Reports point out that there are 917 extremist organizations that promote hatred and violence in the United States. The FBI warned of armed protests by these groups across the country.
Although it was since Donald Trump came to power in 2016 that hundreds of extremist groups came to light, the phenomenon of organizations promoting hatred and violence, backed by the amendment on freedom of expression. expression, has grown rapidly and quietly in the United States.
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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which controls extremism and racism in the US. UU., Claimed in its 2016 report that there were 917 extremist groups in the country; the previous year there were 892 hate groups. The most numerous is the KKK (it has 130 groupings), the second largest hate group after the black separatists (193). There are also white nationalists (100), neo-Nazis (99), skinheads (78), neo-Confederates (43) or anti-immigrants (14). During the violent takeover of the Capitol last Wednesday, many of these groups made their public appearance encouraged by Donald Trump’s speech and accompanied by flags, hats and other symbols that identify the far right, but with an aggravating factor: threaten new violent prey in the country.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), they have received information about planned “armed protests” in all 50 states between the 16th and 20th, when Joe Biden will take office.
Nothing new. In October 2020, the magazine The Nation reveal a report by intelligence agencies warning of a “violent extremist threat” posed by far-right militias that include white supremacists. The report cites the 2021 presidential inauguration ceremony as a “detonating potential.”
Even more serious. Chad Wolf, the interim secretary of U.S. Homeland Security who resigned Monday, had warned last year about domestic terrorism by extremist groups. “As secretary, I am concerned about any form of violent extremism (…), but I am particularly concerned about the violent extremists of white supremacy who have been exceptionally lethal in their heinous attacks in recent times,” he warned.
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The data presented in the document of the Department of Homeland Security indicated that almost 70% of the attacks and plots that the country had suffered in the first eight months of the year were framed in “white supremacism”. In these attacks 39 people died.
And it is these groups that are on hold today in the US. U.S., after his fearsome appearance at the Capitol: Three Percenters, known as the “Threepers,” support Trump and direct his hatred at Muslims and immigrants. In Wednesday’s assault they walked with a flag with the figure of the Kraken, a symbol they adopted after the president’s lawyers said “let’s wake up the kraken” when, without evidence, they talked about electoral fraud.
The “Proud Boys” wear orange hats, yellow sacks, and black T-shirts with their name on them, and adopted the OK symbol to identify themselves. Its leader, Enrique Tarrio, did not take part in the assault on the Capitol, but he did. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Has claimed that between 2,000 and 2,500 members of “Proud Boys” attended the protests in Washington. And he warned that this was going to be repeated: “People are going to come back here for the investiture. We may show up. We haven’t decided yet.”
Members of the 4Chan online forum, which hosts racist and anti-Semitic speeches, were also at the dam waving the white, green and black Kekistan flag representing the Kek country, invented by them.
The “Oath Keepers” identify themselves with black caps with their name, say they have taken on the task of protecting the country and the Constitution, and recruit ex-military. Its leader says if violence is needed it will be used to protect the White House. There is another group that is christened “America First” and took the Capitol with flags and this slogan, others went with Auschwitz Camp signs, anti-immigrants, the Nationalist Social Club dressed as cops and confused with them during the Capitol Dam. These groups move in the nets like fish in water. From internet forums they encourage Donald Trump supporters to concentrate with weapons across the country to oppose the new president. As they did before the January 6 takeover. Earlier days they heated up the concentration on chats and virtual forums.
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According to analysts, on social media and supremacist forums they found ideal ground to exploit their discourse, attract followers and promote all kinds of conspiracy theories. “
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, forced to resign over security fiasco, said in an interview with The New York Times that if the security agencies don’t agree on what happened last week “it will happen again” during Biden’s inauguration.
The UN Counter-Terrorism Committee has recently been forced to issue a warning against the “growing transnational threat of far-right terrorism.”
Thus, the different alerts mark a trend: in the last five years, terrorist attacks labeled as far-right have grown by 320% worldwide, according to the Global Terrorism Index, one of the benchmarks in the subject elaborated by the Institute of Economy and Peace (IEP).