehicle come through and pick them up or anybody come and pick them up. I’m about to send at least 200 people with guns to go get them out if you guys do not get our people out.”
• The car attack by a Nazi sympathizer on counter-protesters, which killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer, “was more than justified. The amount of restraint that our people showed out there, I think, was outstanding.”
• “I think a lot more people are going to die before we’re done here, frankly. … People die violent deaths all the time. This is part of the reason we want an ethno-state. The blacks are killing each other in staggering numbers from coast to coast. We don’t really want to have a part of that anymore.”

This is who showed up to protest plans to take down a Confederate statue in Charlottesville. This is who President Donald Trump argued is equivalent to the counter-protesters who showed up to stand against racism and fascism.

IN THIS STORYSTREAM

Charlottesville violence: white supremacist Unite the Right rally leads to state of emergency in Virginia

• DeAndre Harris was attacked by racists in Charlottesville. Now he faces criminal charges.
• Vice’s documentary on Charlottesville is really worth watching
• National revulsion over the Charlottesville march shows why we shouldn’t ban hate speech

VIEW ALL 94 STORIES

The protesters carried tiki torches — yes, there is some irony here — as they marched to the University of Virginia

Zach Roberts/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Anti-racism and anti-fascist counterprotesters were surrounded by the demonstrators at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson

Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Some of the racist protesters were very passionate and angry — leading to a brawl that police broke up later in the night

Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The protesters marched through the University of Virginia, which quickly condemned the torch-wielding demonstrations and the violence they caused

Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The most powerful images from the violent far-right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia.

• RYAN M KELLY / DAILY PROGRESS
  People were thrown into the air as a car ploughed into crowds - the incident capped up a day of tension and clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia
• REUTERS
  Hundreds of far-right protesters had descended on the US city to protest against the removal of a statue of a Southern Civil War hero
• REUTERS
  Many carried Confederate flags - and weapons. This man wore a German World War Two helmet
• REUTERS
  Counter-protesters were out in force to face them
• REUTERS
  Clashes erupted between the two rival groups, with fighting in the streets
• REUTERS
  There was violence from both sides: this man was punched in the face after giving a Nazi salute
• REUTERS
  This man doused himself with a liquid, most likely milk of magnesia, to cope with the effects of pepper spray
• REUTERS
  Donald Trump has been criticised for not explicitly condemning far-right groups, which have been energised under his presidency
• GETTY IMAGES
  A man has been arrested after driving the car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 people
• EPA
  By the evening on Saturday, makeshift vigils had been made
• Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on Saturday, Aug. 12, produced demonstrations ahead of the event Friday night and afterwards on Sunday. Saturday's rally against the removal of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and the name change of Lee Park devolved into violence. CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS ON THE RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH WEBSITE.

A KKK group from North Carolina called the Loyal White Knights protested in Justice Park (formerly Jackson Park) in early July because they weren't happy with decisions being made by the city that will affect Civil War memorials in city parks. This KKK member gave a "White Power" salute to protestors who were giving him the one-finger salute. | Getty