“In other words, the more American you become, the more criminal you become.”
Oklahoma long has been a “hotspot” for extremist activism, according to a national watchdog, and the latest data on the rise of such groups throughout the U.S. and in Oklahoma continue to be worrisome.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks trends in hate movements, has found that the number of documented hate groups operating in the U.S. has grown 48 percent since 2000, up to 888 last year.
The increase is attributed to illegal immigration issues and is most notable in three border states: California, Arizona and Texas.
What’s more, the 888 total for the most part does not include an estimated 300 anti-immigration groups classified by SPLC as “nativist extremist,” formed in the last three years to harass and intimidate immigrants.
Mark Potok, a Tulsa native who is director of the SPLC Intelligence Project, said the center attempts to ensure the hate groups it documents are true organizations, even if small. “We make an effort not to list a man, his dog and his computer,” said Potok.
Extremist groups documented as active in Oklahoma in 2007 included;
Six Ku Klux Klan groups, five of which are associated with the largest national group, the Brotherhood of Klans, and one associated with the much smaller Bayou Knights; the Klan groups operated out of Atoka, Cement, Coalgate, Hinton, Moyers and Shawnee (the Bayou chapter)…