Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Resurgance of Militias

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the country is experiencing a resurgence of radical militias for the first time since the beginning of their decline in the 1990s.

Photobucket

The article explains:

"A key difference this time is that the federal government — the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy — is headed by a black man. That, coupled with high levels of non-white immigration and a decline in the percentage of whites overall in America, has helped to racialize the Patriot movement, which in the past was not primarily motivated by race hate. One result has been a remarkable rash of domestic terror incidents since the presidential campaign, most of them related to anger over the election of Barack Obama. At the same time, ostensibly mainstream politicians and media pundits have helped to spread Patriot and related propaganda, from conspiracy theories about a secret network of U.S. concentration camps to wholly unsubstantiated claims about the president's country of birth."

This resurgence is bringing back thoughts and images from the Oklahoma City Bombing, perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh, a sympathizer to the militia movement.

In fact, the Southern Poverty Law Center puts the number of militant plots against the government since the bombing in Oklahoma City at 75. Read more about each plot here.

Currently, the government is looking into a YouTube video posted by suspected militia members threating the government with reprisal by war.