Is the number of hate groups declining in Idaho? Annual report shows a trend
The number of hate groups in Idaho is shrinking — despite the polarizing year of 2020, when extremism was fairly widespread, a new report shows.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group that fights racism and civil rights violations, recently released its annual “hate map” that tracks groups across the country.
Nationally, the number of hate groups declined, and Idaho followed a similar trend.
The SPLC defines a hate group as an organization that has beliefs or practices that attack an entire class of people for “immutable characteristics.” The group doesn’t have to follow hateful speech with unlawful actions to be considered a hate group.
Tracking hate groups, however, can be difficult, as groups try to hide their activity, the SPLC said.
“The SPLC uses a variety of methodologies to determine the activities of groups and individuals,” the group said. “These include reviewing hate group publications and reports by citizens, law enforcement, field sources and the news media, and conducting our own investigations.”
Since 1990, the SPLC has published an annual census of hate groups that operate in the U.S. In 2020, the group tracked 838 hate groups across the country. In Idaho, it tracked seven.
In 2019, the group listed 940 active hate groups nationally and seven in Idaho. A year earlier, however, there were 10 active hate groups in Idaho, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting, and there were 12 the year before that.
Groups that were active in Idaho in 2020, according to the list, were the G416 Patriots in Meridian, Independent History and Research in Coeur d’Alene, Lordship Church in Bonners Ferry, The Brother Nathanael Foundation in Priest River, and statewide groups Asatru Folk Assembly, Patriot Front and Soldiers of Odin.
“There are groups that stay underground ... or go dormant and aren’t included on our list,” Keegan Hankes, a senior research analyst for the SPLC, previously told the Statesman.
Lordship Church in Coeur d’Alene has been identified as a “general hate” group on the center’s map for several years, something that has drawn the ire of pastor Warren Campbell and members.
Campbell has said that he and his church are politically active. He previously told the Statesman that he believes in stricter vetting of Muslims entering the United States and believes that they pose a threat to our security and culture. He said he objects specifically to Islam as a religion, not to Muslims’ ethnicity.
The Soldier of Odin and G416 Patriots are both identified by SLPC as anti-Muslim hate groups. Patriot Front is the only white nationalist group in Idaho identified on the list.
The SPLC said that the number of groups was difficult to track in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and groups’ use of social media and online networks.
“The drop from the previous year does not signal a decline in extremist activity or the threat of domestic terrorism,” the SPLC said in a news release. “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an extremely rare National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin in response to the growing threat from home-grown extremists ranging from antigovernment militias to far-right hate groups and white supremacists.”
The drop in the number of hate groups could have been in part because people stopped meeting in person and because some were kicked off mainstream social media platforms.
The SPLC tracked the most active amount of hate groups in the U.S. ever in 2018, but since then, the number has fallen.
“For three decades, we have attempted to sound the alarm about these groups, their growth and the dangers they pose,” Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC, said in a news release. “It is clearer now than ever that our nation faces an increasingly dangerous threat from home-grown extremists.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 6:00 AM.