By Mark Bond, American Military University
InPublicSafety.com
Civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin founded the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in 1971. The SPLC is an organization dedicated to exposing and combating radical extremism, hate, and bigotry while seeking justice for the most vulnerable citizens in our society (SPLC, 2014). The SPLC works to track and expose the activities of extremist and hate groups throughout the country.
Hate Crime Defined
Congress has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation” as reported by the FBI (FBI, 2014).
Radical extremists, hate groups, and movements are formed based on ideology about religion, politics, race, ethnic origins, gender, or sexual orientation. Some of these individuals and groups only want to educate others about their beliefs, but others are motivated into action with criminal intent.
Full Story: Extremist Groups in the U.S: Exposing the Hate