Stop treating the Southern Poverty Law Center like it's a respectable and responsible

Stop treating the Southern Poverty Law Center like it's a respectable and responsible organization

[COLOR=#636C72 !important]by Becket Adams | Feb 28, 2018, 5:02 PM | Updated Mar 1, 2018, 1:00 PMShare on Twitter Share on Facebook Email this article Share on LinkedIn Print this article

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in 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center labelled women's rights activist, female genital mutilation victim, atheist, and ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali an "anti-Muslim extremist" because she opposes Islamic extremism. (AP Photo/Shiho Fukada)


The SPLC is a dishonest, irresponsible and obnoxiously partisan organization. Trusting them to decide what constitutes objectionable and “extremist” content, as YouTube’s more than 100 “Trusted Flaggers” have been asked to do, is like asking the inmates to run the asylum.

YouTube’s monitoring program dates to 2012. However, according to the Caller, it has “exploded in size in recent years amid a Google push to increase regulation of the content on its platforms, which followed pressure from advertisers.”

“Fifty of the 113 program members joined in 2017 as YouTube stepped up its content policing,” the report added. “[T]he third-party groups work closely with YouTube’s employees to crack down on extremist content in two ways … First, the flaggers are equipped with digital tools allowing them to mass flag content for review by YouTube personnel. Second, the partner groups act as guides to YouTube’s content monitors and engineers designing the algorithms policing the video platform but may lack the expertise needed to tackle a given subject.”

Spokespersons for the SPLC have not yet responded to the Washington Examiner’srequest for comment. In the meantime, though, it’s worth repeating: This group is not to be taken seriously, especially when it comes to identifying objectionable content and so-called hate speech.

In 2015, for example. the group caught well-deserved criticism after it put Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on its “extremist watch list,” citing the one-time presidential candidate’s “anti-LGBT views.” Later, in 2016, the SPLC labeled women’s rights activist, female genital mutilation victim, atheist, and ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali an “anti-Muslim extremist” because she opposes Islamic extremism. The British activist and extremist-turned-counter-extremist Maajid Nawaz was placed in the same category.

The left-wing advocacy group lumps pro-family and pro-Israel organizations with actual neo-Nazis. If YouTube is serious about monitoring and rooting out actually objectionable content, this is not the way to go. The SPLC will slap the word “extremist” on just about anything so long as it's right-tilting.

While we’re on the topic of extremism, the SPLC is itself more closely tied to acts of political violence than many of the people and groups they monitor. One wonders if they have plans to add their own name to their “hate map.”

The SPLC is not in the business of making the world a more loving, tolerant and polite place. They are interested only in crushing anything to the right of the Democratic Party, not just crazy white nationalist groups.

Journalist Ken Silverstein, who has covered SPLC extensively, summed it up best in 2010 when he said the group is "essentially a fraud" with "a habit of casually labeling organizations as 'hate groups.'"

Update: An SLPC spokesperson confirmed in a statement to ThinkProgress that the organization is indeed a member of YouTube's "Trusted Flaggers" program. What a farce.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/st...rticle/2650327

They're all immigration lawyers earning their livelihoods hassling and hustling Americans for favors for their clients, i. e. ILLEGAL ALIENS.

Reference from Archive:



Southern Poverty Law Center: ‘Our Aim in Life Is to Destroy These Groups, Completely’
BY TYLER O'NEIL
SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has gained traction in recent weeks, but contrary to media reports, the group does not exist to "monitor hate groups" but to destroy groups that it targets for "strictly ideological" reasons. In light of large donations from Apple, J.P. Morgan, and George Clooney, and CNN's favorable coverage of the SPLC, Americans should learn the real motivations behind this far-left organization.
In the words of SPLC former spokesman Mark Potok (who spent 20 years as a senior fellow at the SPLC and only retired this year, according to LinkedIn), the group does not exist to monitor hate groups.
"Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate groups, I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, completely destroy them," Potok declared at an event in Michigan in 2007.

Read the rest at:
https://www.alipac.us/f9/southern-poverty-law-center-%91our-aim-life-destroy-these-groups-completely%92-350307/


Is Free Speech Under Attack By Tech Companies And Media Outlets With A Left-Leaning Agenda?
Will Ricciardella
Media Reporter
1:36 PM 08/23/2017
“In the wake of last week’s violent protest by alt-right groups in Charlottesville, more tech companies have disavowed relationships with extremist groups. During just the last week, six of the sites on our list were shut down,” writes ProPublica, a left-wing non-profit. ProPublica’s “list,” however, is hardly compiled in a unbiased and objective manner.
“Like other media outlets, we relied in part on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s public list of “Active Hate Groups 2016” writes ProPublica.
At issue in particular is the media’s use of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to single out groups that should be targeted by tech companies for removal. Manyontherightclaim that the ADL and the SPLC are left-leaning organizations that use their list as a political cudgel against those they don’t agree with, like traditional Christian conservative organizations and others that oppose illegal immigration, unjustly lumping them together with white supremacist groups.
ProPublica’s article didn’t target other organizations that are easily considered hate sites like The Daily Stormer, but instead targeted JihadWatch.org, for their director taking the position that “traditional Islam itself is not moderate or peaceful.” This position is certainly debatable, but hardly constitutes white supremacy. The SPLC called them “extremely hostile” to Muslims and labeled them a hate group.
“But its designation as a hate site hasn’t stopped tech companies — including PayPal, Amazon and Newsmax — from maintaining partnerships with Jihad Watch that help to sustain it financially,” lamented ProPublica.
CNN released the SPLC’s hate group list last Thursday without questioning its political leanings. Many organizations on the list are wrongly labeled hate groups for supporting conservative causes, including the Center for Immigration Studies, Alliance Defending Freedom, ACT for America, and Americans For Legal Immigration (ALIPAC).

Read the rest at:
https://www.alipac.us/f36/free-speech-under-attack-tech-companies-media-outlets-alipac-349973/


Obama DOJ Reprimanded SPLC for Hateful Attacks on Immigration Control Groups

MAY 10, 2017
The radical leftist group that helped a gunman commit an act of terrorism against a conservative organization was officially reprimanded by the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) for its hateful attacks, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an extremist nonprofit that lists conservative organizations that disagree with it on social issues on a catalogue of “hate groups.” The previously undisclosed DOJ rebuke is a vindication for groups targeted by the SPLC’s witch hunts and is especially impactful because the Obama administration was tight with the SPLC and even hired the controversial nonprofit to conduct diversity training for the government. Judicial Watch uncovered documents relating to the SPLC’s diversity training at the DOJ back in 2013.

Read the rest at:
https://www.alipac.us/f11/obama-doj-...groups-346961/

Complaint: Liberal ‘Hate Monitoring’ Group Repeatedly Violated Tax Exempt Status During 2016 Elections
BY: Joe Schoffstall
April 5, 2017 3:56 pm
An immigration reform group filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service today alleging that a liberal ‘hate monitoring' organization violated their tax-exempt status on nearly 50 occasions throughout the 2016 elections.
The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), the D.C.-based legal affiliate of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), filed the legal complaint with the IRS alleging that the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization that monitors "activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists," engaged in prohibited activities during a "flagrant, continued and intentional campaign" against Donald Trump and other Republican candidates this past election cycle.
"The IRS grants a special ‘501(c)(3)' tax classification to certain ‘charitable' and/or ‘educational' organizations (both of which the SPLC purports to be) that operate within strict public service guidelines," FAIR said in a press release. "Under the regulations, however, activities such as promoting or opposing certain political candidates for public office are absolutely not permissible communications for these types of privileged organizations. In other words, no electioneering – taking positions in favor of, or against, any active candidate for public office."
Dan Stein, FAIR's president, said the SPLC used their website to openly try to discredit then-candidate Donald Trump by alleging on numerous occasions that Trump was not worthy of voter support. The group used "opinion-based smears and innuendos" to engage in "activity masquerading as ‘teaching tolerance.'"

Read the rest at:
https://www.alipac.us/f9/complaint-l...s-duri-345747/



EXCLUSIVE: DOD Drops SPLC From Extremism Training Materials
10/22/2017
The Pentagon has officially severed all ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) after previously relying on the group’s training materials on extremism.
Brian J. Field, assistant U.S. attorney from the Civil Division, stated that the Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity removed any and all references to the SPLC in training materials used by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), in an email obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation from the Department of Justice.

Read the rest at:

https://www.alipac.us/f9/exclusive-dod-drops-splc-extremism-training-materials-351459/


North Carolina Killer a Fan of the Southern Poverty Law Center

1:05 PM, FEB 11, 2015 •
BY MARK HEMINGWAY
The tragic slaying of three Muslim college students in North Carolina is dominating the headlines today.
According to his Facebook page, the killer was a committed atheist and a political liberal. I think it's very rarely helpful or fair to connect political beliefs to the acts of possibly deranged or mentally ill individuals, and thankfully some of the smarter liberal commentators such as Steve Benen agree with me on this point. And Benen was also correct to point out that some on the right have been too quick to point to politics as a motive for individual killings, such as when some conservatives engaged in overheated finger-pointing at New York's liberal mayor Bill de Blasio after two NYPD officers were killed in December.
One of the prime perpetrators of these political smears is the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has devolved from an organization that once combatted real hate groups such as the KKK to a racket that trades on its former reputation to smear people such as Ben Carson as "extremists." The SPLC has, among other things, blamed Sarah Palin's political rhetoric for providing a "a facilitating context” for the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords by a man who is quite clearly mentally ill and barely registers discernible political opinions. Of course, when another man shot a security guard and was intent of starting a killing spree at the mainstream Christian organization the Family Research Council, he told the FBI that he found the organization listed on a "hate map" on the SPLC's website. What was SPLC's response to the awkward revelation that they were associated with this terrible crime?Read the rest at:https://www.alipac.us/f19/north-caro...center-317561/


Frank Gaffney: Southern Poverty Law Center Is Acting As A Surrogate Group For Islamic
by JORDAN SCHACHTEL
12 Feb 2016
Greenville, SC
Frank Gaffney, the founder and president of the Center For Security Policy, tells One America News Network that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is attempting to silence him for speaking out about the threat posed by radical Islam.
He appeared on Tipping Point with Liz Wheeler this week, defending his organization against the assault from the left wing SPLC.
Gaffney said that the SPLC used to be a legitimate civil rights organization, but now the group is a militant left wing outfit that targets pro-freedom groups.

Read the rest at:
https://www.alipac.us/f12/frank-gaffney-southern-poverty-law-center-acting-surrogate-group-islamic-328739/


Report: Department Of Justice, Homeland Security Must Go On Offensive - SPLC
July 23, 2014 by Sam Rolley
The protesters and militia members who showed up to support rancher Cliven Bundy this spring when the Federal government confiscated his livestock because of unpaid grazing fees and desert tortoises belong to a “much larger and more dangerous” network of “radical right-wing extremists,” according to a report out from the once-purposeful Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC claims that its mission is to combat “hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation.” But in recent years, the organization spends most of its time promoting radical political correctness and insisting that modern conservatism is innately driven by hate. In its July 2014 report “War In The West: The Bundy Ranch Standoff and the American Radical Right,” SPLC goes to great trouble to insist that the most radical individuals present at the Bundy ranch are representative of all Americans who are out of step with the prevailing attitudes of the left.

Read the rest at:
https://www.alipac.us/f19/report-department-justice-homeland-security-must-go-offensive-splc-307885/


Obama’s Department of Justice Opening ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Office

by Warner Todd Huston15 Oct 2015Washington D.C.
Likely in response to the attack in a Charleston church where nine were murdered earlier this year, the Obama administration has announced a new office at the Department of Justice aimed at tracking and coordinating investigations into domestic terrorism. They are also teaming up with the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center in the process.
During a speech delivered on October 14 at George Washington University, Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said the new office would be the “main point of contact for U.S. attorneys working on domestic terrorism matters.”

Read the rest at:https://www.alipac.us/f19/doj-teamin...7/#post1478635



Southern Poverty Law Center re-launches anti-immigration law hotline
Wednesday, June 06, 2012, 12:23 PM
The Birmingham News
MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- The Southern Poverty Law Center re-launched a hotline today for people to report problems they have experienced as a result of Alabama's immigration law.

Read the rest at:https://www.alipac.us/f12/southern-p...otline-258870/



No Fly List? Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real Share

Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real
By Michelle Malkin • April 14, 2009 12:01 AM

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Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled:

Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.

The “report” (PDF file here) was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.
I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.1
Well, the press office got back to me and verified that the document is indeed for real.

Read the rest at:https://www.alipac.us/f9/no-fly-list-confirmed-obama-dhs-hit-job-conservatives-real-share-325995/

ALSO, at the same thread:
72 Types Of Americans That Are Considered “Potential Terrorists” In Official Government Documents
August 26, 2013
Are you a conservative, a libertarian, a Christian or a gun owner? Are you opposed to abortion, globalism, Communism, illegal immigration, the United Nations or the New World Order? Do you believe in conspiracy theories, do you believe that we are living in the “end times” or do you ever visit alternative news websites (such as this one)? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you are a “potential terrorist” according to official U.S. government documents. At one time, the term “terrorist” was used very narrowly. The government applied that label to people like Osama bin Laden and other Islamic jihadists. But now the Obama administration is removing all references to Islam from terror training materials, and instead the term “terrorist” is being applied to large groups of American citizens. And if you are a “terrorist”, that means that you have no rights and the government can treat you just like it treats the terrorists that are being held at Guantanamo Bay. So if you belong to a group of people that is now being referred to as “potential terrorists”, please don’t take it as a joke. The first step to persecuting any group of people is to demonize them. And right now large groups of peaceful, law-abiding citizens are being ruthlessly demonized.

Below is a list of 72 types of Americans that are considered to be “extremists” and “potential terrorists” in official U.S. government documents. To see the original source document for each point, just click on the link. As you can see, this list covers most of the country…
http://thetruthwins.com/archives/72-...ment-documents

Read the rest at:
https://www.alipac.us/f9/no-fly-list...-share-325995/

The above are just the tip of the iceberg in the archives, just plug SPLC to the search box. It seems that after they were exposed, some government agencies that had used the SPLC materialstarted dropping them. But those same agencies, under Obama, were hand in glove with the SPLC and it would appear that the SPLC was heavily involved in policy.

Southern Poverty Law Center is Now Part of DHS (Department of Homeland Security)

Submitted by We the People on
Fri, 10/08/2010

• Daily Paul Liberty Forum

As the below document makes clear, Southern Poverty Law Center is Now Officially Part of DHS. The CEO of SPLC now sits on the DHS “Working Group on Countering Violent Extremism” along with the leaders of other So-called Non Government Organizations (but can we really call them such now that they are part of the government?) And select “law enforcement” officers such as the Clark County Nevada Sheriff, Doug Gillespie. What does the working group do? Make recommendations on training and how to use all of the local resources – police, social services, media, NGO’s, you name it – to fight “extremism. So, now no need to file a FOIA request to discover that SPLC is writing the reports naming constitutionalists as possible terrorists. Now it is in your face and the mask is off.

When you read the below document, keep in mind the current ordeal of the Irish family where their newborn baby was taken based on an affidavit that notes the father’s “association with a militia group known as Oath Keepers.”. Pay attention to who sits on this panel (see pages 26-30), to who DOESN’T, how they plan on reaching DHS tentacles down into every level of society, and how they talk overtly about the need to utilize local SOCIAL WELFARE and MENTAL HEALTH agencies to counter “violent extremism.”. In other words, what is now being done to the Irish family will be done all over.
This is the overt politicization of DHS, to use it against political enemies.
I will post more on this later today.
Stewart Rhodes
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2010/10/08/its-official-southern...

The DHS Politburo.

Read the complete document Here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38939569/Hsac-Cve-Working-Group-Recommendations



Members of the Countering Violent ExtremismWorking Group
Martin O'Malley
Governor, State of Maryland, (Working Group Chair)
Art Acevedo
Chief of Police, Austin Police Department
Nimco Ahmed
Policy Aide, Vice-President of the Minneapolis CityCouncil
Omar Alomari
Community Engagement Officer, Ohio HomelandSecurity
AsliBali
Acting Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Richard Cañas
Former Director, New Jersey Office of HomelandSecurity and Preparedness
Richard Cohen
President and CEO, Southern Poverty Law Center
Michael Downing
Deputy Chief, Commanding Officer, Counter Terrorismand Criminal Intelligence Bureau, Los Angeles PoliceDepartment
Mohamed Elibiary
President and CEO, The Freedom and Justice Foundation
Clark Ervin
Director, Homeland Security Program, The Aspen Institute
Paul Goldenberg
National Director, Secure Community Network
Doug Gillespie
Sheriff, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Ellen Gordon
Associate Director, Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Ronald Haddad
Chief of Police, Dearborn Police Department
AminKosseim
Deputy Inspector, New York City Police Department
Cathy Lanier
Chief, Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department
Imam Mohamed Magid
Executive Director, All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMSCenter)
Mary Marr
President, Christian Emergency Network
Dalia Mogahed
Senior Analyst and Executive Director, Gallup Center for MuslimStudies
Jeff Moss
Director, Black Hat/Techweb
Dan Rosenblatt
Executive Director, International Association of Chiefs of Police
Asim Rehman
President, Muslim Bar Association of New York
Nadia Roumani
Director, American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute
Frances Townsend
Partner, Baker Botts, L.L.P.
Chuck Wexler
Executive Director, Police Executive Research Forum
Skip Williams
Provost and Vice President for Health Affairs, The GeorgeWashington University

Subject Matter Experts
Arif Alikhan
Assistant Secretary, Policy Development, DHS
John Cohen
Special Advisor to the Secretary on Information Sharing, DHS
Bart Johnson
Principal Deputy Under Secretary, Intelligence and Analysis, DHS
David Schanzer
Associate Professor of the Practice for Public Policy and Director,Triangle Center of Terrorism and Homeland Security, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Bob Wasserman
Chairman, Strategic Policy Partnership
Laurie Wood
Analyst, Southern Poverty Law Center/Instructor, Federal LawEnforcement Training Center

https://www.alipac.us/f9/new-souther...center-302425/

WND EXCLUSIVE

'SPLC IS NOW A HATE GROUP ITSELF. IT'S A MONEY-GRABBING SLANDER MACHINE'

Chorus calling for probe of far-left organization grows

Published: 01/17/2018 at 10:19 PMimage: http://www.wnd.com/files/2011/10/runruh.jpg

http://www.wnd.com/files/2011/10/runruh.jpg BOB UNRUH About | Email | Archive

http://www.wnd.com/files/2012/08/Floyd_Corkins.jpgConfessed domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins

It’s not clear exactly when the Southern Poverty Law Center, which years ago famously battled the KKK, turned against Christians and conservatives, but the evidence that it has is overwhelming.

After all, the group that holds hundreds of millions of dollars in its bank accounts, many of them overseas, once labeled famed surgeon and conservative Dr. Ben Carson, now HUD secretary, as a “hater” because of his Christian worldview.

SPLC was the source of the information Floyd Corkins used to target the Family Research Council with a mass-murder attempt at the Christian organization’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. Corkins was foiled by a security officer, but SPLC was formally linked to domestic terror in a federal court case.

The group routinely lashes out at any organization that opposes abortion, transgenderism, or other left-wing causes, publicly calling them “haters.”

Lashes out at those who oppose abortion

SPLC has exhibited behavior so egregious that it was reprimanded by the far-left administration of Barack Obama.

The “alt-left” has been around for decades, but conservatives have remained ignorant. Now, WND takes you inside antifa with an exclusive special report revealing the origins, motivations and future of America’s most widespread and active domestic terrorist group.

Judicial Watch, citing a letter to Michael M. Hethmon, senior counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, and others, said the DOJ reprimand came in 2016 but was “kept quiet at the agency’s request.”

“[It] involves the SPLC’s atrocious behavior during immigration court proceedings. Two groups that oppose illegal immigration, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), were the target of personal, baseless and below-the-belt attacks from SPLC attorneys during official immigration court proceedings. The SPLC filed a motion attacking and defaming the two respected nonprofits by describing them as ‘white supremacist,’ ‘eugenicist,’ ‘anti-Semitic,’ and ‘anti-Catholic.’ In its reprimand the DOJ says it is troubled by the conduct of SPLC lawyer Christopher Strawn and that his conduct ‘overstepped the bounds of zealous advocacy and was unprofessional,'” the report said.

Now, SPLC’s slandering of groups that promote traditional American values has generated a petition for the group to face justice.

Columnist Tom DeWeese at American Policy said there are a couple of reasons why the SPLC is so dangerous.

First, he explained, the SPLC contracts with the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to advise on domestic terrorism.

For example, a 2009 DHS report, “Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” was basically written by SPLC.

The report singles out groups that oppose abortion or illegal immigration.
As with others over the years, the report was was sent to law enforcement agencies across the nation, resulting in police departments issuing bulletins to their officers “to be on the watch for dangerous right-wing activity,” DeWeese said.

SPLC also has organized a working group to “teach local law enforcement how to counter terrorism,” but one member is Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America, “who has been accused of funding terrorist organizations,” DeWeese pointed out. The second reason SPLC is a dangerous threat to American freedom is its so-called “Hate List,” DeWeese said.

“Each year, the SPLC updates its list of ‘extremist’ groups and individuals it declares to be dangerous. Does the list include Black Lives Matter … ANTIFA, or any of the forces that have taken credit for opening fire on crowds attending public events? Nope. SPLC’s list of hate groups are those who oppose Obamacare and NAFTA, are concerned about the economy, and perhaps stockpile food to prepare for possible bad economic times. These are ‘Right Wing Extremists.’ The list goes on to include people like Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, and Sen. Rand Paul. … The list also includes nearly any conservative and Christian organizations that advocate limited government or Christian teachings or government adherence to the Constitution,” he wrote.

Calling for congressional probe

DeWeese is calling for the “leftist outfit” to be investigated by the congressional Homeland Security Committee, and an online petition has been posted for people to join in the request.

Addressed to Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, the petition states: “It appears SPLC is abusing ties to the Department of Homeland Security to threaten and accuse pro-Constitution groups and activists across the nation of potential domestic terrorism. For example, SPLC and DHS documents they have influenced, have so labeled many who simply advocate constitutional government; opposition to abortion; and opposition to various economic programs. It appears that federal funds have been used for this activity.” The groups smeared by SPLC, consequently, could be denied their First Amendment rights, the petition argues.

“SPLC has already incorporated such unsubstantiated and outrageous charges in reports published by DHS, including the ‘Domestic Extremism Lexicon;’ a 2009 report by the Missouri Fusion Center; and through the DHS’ Countering Violent Extremism Working Group, to name a few examples,” the petition states. “Such charges are a dangerous threat to individual freedom and an abuse of government funds against loyal and law-abiding American citizens.”

The petition seeks an “immediate investigation into the activities of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), its ties to the Department of Homeland Security, and its tax-exempt status.”

SPLC ‘guilty of the hate it claims to fight’

DeWeese said SPLC “is a dangerous organization, guilty of the hate it claims to fight.”

“Yet it works closely with our own government in its quest to destroy any Americans who hold opposing views, even to the point of denying them a place in society. The fact is the SPLC would just be another run of the mill leftist outfit if it didn’t have such close ties with our government. Those ties need to be thoroughly investigated by the congressional Homeland Security Committee and then severed immediately.”

“SPLC once fought useful fights. They took on the Ku Klux Klan. But now they go after people on the right with whom they disagree,” he wrote. “They call the Family Research Council a hate group because it says gay men are more likely to sexually abuse children. That’s their belief. There is some evidence that supports it. Do they belong on a ‘hate map,’ like the Ku Klux Klan, because they believe that evidence and worry about it?

“I often disagree with the council, but calling them a hate group is unfair. In my YouTube video this week, the group’s vice president, Jerry Boykin, tells me, ‘I don’t hate gay people. And I know gay people, and I have worked with gay people.'”

Stossel noted that lambasting someone with a “hate group” label makes them a target, referring to the attack on the Family Research Council by Corkins.

Stossel also reported SPLC smears the Ruth Institute, “a Christian group that believes gays should not have an equal right to adopt children.”

The institute’s president, Jennifer Roback Morse, says they’re not “haters.”

“I like gay people. I have no problem with gay people. That’s not the issue. The issue is, what are we doing with kids and the definition of who counts as a parent,” she said.

For that, Stossel said, SPLC put the Ruth Institute on its “hate map.”

‘That led the institute’s credit card processor to stop working with them. In a letter to the institute, the processor company said that it had learned that the ‘Ruth Institute … promotes hate, violence, harassment and/or abuse,'” he reported.

Stossel said: “SPLC is now a hate group itself. It’s a money-grabbing slander machine.”

WND reported when SPLC President Richard Cohen explained why antifa, the loosely affiliated “anti-fascist” movement that uses violence to shut down speech it doesn’t like, is not a hate group. Cohen said it’s because the brutally violent “domestic terrorists” don’t actually espouse hate.

“If you are familiar with our work, we write about antifa often,” Cohen told the House Homeland Security Committee on Nov. 30. “We condemn their tactics – I’ve said so publicly and we do so always – but antifa is not a group that vilifies people on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion and the like.”

Conservative leaders push back

Last September, WND reported 47 conservative leaders urged members of the media across America to stop using “hit pieces” from SPLC.

The leaders included Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, Edwin Meese of the Heritage Foundation, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William Boykin of the Family Research Council, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and Michael Farris of the Alliance Defending Freedom, Frank Gaffney and Clare Lopez of the Center for Security Policy, Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute, Frank Wright of D. James Kennedy Ministries, Scott Walter of the Capital Research Center, David Barton of WallBuilders, David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center, Martin Mawyer of the Christian Action Network, Tim Wildmon and Sandy Rios of the American Family Association, and Joseph Farah, founder and CEO of WND.com

An announcement about the letter charged SPLC “has recklessly labeled dozens of mainstream conservative organizations as ‘hate groups.'”

The letter states: “We are writing to you as individuals or as representatives of organizations who are deeply troubled by several recent examples of the media’s use of data from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC is a discredited, left-wing, political activist organization that seeks to silence its political opponents with a ‘hate group’ label of its own invention and application that is not only false and defamatory, but that also endangers the lives of those targeted with it.”

Another SPLC-inspired shooting

Last June, SPLC supporter James Hodgkinson shot Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.; Zach Barth, a staff member for Rep. Roger Williams; former congressional staff member Matt Mika; and two U.S. Capitol Police officers at a practice for a charity baseball game.

SPLC had demonized Scalise for promoting white supremacy and inferred he is a “hater.”

Liberty Counsel and D. James Kennedy Ministries have gone to court over SPLC’s charge they are “hate” organizations.

SPLC, or its advocates, already have experienced the negative effects of its “hate” campaign.

WND reported when an organization that posts financial information for charities, Guidestar, abruptly dropped its posting of SPLC’s “hate” designations for conservative groups.

And SPLC got burned when it complained about the pro-family comments of an Alabama Supreme Court justice during a radio interview.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2018/01/splc-is-n...9LIvdHCXP7k.99