Homegrown Terrorism
Should Americans be concerned about domestic terrorism? Andrew Blejwas '00 encourages society to look beyond the stereotypes.
Andrew Blejwas '00 first learned about the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a high school student when he followed the Montgomery, Alabama, organization's work to dismantle the Ku Klux Klan. So, in 2004, when he was offered a chance to work for the SPLC as a writer, he jumped at the chance. Founded in 1971 by two civil rights lawyers, the SPLC seeks to expose hate groups through legal action and by working with law enforcement and the news media. The organization also supports tolerance education in schools and communities around the country.
What's the difference between a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism? A hate crime must show a clear expression of group hatred through the felony. An act like domestic terrorism is not a "hate crime" merely because the perpetrator hates people of that group (like the government). The crime has to be intended to communicate that hatred of the group to the victim.
In 2005, the SPLC released "Terror from the Right," a report you helped research and write that documents sixty domestic terrorist plots in the United States between 1995 and 2005. What does this tell us about domestic terrorism? People know Timothy McVeigh and Eric Randolph, but in addition to those two individuals and the acts of terrorism they committed, there are a lot of surprising events that either happened or were awfully close to happening, most of which received no media attention. It's very important not to be an alarmist, but it's also important to understand that these threats are very real. We have to get beyond the stereotypical image people have of what a terrorist looks like.
The SPLC recently updated its "hate map," which tracks the number and location of hate groups in the United States. The latest version lists more than eight hundred hate groups in the United States, a 33 percent increase over the last five years. Why the increase? It's hard to pinpoint an exact cause, but the anti-immigration sentiment in the country is certainly one factor. One of our core missions is to raise awareness about the number of these groups and the nature of hate in America. It is not just someone walking down the street in white robes. The groups are far more diverse in their purpose, membership, and location than you might think.
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