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Schools were a particularly common location for hate incidents - the S.P.L.C. counted 284 at primary and secondary schools, and 330 on college campuses. The group counted 178 incidents involving the posting of white supremacist flyers; the flyers were posted in two bursts, one the week after the election and one during the month of February, and the majority of flyers were posted at colleges.
The frequency of hate incidents seems to have lessened - but that doesn't mean they've stopped.
While the number of reports to the S.P.L.C. has tapered off since January, a number of serious crimes have occurred since then, including the killings in Portland and College Park and the shooting of two Indian immigrants in Olathe, Kan., in February, said Heidi Beirich, who leads the Intelligence Project at the center.

Incidents of harassment continue as well. Charles Cox was at a restaurant in Leavenworth, Kan., with his 3-year-old daughter in early spring when he heard another patron say that now that Donald Trump is president, "things are going to get cleaned up around here." The man was looking right at Mr. Cox, who is of Korean and European heritage. "I think we all knew what he meant by it," he said.

Racist harassment has long been a fact of life for Mr. Cox, who reported his experience to the Documenting Hate project, a partnership that includes ProPublica, The New York Times opinion section and other organizations. "I've been called five to six different races," he said - some people assume he is Latino and joke that he should be great at lawn maintenance.

Some people are too quick to dismiss victims of racism or tell them to calm down, Mr. Cox said. "We've dealt with this our whole lives," he explained. "I dare you to go through five minutes of somebody bashing you about something you have no control over."
Many Muslim Americans have reported abuse by federal agents.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations received 1,597 reports of potential bias between January 1 and March 31 and was able to verify 851 of these. Of the verified reports, about half involved abuse by representatives of federal agencies; the most common perpetrators were customs or border patrol agents, accounting for 23 percent of incidents. Thirty-three percent were related to the travel ban the president signed on January 27.
Calls to "go back to your country" are common.
For Sharon Kim, it happened in early March. She was walking in Brooklyn with her 19-month-old son strapped to her chest when she heard someone say, "Go back to your country." Ms. Kim, who was born in the United States and is Korean-American, turned around to see a white teenager who wouldn't meet her eyes.

The encounter gave her a "sick, sad feeling," she said. "My child was literally strapped to my body and I couldn't do anything to prevent something like that."

Ms. Kim is one of many who have been told some variant of "go back to your country" since the election, according to reports to the Documenting Hate project. As of February, more than 40 people had reported harassment involving some variation on the phrase to the website Univision, one of the Documenting Hate partners, which could not verify all reports. Those perceived to be immigrants were the most commonly targeted group in incidents of hate and harassment reported to the Southern Poverty Law Center, with 387 incidents categorized as anti-immigrant.
Liberal states and cities aren't immune.
Until she was harassed in March, Ms. Kim had never experienced anything like that in Brooklyn, where she has lived for about seven years. But since the election, many people have reported harassment or abuse in left-leaning, diverse areas of the country. Nearly 150 of the more than 3,000 reports made to the Documenting Hate project since the election involve incidents in New York City, though not all have been verified.

Harassment in a place that once felt safe can take an emotional toll. Growing up in Ohio, Ms. Kim said she had a feeling many people of color share, "a certain readiness" in case she became a target for racism. She never felt that way in Brooklyn, but that's changed since the incident in March. "I have that feeling all the time now," she said.
Hate crimes are almost certainly underreported.
The Department of Justice has estimated that nearly 260,000 hate crimes were committed every year between 2007 and 2011. But the F.B.I.'s annual total of hate crimes nationwide typically hovers around 5,000. The F.B.I. count relies on voluntary reports from local law enforcement agencies, many of which choose not to report their data. And hate crime laws vary from state to state; five states have no hate crime laws at all. As a result, thousands of hate crimes every year are probably missing from official statistics, making it harder for law enforcement to fight the problem and for the public to understand its true scope.

Given the Trump administration's reluctance to condemn acts of hate, reforms in hate crime reporting probably aren't coming any time soon, said Ms. Beirich. "Until a change of political leadership, I don't see this getting better."

In the absence of reliable data, what we have are a growing number of personal stories of hate and its effects. Ms. Kim says harassment like what she experienced can have a lasting impact. "It's not as simple as just letting it roll off your back," she said. "It's not like if somebody calls you stupid or ugly. It's a threat."

For Mr. Cox, the frequency of racist harassment doesn't make it any less painful. "I don't think anybody will ever be numb to it," he said.
If you have experienced, witnessed or read about a hate crime or incident of bias or harassment, you can use this form to send information about the incident to This Week in Hate and other partners in the Documenting Hate project. The form is not a report to law enforcement or any government agency. These resources may be helpful for people who have experienced harassment. If you witness harassment, here are some tips for responding. You can contact This Week in Hate at weekinhate@nytimes.com.

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Schools were a particularly common location for hate incidents - the S.P.L.C. counted 284 at primary and secondary schools, and 330 on college campuses. The group counted 178 incidents involving the posting of white supremacist flyers; the flyers were posted in two bursts, one the week after the election and one during the month of February, and the majority of flyers were posted at colleges.

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Hundreds of Iowa law enforcement agencies routinely neglect to report hate crime data, making it impossible to assess the extent of the problem and fostering mistrust in law enforcement, critics say.

In total, 211 of the 402 Iowa agencies that report data to the FBI have failed to submit hate crime information at least once from 2009 to 2014, according to the most recent national data obtained by The Associated Press. That includes 194 police departments and 17 sheriff's departments.

Of those, 164 - or nearly 41 percent - have never filed the data in the six-year review. That places Iowa with the sixth-highest nonresponse rate in the nation.

State Rep. Ako Abdu-Samad, a longtime civil rights activist, contends that reporting lapses, even when the number is zero, mean it's impossible to know the prevalence of hate crimes. The Des Moines Democrat intends to pursue legislation similar to a bill adopted in Tennessee that requires agencies to report the data.

"I'm not only surprised, but I'm shocked that we're not routinely and consistently reporting that data, because that's something we need to do," Abdul-Samad said. "We have to be able to show the whole picture."

Several Iowa police chiefs told The Des Moines Register that reporting the data is not a burdensome chore but rather something they forgot to do, or skipped since they had nothing to report.

"For one, we've not had a hate crime or anything that could be considered a hate crime and, for two, we're not required to report it," said Huxley Police Chief Mark Pote, whose office is among the 164 that have not reported hate crime data. "If somebody had asked, it's not a problem, but we've not been asked to report any of those numbers."

Filing reports for the federal count is voluntary. But FBI guidelines have long been in place calling for local law enforcement agencies to submit the reports, even if they list no hate crimes.

FBI Director James Comey in 2014 helped launch an initiative encouraging all agencies to better track the data. Comey has also initiated nationwide training sessions for law enforcement on the matter.

Every law enforcement agency in Tennessee, Rhode Island, Nevada and California has submitted the data annually since 2009 - even if they had no cases to report, the AP analysis found.

FBI officials in Iowa last week underscored the importance of filing the reports, and asked law enforcement agencies to do so, regardless of whether they have received any hate crime complaints.

The idea of mandatory reporting legislation, which would require law enforcement agencies to answer one more question in regularly submitted crime data, is endorsed by Kevin Techau, U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. He says such a requirement would strengthen law enforcement's ability to address hate crimes.

Techau in March helped prosecute a hate crime case in which a black man was beaten into semiconsciousness by a swastika-tattooed assailant who, according to court testimony, directed racial slurs toward black patrons at a Dubuque bar before the assault. The victim, Lamarr Sandridge, suffered injuries that included a broken eye socket.

Video footage depicted the assailant, Randy Joe Metcalf, showing the swastika tattoo to patrons just before the assault. Evidence against Metcalf also included witness statements that he had used abusive phrases and racial slurs to degrade black people earlier in the evening.

Metcalf, 40, faces up to 10 years in prison.

Techau and FBI officials last week held a public meeting in Dubuque focusing on hate crimes and called for law enforcement agencies to step up their reporting efforts.

"Hate crimes are crimes that never sleep," Techau said. "If we don't know about them, we can't get to the bottom of the allegation and investigate it."

Lots of unknowns

A person convicted of a hate crime can face additional years in prison, depending on the type of conviction.

How often hate crimes are prosecuted in Iowa is unclear, because those cases are not specifically tracked by state courts. But Techau and other representatives of other law enforcement agencies told the Register that such convictions are rare. That's because prosecutors must show that motive or intent is based on hate. Racial slurs used in the heat of an assault, for example, generally are not enough to produce a hate crime conviction without other evidence showing that race or ethnicity was a reason for the attack.

The Iowa data, while incomplete, show that 79 crimes reported to the FBI from 2009 through 2014 were believed to be motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability. That includes 56 incidents reported by local police departments, 13 by campus police and 10 by county sheriff's departments. Forty-four incidents were attributed to race, 20 to sexual orientation, nine to ethnicity, five to religion and one to disability. Davenport had eight reported cases, the most of any jurisdiction.

But even the incidents reported to the FBI come with uncertainties and cautions, which has been a perennial concern for groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

For example, FBI guidelines say an incident should be reported as a hate crime if a "reasonable and prudent" person would conclude that it was motivated by bias. But Iowa's law regarding hate crimes is specific, requiring prosecutors to go another step and prove intent.

Several law enforcement agencies noted gray areas about what should be reported.

Des Moines police, for example, use Iowa's definition of a hate crime to determine what is reported to the FBI. Since that standard requires showing hate was the motive, crimes like graffiti on a church might not be reported to the FBI if officers were unable to determine who committed the act or their motive, said Sgt. Paul Parizek, a department spokesman.

The 2011 Waterloo beating death of Marcellus Andrews illustrates the difficulties in deciding what to report. His assailant, Paris Anding, allegedly used derogatory language directed at Andrews' sexuality during the incident. But he was not charged with a hate crime because, police said, they couldn't show hate prompted the beating. Anding was later found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Waterloo police did not report that attack as a hate crime, so it is not included in FBI hate crime data.

"If you followed the FBI guidelines, you would probably find yourself in a trick bag because people would be wondering why you're not prosecuting any of these crimes," Parizek said. "If we don't find the suspect, how do we get into their head to prove what their intent is?"

Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman, in contrast, believes the reporting requirement rests on whether there is a logical link between the crime and hate - rather than what Iowa law says a prosecutor must show to win a hate crime conviction in court.

"For reporting purposes, if there is a nexus that's readily apparent, we should do everything we can to not only classify it as a hate crime, but investigate it as a hate crime," Jerman said.

Investigations underway

Dubuque police Chief Mark Dalsing believes it's important to investigate whether incidents may have been motivated by racial or religious discrimination, regardless of whether they eventually are deemed to be hate crimes.

Dubuque residents in April encountered two crudely constructed crosses that were burned near a construction zone. No arrests have been made, but the case is being investigated as a hate crime.

And last month, Waterloo police announced that they were investigating graffiti placed on a synagogue as a possible hate crime.

Transparency about such issues helps keep the public informed and, in turn, reinforces confidence in law enforcement, Dalsing said. He acknowledged the challenges of determining hate crimes based on legal or technical definitions versus public perceptions. But he nonetheless encourages his peers to do their best to report hate crime data, even if they simply report they had no incidents.

"As much as anything, this has to do with public trust," Dalsing said. "With our most recent incident (involving the cross burning), we could have just as easily have said, 'Yes, there was some property damage'" and ignore the possible racial component. "But eventually, word would have gotten out, and you look foolish. We thought it was best to get in front of it right away and use our resources and our allies in the community to help get past this incident."

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(Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)

Abdul-Samad doesn't believe Iowa has an out-of-control hate crime problem. He thinks such incidents are likely few compared with other states. If true, having reliable, complete data would offer proof and send a message to the public about Iowa's overall quality of life, he said.

He believes that with a mandatory reporting requirement and some limited additional instruction to law enforcement to resolve confusion, Iowa's hate crime statistics can be reliable and meaningful without being burdensome for law enforcement agencies.

Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/1sXI8Ze

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Iowa lax in reporting hate crimes, data shows

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Hundreds of Iowa law enforcement agencies routinely neglect to report hate crime data, making it impossible to assess the extent of the problem and fostering mistrust in law enforcement, critics say.

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Before he turned violent at a bar in Dubuque, Iowa, last year, Randy Metcalf had already made his contempt for black people known.

That January night, Metcalf got into an argument with several women over a jukebox. Afterward, he began hurling racial slurs at the women and one of their friends, a black man named Lamarr Sandridge.

The vicious taunting lasted several hours, according to the Justice Department, which said that the 40-year-old Metcalf bragged to the bar owner at one point that he'd taken part in cross-burnings.

He also announced to other patrons of the bar that he hated black people, according to government prosecutors. Metcalf, who was surrounded by several white friends he'd grown up with in Dubuque, even revealed a large swastika tattooed onto his abdomen.

"This is what I'm about," Metcalf said to Sandridge, according to court records.

When a fight broke out between Metcalf and one of the women, Sandridge attempted to protect her, according to prosecutors.

But Metcalf's friends beat Sandridge unconscious, prosecutor Christopher Perras told jurors during a trial in March. And as Sandridge lay on the floor of the bar, Metcalf "kicked him and stomped him in the face, and he kept kicking and stomping him in the face" until the bartender "had the courage to run over and shove him off," Perras said.

Metcalf left the bar - only to return and continue his attack, Perras said.

"He goes straight up to Lamarr, who's still posing no threat, who's still unconscious and bleeding on the floor, and he stomps on his head," Perras said. "The defendant said a lot of hateful words that night, but I submit to you that his act right there - stomping on the head of another human being - tells you more than anything he ever could have said."

[A white homeowner called 911 to report 'hoodlums' outside. Then he fatally shot a black man.]

Sandridge sustained numerous head injuries during the assault, including a broken orbital bone and a blood clot in one of his eyes.

The female attacked by Metcalf suffered a fractured cheek bone.

The assault was captured by surveillance video that FBI investigators were able to review before charging Metcalf with a racially motivated hate crime, court records show.

Metcalf was convicted in March, then sentenced this week to 10 years in prison for what a federal judge called a "brutal and outrageous attack."

"This vicious attack threatened the most basic standards of human decency and dignity," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "While no sentence, including this one, can undo the harm inflicted, it does send an unequivocal message that the Justice Department will vigorously prosecute hate crimes."

In addition to receiving the maximum 10-year sentence for his crime, Metcalf was ordered to pay $1,874.56 in restitution, the Justice Department said.

An FBI affidavit portrays Metcalf as a man who didn't try to conceal his white supremacist leanings. Special Agent Thomas Reinwart noted that Metcalf has a chest tattoo that says "FRYS," a reference to a white supremacist prison gang.

[White supremacist charged with mowing down and killing black teen because of race]

According to the affidavit, Metcalf also has a "significant, violent criminal history," which included such charges as burglary, domestic abuse and child endangerment convictions. Before the assault on Sandridge, he had at least eight assault convictions.

According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Sandridge testified at trial he didn't remember the assault or the racial slurs. He remembered Metcalf cursing and swearing at his friends and an argument over the jukebox, but didn't remember anything until he woke up in an emergency room.

The newspaper reported that Sandridge testified that he "couldn't see out of one eye for a period of time" after the attack, and that he also suffered memory loss.

During closing arguments in March, Perras said that before the January 2015 assault, Metcalf stepped outside the bar with owner Ted Stackis and asked if Stackis needed anything "taken care of."

Perras argued that Metcalf was talking about Sandridge, who was the only black man in the bar at the time.

"The defendant was proud of his racist ways that night," Perras said. "It was a deliberately targeted assault."

Melanie Keiper, Metcalf's attorney, argued that the fight was not motivated by racial hatred.

Keiper told jurors that the dispute began with one of Sandridge's friends knocking a cellphone out of the hands of Metcalf's fiancee, who was present at the time.

"The target in this case was not Lamarr Sandridge," Keiper said, adding that his female friend was "egging" Metcalf on, according to court records.

Keiper also cited testimony from the black son of Metcalf's ex-girlfriend, who testified as a character witness at the trial. The attorney asked jurors to consider how Metcalf could have cared for a black child if he was racist, according to court records.

"It's a horrible thing Randy did that night," Keiper told jurors. "It's absolutely awful. But he did not do it because Lamarr Sandridge is black."

[A black homeowner called 911 to report a carjacking. He wound up getting shot by police.]

Perras said there was a reason Metcalf hid his hateful views from his ex-girlfriend.

"If you go around calling the child of your girlfriend the n-word, your girlfriend's not going to be your girlfriend for very much longer," he said, before explaining that Metcalf attacked Sandridge in very particular circumstances.

"Lamarr wasn't just any black guy," Perras said. "He was a black guy who stood up to the defendant in front of his other white friends."

The prosecutor added that Metcalf "was drinking" on the night of the attack, noting: "The usual filter in his head that kept him from sharing his true self to everyone was gone."

The jury, which consisted of 10 men and two women, took just over three hours to convict Metcalf, according to the Telegraph Herald.

"Hate crimes represent an attack not just on the individual victim but also on the entire community," Kevin W. Techau, U.S. attorney of the Northern District of Iowa, said in a statement. "The federal hate crime of which Randy Metcalf was found guilty is as reprehensible as it was violent."
MORE READING: 'Like a slap in the face': Mike Pence won't act on wrongfully convicted man's pardon request School shooting victim Jacob Hall loved superheroes. His family used them to say goodbye. 3-year-old dies after being left alone in mother's patrol car for hours

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White supremacist who bragged about cross-burning sentenced in brutal attack of black man

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Before he turned violent at a bar in Dubuque, Iowa, last year, Randy Metcalf had already made his contempt for black people known. That January night, Metcalf got into an argument with several women over a jukebox. Afterward, he began hurling racial slurs at the women and one of their friends, a black man named Lamarr Sandridge.

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Guandolo visits the Heartland on the invitation of the Omaha-based anti-Muslim Global Faith Institute (GFI) and Tactical 88, an "elite training organization" with firearm range sand readiness training centers in both Nebraska and Ohio. Guandolo and his partner Chris Gaubatz head the anti-Muslim group Understanding the Threat (UTT) and will be presenting on the Muslim Brotherhood's "secret strategies for the USA."

Guandolo promotes himself as a former FBI agent and an expert on terrorism who can help law enforcement and others uncover the "secret" terrorist cells in their area, but in reality Guandolo's trainings are little more than anti-Muslim witch-hunts. What he doesn't tell you is that he left the Bureau in disgrace for a number of ethical breaches and bizarre conduct which included admitting to having affairs with female FBI agents and a confidential source he was assigned to protect during the corruption case of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.); he also solicited that witness for a $75,000 donation for an anti-terrorism group. Since his departure, Guandolo has devoted himself to a rabid brand of anti-Muslim activism, working closely with some of the most powerful and influential anti-Muslim groups in the U.S., on a flurry of accusations against government officials Guandolo says have ties to terrorist organizations.

In his spare time, Guandolo works closely with ACT for America, the largest anti-Muslim group in the country. He helped the group build "The Thin Blue Line Project," billed as a "one-stop internet resource for information concerning the perceived threat of Muslim infiltration and terrorism in the country."

Its key component is a "Radicalization Map Locator," listing the addresses of hundreds of Muslim Student Association (MSA) members around the country as well as a number of mosques and Islamic institutions billed as suspected national security concerns. In 2015, Guandolo told a crowd in South Carolina that the sole purpose of MSAs is to "recruit jihadis"; many in the anti-Muslim movement claim MSAs are a front for the Muslim Brotherhood. In short, the "Thin Blue Line" project identifies targets for law enforcement and government agencies to monitor, a tactic that has gone too far in the past.

Guandolo has a long history of anti-Muslim statements. He once claimed mosques were fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood, and that mosques in general, "do not have a First Amendment right to do anything." More recently, in a 2016 radio interview, Guandolo said Americans would soon see "dozens of jihadis doing multiple operations in conjunction with the Marxist and socialist groups like Black Lives Matter, which will be, you know, burning and looting cities like they did in Ferguson [Mo.] and Baltimore." He has also promoted conspiracy theories such as claiming that Muslims are purchasing hotels, gas stations and convenience stores in anticipation for "a jihad here in the United States."

Throughout 2016 and early 2017, Guandolo traveled to a number of states to train law enforcement, buoyed by an official endorsement from the head of the National Sheriffs Association (NSA). But at the NSA conference in Reno in June of 2017, Guandolo was involved in an altercation which ended with him being arrested after punching Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek. The Center for New Community broke the news of this story after obtaining court records relating to the incident. Since then, Guandolo's NSA endorsement has been pulled, and he has resorted to doing presentations for anti-Muslim groups instead of law enforcement.

The Omaha-based Global Faith Institute certainly shares Guandolo's bigoted views about Islam and Muslims. Run by Mark Christian, a former Sunni Imam who converted to Christianity, the GFI website includes anti-Muslim commentary like, " Islam doesn't exist to reach comfortable accommodations with other faiths. Islam doesn't exist to stand side by side with non-Muslims. Islam exists to subjugate the earth, and all in it, to Allah. Either Islam reigns supreme, or Islam fights. To do as Pope Francis, is merely illustrating weakness and foolishness to the Muslim mind. There is no admiration of Western culture among Muslims; they dismiss our successes as the benefits accruing to those who serve Satan. There is no desire to assimilate with Western societies, because that would mean assimilating into a coven of worship with which their Prophet has commanded them to subdue and destroy. No amount of foot washing or ecumenical interfaithery will ever change that. It only facilitates it by opening doors better left shut and leaving foxes in charge of the hen house."

Despite Guandolo's long history of racism, the chairman of the Pottawattamie County, Iowa Republican Party, Jeff Jorgensen is encouraging those in the area to attend the event, according to Iowa Public Radio. Guandolo's event on September 14 is taking place at the Oakland Community Center, run by the City of Oakland.

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Disgraced ex-FBI agent John Guandolo to visit Iowa and Nebraska this week

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Guandolo visits the Heartland on the invitation of the Omaha-based anti-Muslim Global Faith Institute (GFI) and Tactical 88, an "elite training organization" with firearm range sand readiness training centers in both Nebraska and Ohio. Guandolo and his partner Chris Gaubatz head the anti-Muslim group Understanding the Threat (UTT) and will be presenting on the Muslim Brotherhood's "secret strategies for the USA."

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Delaware rare book dealer Ian Brabner bought the form at ephemera show

It's dated August 21, 1921, and lists 20 questions for potential KKK recruits

Questions include 'are you a Jew?' and 'do you want white supremacy?'

A 1921 application form to join the racist Ku Klux Klan organisation has emerged, which asks 'are you of the white race or of a colored race?'

The form asks a further 19 questions ranging from the mundane, such as 'what is your age?', to the overtly sinister - 'Do you believe in White Supremacy?'

At the top is an introduction implying that it is intended to be sent out to people whose friends have identified them as suitable recruits.

The form was purchased at an ephemera show - where collectibles are sold - by Delaware rare book dealer Ian Brabner, whose firm, Rare Americana, buys and sells 18th to early 20th century rare books and historical manuscripts.

In a blog post Brabner explained that the numbers '8-2-21' in the top left corner of the unused form would have stood for the date - August 2, 1921.

He wrote: 'You can assume there's a fair amount of xenophobic sentiment and anxiety about the waves of immigration to America, in 1921, post World-War One.

'On May 9, 1921, this was evidenced when Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, aka, the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 to counter the increased immigration to America.'

The form is ominously titled 'Invisible Empire', an alternative name for the clan at the time, born from founder Nathan Bedford Forrest's claim that the group was 'invisible'.

It then says 'we have been requested by one of your personal friends to get in touch with you, and inform you of this organisation', before listing 20 questions to be answered.

They also include 'do you believe in the principles of a PURE Americanism?', 'are you a gentile or Jew?' and 'were your parents born in the United States of America?'

The KKK was founded in 1866 in Tennessee, with Forrest becoming the first leader, or grand wizard, in 1867.

Its membership peaked in the 1920s at around four million. Today it's thought to number in the low thousands, with most people affiliated with it living in America's Deep South.

It was recently revealed, meanwhile, that California had more active hate groups than any other state last year.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), California has 57 such groups, followed by Florida with 50, New York with 44, New Jersey with 40, and Pennsylvania with 38.

Rounding out the top five were Texas with 36 hate groups, Tennessee with 29, Georgia with 28, and Virginia and Ohio tied with 27 each.

Hawaii and Alaska were the only states to not have any hate groups, according to the SPLC.

The organization said on its website 'All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.

'This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports.

'Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list,' the organization wrote. 'Listing here does not imply a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity.'

Nationally, the SPLC said in its 'The Year in Hate and Extremism' report, which was published online this spring, that there were a total 784 active hate groups in the US.

The non-profit said there were 72 Ku Klux Klan groups, 142 neo-Nazi groups, 115 White Nationalist groups, 119 racist skinhead groups, 21 Christian identity groups, 37 neo-confederate groups, 113 black separatist groups, and 165 general hate groups.

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Application form to join the Ku Klux Klan in 1921 unearthed

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Delaware rare book dealer Ian Brabner bought the form at ephemera show It's dated August 21, 1921, and lists 20 questions for potential KKK recruits Questions include 'are you a Jew?' and 'do you want white supremacy?'

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The Intelligence Project at the SPLC works to expose, prevent, counter and remedy hate and extremism in the U.S. today. The SPLC is the premier U.S. organization monitoring the activities of domestic hate groups and antigovernment hard right extremists - including the Ku Klux Klan, white nationalists, the neo-Nazi movement, antigovernment militias, anti-LGBTQ groups, antisemitic movement, anti-Muslim groups and others.

We track more than 1,300 hard right extremist groups operating across the country. We publish investigative reports and offer expert analysis to lawmakers, the media and public. To push white supremacy out of the mainstream and remedy harms in communities, we spot warning signs and intervene proactively by supporting grassroots partners and building community resilience to extremism.

Our work fighting hate and extremism began in the early 1980s, amid a resurgence of Klan violence that began several years after the end of the civil rights movement. Each year since 1990, we have released an annual report and census of U.S. hate and antigovernment groups. In the mid-1990s, we also began documenting the number of radical,  antigovernment militias  movement organizations.

Over the years, we've crippled or destroyed some of the country's most notorious hate groups - including the United Klans of America, the Aryan Nations and the White Aryan Resistance - by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members or by exposing their activities. We continue to hold hate groups and extremist individuals accountable using a varied set of tools and enhanced technological capacity for data analysis, including a DataLab to apply measurement techniques for studying networks of toxicity, hate speech, racism and extremism in online social spaces.

Hate Map: There are 1,225 hate and antigovernment extremist groups currently operating in the U.S.

Extremist Files: A database on prominent extremist groups and individuals

Jan 6: The Long Path to Insurrection: The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol was part of a century-old effort by extremists, the Southern Poverty Law Center takes a comprehensive look.

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We monitor hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States and expose their activities to the public, the media and law enforcement.

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President Donald Trump denounced violence "on many sides" on Saturday after protesters and counterprotesters clashed. But the President faced bipartisan criticism for failing to call out the racist and white supremacist views of those who had traveled from across the country for the event; he finally did so Monday afternoon, a full 48 hours after his first tweet on the topic.

"Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminal and thugs," Trump said on Monday, "including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

The number of hate groups in the United States has ticked up since the 2016 presidential campaign began, according to classifications of groups from the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based nonprofit activist group that tracks civil rights and hate crimes.

Meanwhile, the number anti-Muslim groups skyrocketed and other types of white nationalist, neo-Nazi and neo-Confederate groups reversed their pattern of decline to tick upward.

The SPLC defines a hate group as an organization with "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics." Some critics of the SPLC say the group's activism biases how it categorizes certain groups.

Here's a deeper look at how the number of hate groups and hate crimes has evolved over the last year and the last two decades, according to SPLC.

1. Overall hate group numbers rose over election season

Over the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, the number of hate groups in the United States grew after falling off following former President Barack Obama's re-election. The number of total hate groups has risen 17% since 2014, to 917 organizations, according to data from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC specifically pointed to a "presidential campaign that flirted heavily with extremist ideas" for the recent uptick in these groups. However, though the current number is double the number of hate groups that existed in 1999, it falls short of the high of 1,018 hate groups recognized by the organization in 2011.

2. Breaking down types of hate groups in the United States

Black separatists, anti-white groups who support separate institutions for blacks, make up one in five hate groups in the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. One in six is linked to the Ku Klux Klan, while another one in 10 are white nationalist and one in 10 are neo-Nazi. One in 10 hate groups are anti-Muslim. Smaller categories include neo-Confederates, anti-LGBT groups and racist "skinheads," according to the organization.

3. Anti-Muslim groups tripled in last year

The number of hate groups focused on Muslims increased dramatically over the last half-decade, jumping after the GOP electoral wave in 2010 and then tripling over the last year. Only five groups focused on anti-Islamic beliefs in 2010. But now 101 hate groups focus mainly on Muslims, marking the third-largest category of hate group behind only black separatists and Ku Klux Klan organizations. "Muslims are depicted as irrational, intolerant and violent, and their faith is frequently depicted as sanctioning pedophilia, coupled with intolerance for homosexuals and women," the Southern Poverty Law Center said.

4. Anti-Islamic hate crimes spiked in 2015 in FBI data

Hate crimes against Muslims spiked in 2015, according to FBI data, reaching their highest point since the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The FBI recognized 257 anti-Islamic hate crimes in 2015 -- up sharply from the 154 incidents reported the previous year. Then-candidate Trump made immigration from the Muslim-majority world a core issue of his campaign, proposing a "complete and total shutdown" of Muslims entering the United States. Again, experts say these numbers are actually higher because some localities do not report hate statistics.

5. Racially motivated hate crimes against blacks ticked up last year

FBI data tracking hate crimes show racially motivated crimes against blacks in the United States declining steadily since Obama took office in 2009. But in the last year, those numbers slightly increased by 8% to 1,621 hate crimes nationwide in 2015. Still, experts say these numbers are largely underreported because the FBI relies on local governments to report their data -- and many don't.

6. Some racially focused hate group numbers declined over last several years

Some racist hate groups -- including neo-Nazis, white nationalists and their more violent counterparts, a group dubbed racist "skinheads" -- have seen declining numbers over the last half-decade. The number of white nationalists fell from 146 groups in 2011 to just 100 groups today, according to data from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The number of neo-Nazi groups fell from 170 to 99, and racist "skinheads" fell from 133 to 78 over the same time span. Still, the overall number of hate groups has increased, largely due to increases in anti-Muslim groups and black separatist groups.

7. Other racially focused group numbers ticking upward in 2016

But neo-Confederate and black separatists have seen their numbers increase over the last few years. The number of neo-Confederate groups inched up to 43 -- the highest figure since early in Obama's presidency but still far from its 21st century high of 124 groups in 2001. Meanwhile, the number of black separatists has rocketed from 81 groups a decade ago to 193 groups now -- the largest subgroup of hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Also, it should be noted that neo-Nazis and white nationalists, both mentioned in the previous section, bucked their yearslong trend and saw their numbers tick up just slightly in 2016.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the highest number of neo-Confederate groups in the 21st century. Neo-Confederate groups reached a 21st century high of 124 groups in 2001.

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by the numbers: 7 charts that explain hate groups in the united states - cnnpolitics

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Ryan Struyk, CNN with graphics by Will Mullery, CNN

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By the numbers: 7 charts that explain hate groups in the United States

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President Donald Trump denounced violence "on many sides" on Saturday after protesters and counterprotesters clashed. But the President faced bipartisan criticism for failing to call out the racist and white supremacist views of those who had traveled from across the country for the event; he finally did so Monday afternoon, a full 48 hours after his first tweet on the topic.

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Following the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan emerges to suppress and victimize newly freed slaves.

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Hate Crimes

Protection for Sexual Orientation
Iowa Code § 792A.2
Hate crimes are defined as crimes committed against a person of their property "because of the person's race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability, or the person's association with a person of a certain race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability."

Protection for Gender Identity
Iowa Code § 792A.2
Iowa does not have protections against hate crimes based on gender identity.

Required Reporting - Sexual Orientation
Iowa Code § 692.15(7)
Iowa Code § 692.15(7) requires the reporting of "hate crimes listed in section 729A.2," which include crimes committed because of the victim's sexual orientation.

Required Reporting - Gender Identity
Iowa Code § 692.15(7)
Iowa does not have protections against hate crimes based on gender identity.

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Protection for Sexual Orientation Iowa Code § 792A.2 Hate crimes are defined as crimes committed against a person of their property "because of the person's race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability, or the person's association with a person of a certain race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability."

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Subscribe to the https://soundslikehate.org/">Sounds Like Hate podcast to learn more about hate groups like the Proud Boys.​