Growing Threat of Extreme Right-Wing Violence

Opinion • Views: 26,185

Clements was the latest victim of increasingly active violent right-wing extremists. While American politicians and the U.S. public continue to focus on the threat from jihadist extremists, there seems to be too little awareness that this domestic form of political violence is a growing problem at home.

From 2002 to 2007, only nine right-wing extremists were indicted for their roles in politically motivated murders and other types of ideologically motivated violent assaults. But between 2008 and 2012, the number mushroomed to 53, according to data collected by the New America Foundation. (Click on chart on the left for the data.)

Fifteen right-wing extremists were indicted in 2012 — including six who were involved in a militia in Georgia that accumulated weapons, plotted attacks on the government and murdered a young U.S. Army soldier and his 17-year-old girlfriend, who they suspected were planning to rat out the group to authorities. Seven claimed membership in the anti-government Sovereign Citizens movement and allegedly murdered two policemen in Louisiana. And two had gone on a murderous rampage the previous year, killing four people before they were arrested in California, where they told police they were on their “way to Sacramento to kill more Jews.”

More: Opinion: Growing Threat of Extreme Right-Wing Violence

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63 comments
1 aagcobb  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 4:20:15am

That is obviously an insignificant number. But as their numbers increase, encouraged by the hysterical rhetoric of the Right, there is always the threat of another terrible tragedy like Oklahoma City.

2 Whack-A-Mole  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 8:48:57am

Corporate interests like the Koch brothers created the Tea Party and fanned the flames to create the right wing radical community that exists today, those people who openly talk of succession and committing acts of violence against the government. Yet those same corporate interests need social stability to run their economic empires successfully.

I wonder how they feel now that the dog they birthed is close to slipping the leash and wreaking havoc, threatening their financial interests.

3 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 10:53:21am

Man, if only there had been some form of report warning law enforcement about the growing threat of right wing violence.

4 kirkspencer  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 10:53:29am

One thing I do wonder about: will this get delayed if we get a common enemy in North Korea?

5 Sol Berdinowitz  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 10:56:30am

But Islamist terrorists…etc.

/

6 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 10:57:12am

I wonder how many of these Derp-Tweeters are really FBI honey traps?

7 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 10:58:57am

re: #6 Vicious Babushka

I wonder how many of these Derp-Tweeters are really FBI honey traps?

There are no women on the internet, and all the kids are Chris Hansen.
/

8 dragonath  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 10:59:04am

re: #2 Whack-A-Mole

Some of these people don’t even need to be encouraged by corporate money. Check out the negative scores on the NRO Oil Sands page. I guess describing a denuded, strip mined land as a hellscape was too much for them.

9 Eclectic Cyborg  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 10:59:10am

re: #4 kirkspencer

One thing I do wonder about: will this get delayed if we get a common enemy in North Korea?

I doubt it. Won’t change the fact a black man is still in the White House.

10 Political Atheist  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 10:59:13am

I think the recent killing of law enforcement officials has put the white supremacy rhetoric and their gangs in the public eye. I expect serious raids in the coming months. This prison based gang has got to be crushed.

11 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:02:43am

Right-Wing Pundit Hypes Fictional North Korean EMP Threat

Gaffney told Laura Ingraham radio show fill-in host Raymond Arroyo that we should really be worried about the North Koreans putting one of their nukes on a ship to the West Coast, attaching it on a short-range missile and — don’t aim it at any particular large American city where it would inflict the most damage — but fire it up above the atmosphere creating the dreaded “Electro Magnetic Pulse” that will (supposedly) put the entire United States out of business for good:

12 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:03:41am

re: #11 Kragar

Right-Wing Pundit Hypes Fictional North Korean EMP Threat

The NorKs totally have an EMP! They already tested it on themselves. Wait, what…

13 iossarian  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:03:41am

re: #10 Political Atheist

I think the recent killing of law enforcement officials has put the white supremacy rhetoric and their gangs in the public eye. I expect serious raids in the coming months. This prison based gang has got to be crushed.

We will solve the problem of gangs recruiting new members in prison by rounding up gang members and putting them in prisons across the country!

14 Bulworth  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:06:58am
North Koreans putting one of their nukes on a ship to the West Coast, attaching it on a short-range missile

On what kind of ship, I wonder? One of their own or would they stash it on an unsuspecting ship? Then what? I wish these guys would develop their paranoid conspiracies a little more.

15 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:08:11am

re: #12 Vicious Babushka

The NorKs totally have an EMP! They already tested it on themselves.

Yeah, one device would totally be able to knock out the whole US, and the NKs will totally be able to sneak it onto a boat, sail across the Pacific and fire it from just off the West Coast with absolutely no chance of us intercepting it.
/

16 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:09:00am

re: #15 Kragar

Yeah, one device would totally be able to knock out the whole US, and the NKs will totally be able to sneak it onto a boat, sail across the Pacific and fire it from just off the West Coast with absolutely no chance of us intercepting it.
/

Yeah but…they tested it on themselves first and it worked.

17 Political Atheist  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:09:24am

re: #13 iossarian

Let them out, get more violence. Jail them, get more violence.

Let’s hope the prison system can break up and redistribute the members away from each other or at least the leadership.

18 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:09:43am

re: #14 Bulworth

On what kind of ship, I wonder? One of their own or would they stash it on an unsuspecting ship? Then what? I wish these guys would develop their paranoid conspiracies a little more.

Have you noticed how the quality and complexity of conspiracy theories has declined drastically over the past few years?

I find that suspicious.

19 Gus  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:11:42am

Frank Gaffney LOL.

20 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:12:04am

re: #16 Vicious Babushka

Yeah but…they tested it on themselves first and it worked.

Step 1) knock out the power
Step 2) Row their armies across the Pacific
Step 3) Bayonet charge across the US

Its all so clear now.

21 Gus  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:12:55am

re: #20 Kragar

Step 1) knock out the power
Step 2) Row their armies across the Pacific
Step 3) Bayonet charge across the US

Its all so clear now.

Balloons! Balloons!

22 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:13:54am

re: #21 Gus

Balloons! Balloons!

WOLVEREENZ!!!111

23 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:14:27am
24 Decatur Deb  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:14:33am

re: #20 Kragar

Step 1) knock out the power
Step 2) Row their armies across the Pacific
Step 3) Bayonet charge across the US

Its all so clear now.

That’s why we can’t allow a bayonet gap.

25 Charles Johnson  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:15:44am

re: #11 Kragar

Right-Wing Pundit Hypes Fictional North Korean EMP Threat

Nice to see Gaffney take a break from bigoted anti-Muslim conspiracy theories in order to fear-monger about North Korea.

He’s an all-purpose loon.

26 Gus  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:15:54am

North Korean kimchee will fall from the sky!

28 Feline Fearless Leader  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:18:46am

re: #20 Kragar

Step 1) knock out the power
Step 2) Row their armies across the Pacific
Step 3) Bayonet charge across the US

Its all so clear now.

They can just use the tunnels from the 1950s that the Chinese never ended up using.

29 iossarian  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:19:02am

re: #17 Political Atheist

Let them out, get more violence. Jail them, get more violence.

Let’s hope the prison system can break up and redistribute the members away from each other or at least the leadership.

The evidence from around the world is that locking up more and more people just fuels the problem. “Let them out” is a bit of an over-simplification - what we need is a sane approach to rehabilitation, and also an abandonment of our current policy of indiscriminately locking up low-income offenders for minor violations of the law.

30 chadu  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:20:01am

re: #26 Gus

North Korean kimchee will fall from the sky!

Yay! I like kimchee!

31 Decatur Deb  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:21:23am

re: #29 iossarian

The evidence from around the world is that locking up more and more people just fuels the problem. “Let them out” is a bit of an over-simplification - what we need is a sane approach to rehabilitation, and also an abandonment of our current policy of indiscriminately locking up low-income offenders for minor violations of the law.

If we swap allegories so drug addiction is an epidemic instead of a war, a big part of that problem goes away.

32 Sol Berdinowitz  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:22:17am

re: #29 iossarian

…what we need is a sane approach to rehabilitation, and also an abandonment of our current policy of indiscriminately locking up low-income offenders for minor violations of the law.

We want Law and Order, Three Strikes and minimum sentencing - and we want it on the cheap. We get what we pay for.

33 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:22:50am

re: #21 Gus

Balloons! Balloons!

IT IS BALLOON!

34 Decatur Deb  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:23:32am

re: #32 Sol Berdinowitz

We want Law and Order, Three Strikes and minimum sentencing - and we want it on the cheap. We get what we pay for.

Zero Tolerance Intelligence !!!

35 lawhawk  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:23:41am

re: #27 Vicious Babushka

Here’s the 2012 Black Marble large photo, and if you zoom in to the Korean peninsula, you see someone has indeed pretty much turned the lights out as compared to every other major populated country in the region.

Image: 712130main_8246931247_e60f3c09fb_o.jpg

Japan is just off the coast and shimmers brilliantly, while South Korea is ablaze with lights, including the sprawl of Seoul that runs pretty much right up to the DMZ, and then … nothing. Even the North’s capital city Pyongyang is a minor blip compared to other regional cities outside North Korea. It barely rates, mostly because it can barely power itself.

36 iossarian  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:23:57am

re: #31 Decatur Deb

If we swap allegories so drug addiction is an epidemic instead of a war, a big part of that problem goes away.

Exactly. Was talking to a woman recently who works for a non-profit that gets long-standing criminal records expunged/pardoned, so that the people involved stand a better chance of employment.

A lot of these offenses are teenage drug-related things that middle-class kids routinely get away with. Instead we’re locking people up, which costs us money and puts them at risk of joining these shitty gangs.

But of course we have to be TOUGH ON CRIME because otherwise we’re liberal wusses and hate America.

37 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:24:22am

re: #32 Sol Berdinowitz

We want Law and Order, Three Strikes and minimum sentencing - and we want it on the cheap. We get what we pay for.

I still say a cadre of motorcycle riding enforcers granted the powers of judge, jury, and executioner would solve all our problems.

38 Gus  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:25:16am

re: #33 Kragar

IT IS BALLOON!

[Embedded content]

F-troop mix. :D

39 kirkspencer  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:25:36am

re: #18 Kragar

Have you noticed how the quality and complexity of conspiracy theories has declined drastically over the past few years?

I find that suspicious.

Actually, the “nuke on a ship” idea has been around for a while - long enough that some sadly effective methods have been brought up (along with a significantly larger number of rube goldberg-worthy schemes.)

The thing is that the conspiracists think the tap is the most that can be done. Opinions vary as to how we’d respond, though I note the RWNJ types think we’d see a social and economic collapse (or at least a stagger) that would benefit the “true” Americans who had prepared for that inevitable lawlessness and confusion.

Depending on its actual detonation we could indeed suffer an economic staggering. ON the other hand, what I think of is what we’ve done every single time we’ve believed ourselves under attack. We band together, the giant stands, and it delivers a hefty punch at its attacker. (Yeah, then after Afghanistan we stumbled drunkenly into Iraq. But we did stand and punch, and we were successful in removing the Taliban from Afghanistan.)

As I said above, I wonder if the preppers and patriots and sovereign citizens and all that would see the incident as a time to band in attacking our enemies or as the opportunity to throw the illegitimate out of office. I have heard both opinions and honestly don’t know how it would (or goo forfend will) break. But that apocalypse they all dream of won’t happen, regardless, because we have more than one major port.

40 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:28:26am

re: #39 kirkspencer

Its almost like you’re trying to say it would take more than 1 device to knock out the entire US and its allies around the world.

What kind of commie liberal fantasy world do you live in?
/

41 iossarian  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:28:54am

re: #37 Kragar

I still say a cadre of motorcycle riding enforcers granted the powers of judge, jury, and executioner would solve all our problems.

It would help if some of them were dishy babes who can read minds.

42 Gus  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:29:11am

OT. Larry Storch is still kicking. :D

43 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:30:15am

re: #41 iossarian

It would help if some of them were dishy babes who can read minds.

Granted.

I’m still worried about what could happen if the NKs can get their hands on some of those ABC warriors.

44 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:31:52am

Gah. It turns out that a wingnut I added to my DERP list a while ago, just to laugh at & make fun of, has turned into a full blown white supremacist with a white-hot hate on for FLOTUS.

I will spare you the embeds.

45 William Barnett-Lewis  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:31:57am

re: #2 Whack-A-Mole

Corporate interests like the Koch brothers created the Tea Party and fanned the flames to create the right wing radical community that exists today, those people who openly talk of succession and committing acts of violence against the government. Yet those same corporate interests need social stability to run their economic empires successfully.

I wonder how they feel now that the dog they birthed is close to slipping the leash and wreaking havoc, threatening their financial interests.

Same as always. Once they’ve succeeded in putting a business friendly fascist regime in power, the thugs will either be assimilated into the military or killed.

What we are seeing is very much what was done in Spain in the 30’s and by the same groups of people - socially conservative religious leaders and financially conservative business leaders who are consciously trying to undermine the democratic basis of society with fear and turmoil. They don’t care what it takes - only peons die in these conflicts.

46 Decatur Deb  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:34:30am

re: #44 Vicious Babushka

Gah. It turns out that a wingnut I added to my DERP list a while ago, just to laugh at & make fun of, has turned into a full blown white supremacist with a white-hot hate on for FLOTUS.

I will spare you the embeds.

Flower of Southern Derphood

47 Kragar  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:34:57am

/facepalm

48 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:37:58am

I said I would spare the embeds but this one is scary.

49 Gus  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:39:19am

re: #47 Kragar

/facepalm

That’s why Woody Allen married his adopted daughter. Right.

50 lawhawk  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:40:43am

re: #47 Kragar

Simon says, you’re a dumbass troll Mr. Fischer.

Jeremy Irons, who is playing a Pope on The Borgias, where there is more palace intrigue, sleeping around, murder, and defilement of Biblical Law than you can shake a stick at.

51 kirkspencer  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:40:45am

re: #40 Kragar

Its almost like you’re trying to say it would take more than 1 device to knock out the entire US and its allies around the world.

What kind of commie liberal fantasy world do you live in?
/

grin.

FWIW, it’s sorta fun to chase the “most effective”. See, while there are better places for the most immediate impact, the best place to put their ship-bomb is in the South Louisiana port, as close to Baton Rouge as possible. The blast would shove water both up and down stream. Both would pretty much destroy the port facilities of our largest port. Worse, the upstream would probably overwhelm the Old River Control Structure, letting the Mississippi finally make its shift into the Red River/Atchafalaya basin.

At that point our grain exports become non-competitive on the world market for a year or two, even if we ignore the fear of radioactivity.

52 lawhawk  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:45:29am

re: #51 kirkspencer

You could make similar arguments for detonations in Long Beach in CA or Upper NY Harbor - like say just north of the Verrazano Bridge on the East Coast. Beyond the initial damage and casualties, you’ve wrecked major port access for shipping and could cause significant delays in goods being delivered. Plus fear of radioactive contamination for a significant period of time.

Or, place it closer to the refineries in say Texas City or Newark/Linden/Elizabeth NJ cause cause a nightmare that would make the Sandy gas crisis look downright trite.

53 jaunte  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:48:04am

re: #6 Vicious Babushka

“MolonLabe”

They really don’t want that to happen.

54 Decatur Deb  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:49:08am

re: #51 kirkspencer

Totally eliminating our Strategic Tabasco Reserve.

55 kirkspencer  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:54:04am

re: #52 lawhawk

You could make similar arguments for detonations in Long Beach in CA or Upper NY Harbor - like say just north of the Verrazano Bridge on the East Coast. Beyond the initial damage and casualties, you’ve wrecked major port access for shipping and could cause significant delays in goods being delivered. Plus fear of radioactive contamination for a significant period of time.

Or, place it closer to the refineries in say Texas City or Newark/Linden/Elizabeth NJ cause cause a nightmare that would make the Sandy gas crisis look downright trite.

First a reminder - none are a knockout punch. Just a disruption.

Second, yes, there are several places where you could make similar arguments. The thing is that I did a transfer economic analysis of ports a few years ago and the end of the Mississippi River is the biggest for this. The two biggest factors are grain and the shifting Mississippi river. As in incidental affect, the majority of the Louisiana Oil Terminal transfer points are downwind (fallout).

56 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:54:45am
57 BongCrodny  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:55:27am

re: #47 Kragar

/facepalm

I can’t wait for the day when “I’m My Own Grandpa” becomes the law of the land.

58 iossarian  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:56:14am

re: #56 Vicious Babushka

Well, that didn’t take long, did it?

59 Vicious Babushka  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 11:58:23am

re: #58 iossarian

Well, that didn’t take long, did it?

53 children safe, it must have been a good guy with a gun!

Oh wait it’s Canada.

60 AlexRogan  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 12:08:15pm

re: #11 Kragar

Right-Wing Pundit Hypes Fictional North Korean EMP Threat

Somebody’s been watching too much of the new Red Dawn

61 Romantic Heretic  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 12:56:15pm

re: #34 Decatur Deb

Zero Tolerance Intelligence !!!

Intelligence is for pansies. //

62 stabby  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 2:08:01pm

re: #47 Kragar

Fischer’s fantasies are getting more kinky!
What will he come up with next?

63 Tigger2005  Fri, Apr 5, 2013 3:29:07pm

Modern-day Quantrills.


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