Non-profit to discuss hate groups in Arizona
Center seeks to raise awareness on presence of growing dangers
by Yvonne Wingett - Jul. 24, 2009 12:00 AM

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is bringing a representative from the Southern Poverty Law Center to help raise awareness about the presence of the state's hate groups, the Nativist movement and White-supremacist organizations.

The Montgomery, Ala.-based non-profit organization identifies, monitors and investigates hate activity across the United States.

According to the center, the number of hate groups nationwide has risen 54 percent since 2000, fueled by opposition to non-White immigration, the economic recession and the election of the nation's first Black president.
Heidi Beirich, the center's director of research, will meet with law-enforcement officials and the media Aug. 12-14.

The mayor also is planning some type of public forum to discuss hate groups, especially anti-immigration extremists.

No public money will be spent on the trip, said Scott Phelps, the mayor's spokesman.

Gordon believes that it is critical that news organizations understand how extremists operate to prevent their legitimization as mainstream voices in media reports.

"With the Internet, these groups are able to give themselves their own label of 'patriots,' or 'community activists,' " Gordon said. "And even the media has picked up on that and is using that label for the groups. The groups we're talking about are not community activists or patriots."

The trip has been in the works since last spring with the release of the center's report, "The Year In Hate." The report showed that the number of hate groups in the U.S. continued to rise, with a record 926 active hate groups last year, up more than 4 percent from 888 in 2007. Nineteen of those total groups were in Arizona. Those groups included anti-immigrant, White nationalist and neo-Nazi groups.

The center defines hate groups as those that have "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics."

Arizona in general has been seen as a hotbed of anti-immigration vigilante activity because of its proximity to the border, Beirich said, while metro Phoenix has a considerable amount of skinhead and neo-Nazi activity.

Hate-group activity can include marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, the distribution of leaflets and acts of crime.

"Because Phoenix and the region is on the border, it's particularly important to talk about these things there," Beirich said, "and to raise more awareness about the dangers associated with hate groups and especially anti-immigration extremists."


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