US

‘Not Really Set Up to Cover the Extreme Left’: Southern Poverty Law Center Explains Why it Doesn‘t Track Occupy as a ’Hate Group’

Following the arrests this week of several Occupy Cleveland-linked anarchists for allegedly trying to blow up a bridge, National Review Online’s Charles C.W. Cooke reached out to the Southern Poverty Law Center to see whether the group had any plans to monitor the Occupy Wall Street as a hate group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a left-leaning nonprofit well known for tracking groups in the U.S. that it deems hateful, including the Ku Klux Klan, New Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam and Aryan Nation. The socially-conservative Family Research Council is also on the list, a label it has blasted as a “slanderous attack and attempted character assassination.”

Cooke’s question to an SPLC representative was straightforward — “Do you have any plans to start tracking Occupy Wall Street after a hate group tried to blow up a bridge?”:

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “We blogged it right away when it happened.” I asked him why he thought this deserved only a blog post, and he explained that the SPLC only deals with “hatred of people based on class characteristics,” which a little more pushing revealed meant “immutable characteristics such as a person’s eye or skin color.” “So,” I asked, “Occupy doesn’t count because it doesn’t hate people based on their innate characteristics?” He assented, but didn’t explain adequately why SPLC is vocal on “Islamophobia,” for example — whatever Islam is, it is not an “immutable” characteristic — and why it concerns itself with matters of traditionalist Catholic theology.

“We did go after the eco-terrorists,” he told me. “But that was because they’d adopted the same tactics as the abortion activists: vilification, the use of ‘Wanted’ posters, highlighting the names and whereabouts of people’s children and spouses.” And then he went on a long speech about “anti-abortion extremists” that had very little to do with what I was asking, but no doubt made him feel good. I met this with silence, so he said that, really, the SPLC only tracks those who commit violence or who seek to destroy whole systems in the name of an ideology.

“Isn’t that exactly what happened in Cleveland?” I asked. “These five men, all linked with Occupy Wall Street, attempted to blow up a bridge as an overture to the wholesale destruction of Cleveland, Ohio, and in the name of anarchism. They also looked to blow up the Republican convention.”

“They were anarchists,” he repeated.

“Yes?”

He paused. “We’re not really set up to cover the extreme Left.”

The SPLC representative went on to explain that the organization also doesn’t cover groups like prison gangs “because they aren’t political.”

When Cooke pressed that Occupy is in fact political, the representative gave a verbal shrug: “Well, take it if you will, or won’t.”

The center, he said, only ever covers left-wing groups when they have a right-wing component, like “when anarchist groups are infiltrated by those on the right; Neo-Nazis, that sort of thing.”

Read the full post at National Review Online here.

Comments (114)

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  • Wat Tyler
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 4:39pm

    I’ve known for years that this SPLC is the biggest farce and fraud on the national scene. It is nothing more than a front for East Coast Marxist lawyers pretending to legitimize themselves as credible and “mainstream”. This is done in coordination with the East Coast liberal media that always seeks their opinion whenever there is a “hate crime” (a.k.a Orwell’s “thought crime”) somewhere, usually in the South. I’ve noticed their biased, leftist opinions are regarded as gospel by the media, who never questions or investigates just who they are.

    I can remember years back when Morris Dees was on Donahue as a guest. He was treated by Phil and his canned Commie audience like he was the second coming personified. I also remember that I wanted to puke afterwards.

    Report Post » Wat Tyler  
  • rlrork55
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 4:06pm

    Well SPLC here’s one for you. I HATE left leaning communist bastards like you. You are totally irrelevant because of your bias and hatred. Look me up n come after me!

    Report Post »  
  • blackyb
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 3:44pm

    Close down the Souther Law Center. It is good for nothing.

    Report Post » blackyb  
    • RailRoadCar9
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 4:07pm

      they cant close these crooks the criminals in our government would loose a propaganda ministry

      Report Post »  
    • rawmilker
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 6:06pm

      Except help keeping the funding going for dem programs that keep the poor down on the plantation.

      Report Post » rawmilker  
  • OperationNorthwoods
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 3:38pm

    Judge Napolitano and Ron Paul declared extremists by SPLC.

    http://www.infowars.com/splc-declares-paul-and-napolitano-extremist-enablers/

    Apparently TIME TO END agrees with the SPLC. Guess that shows which side he’s on.

    Report Post » OperationNorthwoods  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 4:18pm

      LMAO! Screw the SPLC… and Ron Paul. Both are as dangerous to this country as Obama. Your handle reminds me of Operation Mongoose and Dirty Trick? Hmmmm? Like to get something off your chest?

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • Wat Tyler
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 4:57pm

      Yes, following the Constitution and not being a client of Israel is very, very dangerous to this country. What a joke are. You’re obviously a neo-con warmonger who wants to bankrupt this country on foreign adventures, while at the same time setting up a police state with sterioded Gestapos opening FEMA camps.

      That, BTW, is not dangerous to this country? Fool or traitor? I’m not sure which yet, but I’m leaning to you being a traitor.

      Report Post » Wat Tyler  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 6:19pm

      WAT. Ron Paul/ Pvt Bradley Manning… ’nuff said.

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • Wat Tyler
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 6:51pm

      You’re making my case for me about your warped mindset.

      Pvt Bradley Manning helped to expose dirty behind the scenes shenanigans by our government that people like you think are better kept tucked away as “secrets”. I personally don’t want a country with a Secret Police. I can tell you, on the other hand, have no problem with it.

      I‘m glad there are Pvt Bradley Manning’s out there with the b@lls to take on tyranny.

      He has been tortured by our righteous heroes for his work. Amnesty International and the UN have condemned his treatment (that you don’t hear about. Hmmm, I wonder why that is, don’t you?)

      Yet our pompous self-righteous State Department has the audacity to criticize China and others for “human rights abuses”?

      It’s a lot like the pot calling the kettle black. It’s no wonder China sees the US “human rights” effort as a hypocritical joke and gives it no credibility.

      I just know that if Wikileaks exposed the JFK assassins and it was proven to be CIA, people like you would insist that it’s not the CIA personnel that should be punished, rather it’s the person who exposed the story who should be punished.

      I‘ll just bet you’re all for the “don’t videotape police abuses” laws in some states.

      And you say RP’s ideas are dangerous for the country?

      Report Post » Wat Tyler  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 7:26pm

      WAT. Ron Paul/John kerry/John Murtha (same mindset, basically calling our Military murderers engaged in illegal warrrr-mongerrrrring and killing innocent women and children)… more ’nuff said.

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • Wat Tyler
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 7:40pm

      Hey, if the shoe fits…”’nuff said”.

      Report Post » Wat Tyler  
    • Blazebanned
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 10:33pm

      @Time.
      Whether you know it or not, you are arguing with the local libtroll encinom. Please dont feed this
      moronic pos.

      ps Go ahead Blaze ban my comments again,i’ll just do what encinom does and create dozens of new accts.Funny, i thought Beck was above doing what huffpo and media matters does, guess i was either wrong, of the huffpo reject in charge of the Blaze is doing this on their own.

      Drago.

      Report Post »  
    • Wat Tyler
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 11:53pm

      Apparently, It’s Drago the Drag Queen who the troll or she would not have been banned.

      Report Post » Wat Tyler  
    • wdittgasn
      Posted on May 6, 2012 at 6:38am

      Ron Paul is the only one worth a crap. I would love to see sparks fly if he were elected……Time to end…you are an idiot and have a phobia that could use some psychiatric help!

      Report Post » wdittgasn  
  • rebelwuf
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 3:19pm

    The SPLC is a hate group.

    Report Post »  
  • RedDirtTexas
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 3:12pm

    Anyone know what ACORN has morphed into? They were another mesh of this wool net that has been quietly creeping up from behind. Another club in their bag. Just wondering. Haven’t heard much on them lately.

    Report Post » RedDirtTexas  
  • Mandors
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 3:04pm

    “The Southern Poverty Law Center is a left-leaning nonprofit.”

    No. The SPLC has been a FAR left, “economic justice” group for a long time.

    Report Post » Mandors  
  • AmazingGrace8
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 3:02pm

    The SPLC has there own style of a game of checkers. Jump your own man to get to the opponents and when you are crowned king, you can move around the board as you please.

    Report Post »  
    • AmazingGrace8
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 3:06pm

      there s/b their. No mistake when there is a small k in the word king..LOL

      Report Post »  
  • barber2
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:59pm

    I long for the days when it was considered shameful to be label a Communist and to be associated with them. To such people as the anti-capitalist Occupiers being given “ sympathy ” by the president who is associated such people as Van Jones and Bill Ayers is horrifying. All such people need to be “ outed” and ousted from the White House and from congress. Top to bottom.

    Report Post »  
    • Exrepublisheep
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 4:25pm

      It used to be shameful but with the right calling everybody who disagrees with them “communists” it has lost its bite.

      Report Post » Exrepublisheep  
    • barber2
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 6:52pm

      What do you call an ” anti-capitalist, ” Ex ? OWS was sponsored by Adbusters which is a flaming Left wing group of ” anti-capitalists !” That is just PC/ Democrat Code / Mis- Speak for the old Far Left, Big Brother/ anti-rich/ anti-banks/ Workers of the World government policies which espouse the same goals as the old International Communist party. Today’s Democrats, schooled in Alinsky tactics, have just substituted the “ middle class ” for the old “ proletariat ” rhetoric. Compete with the upraised, clench fist ! DUH. We get it…and it has nothing to do with what the “ right” is calling anyone. It is all about what POLICIES espoused by our New Left ” Democrats .” JFK must be twirling …

      Report Post »  
  • inferno
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:38pm

    This is another left wing organization I instinctivly had a gut feeling about, years ago when they made news. As it turns out, every organization I have ever heard of similar to that oganization, gave me a sour feeling in my gut. I was right. They all turned out to be left wing nut jobs, who attempted to
    make the public they were for thr poor and down trodden. You know, kinda like Marx and Lenin !
    Oh yea , and Mao !

    Report Post »  
  • IMaTELLaU
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:33pm

    Who is funding these slanderous leftists known as the SPLC?…. read 1 mag to know they themselves are a hate group.

    Report Post »  
    • HKS
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:59pm

      As far as I know the tea party group rallies haven‘t left as much as a scrap of paper on the ground when they left with no disturbances that didn’t come from liberal party busting and they didn’t hesitate to claim them as a hate group. Is there something wrong with that picture?

      Report Post » HKS  
  • inferno
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:32pm

    Bull S–t ! The Southern Poverty Law Center IS the extreme left. The only people they ever investigate, are those who are center or right of center ! They have absolutely nothing to do with
    Poverty Law ! Like every left wing organization, they hide behind a phony cause !

    Report Post »  
    • Pink_Panther_Party
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 3:44pm

      Sure they do! (provide indigent legal help for a reason)

      They can get TAX EXEMPTIONS for their phony baloney money-laundering effort for the gigantic campaign slush fund a.k.a the Demo-Commie party!

      Report Post » Pink_Panther_Party  
  • barber2
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:25pm

    The Occupy Movement was sponsored by Adbusters which is an avowed anti-capitalist group. America is a capitalist country. How can a group whose aim is to destroy capitalism NOT be considered a terrorist / revolutionary group – ESPECIALLY. if they have anarchists attached to them ?? This is another one of the completely irrational, illogical situations which the Far Left has been allowed to pull in this country ! Anyone advocating revolution is NOT a law abiding citizen. We use ELECTIONS, not revolutions in America ! WAKE UP. Reminds me of all of the Lefty flap about not calling someone in this country without following the legal means to get here, an “ illegal” alien. WAKE UP. The Left is trying to distort our vocabulary and, in so doing, undermine our laws and security. Illegal is illegal : elections are legal; revolutions are illegal !

    Report Post »  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on May 7, 2012 at 3:03pm

      Respectfully disagree.Revolution is not illegal if the vetted system of doing things is respected[elections]/If however the enemy wishs to use fraud and deception in those elections we the people are within our legal and moral bounds to do what me must to save our country.Furthermore that includes revolution.Please go back and reread the constitution.And history of the american revolution to boot.Claiming that someone is antiamerican or illegal in calling for [at the appropriate time] is a smokescreen for personal irresponsibility.It also would allow the enemy to capitalize on our weaknesses.

      Report Post »  
  • burnbabylon
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:17pm

    SPLC Socialist Progressive Leftist Communists

    Report Post »  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:33pm

      You beat me to it. : )

      Report Post » The-Monk  
    • RLTW
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:33pm

      Yes! It’s hard for SPLC to look at their own personal shadow.

      Report Post »  
  • barber2
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:14pm

    Perhaps someone needs to convince these geniuses that any group which develops plans to blow up bridges could be labeled an eco-terrorist group ! Duh….

    Report Post »  
  • sillyfreshness
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:06pm

    Southern Poverty Law Center is not a “left leaning group”. They are full out, full blown communists. OWS is mostly made up of hard core commies as well. Therefore, SPLC will not put any bad light on OWS as they are both comrades in the struggle to overthrow this country. It’s funny too how SPLC has any authority and people actually listen to them. It’s like having a Nazi Party affiliate “Northern Industry Law Center” that criticizes anything left and having everyone respecting what they say. SPLC has no authority, they are a joke and yet everyone listens to what they say. SPLC would be better suited to exist in Cuba since they are both communist ideology.

    Report Post » sillyfreshness  
  • barber2
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:05pm

    Please send this on to Fox and the Drudge Report. This obviously bias needs to see the light of day and be more publicized. Disgusting political bias.

    Report Post »  
  • All Pro
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:00pm

    The center, he said, only ever covers left-wing groups when they have a right-wing component, like “when anarchist groups are infiltrated by those on the right; Neo-Nazis, that sort of thing.”

    Anarchy IS extreme right. What a dolt. I notice he wasn’t asked about the funding they receive from Spooky dude. The puppet master’s strings are every where.

    Report Post » All Pro  
    • Kerstile
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 5:49pm

      Others have also mentioned that this SPLC spokesman doesn’t even know his left from his right. Anarchists are the farthest right one can get. National Socialists (neonazis) are as far left as communists.

      Report Post » Kerstile  
  • fangbanger
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:00pm

    “They were anarchists,” he repeated.

    “Yes?”

    He paused. “We’re not really set up to cover the extreme Left.”

    The SPLC representative went on to explain that the organization also doesn’t cover groups like prison gangs “because they aren’t political.”

    When Cooke pressed that Occupy is in fact political, the representative gave a verbal shrug: “Well, take it if you will, or won’t.”

    The center, he said, only ever covers left-wing groups when they have a right-wing component, like “when anarchist groups are infiltrated by those on the right; Neo-Nazis, that sort of thing.”

    wait- anarchy is the lack of government. that would make it extreme right, not left. Extreme left would by tyranny or absolute government. neo-nazis are not right wing. why is SPLC relevant other that they are a bully for the progressive left?

    Report Post » fangbanger  
    • Wat Tyler
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 9:24pm

      I’ve noticed that, too. They talk about “Marxist anarchists”, yet that is an oxymoron. Anarchism wants no government at all, while Marxism is the government control of everything.

      Some people talk about being anarchists and then in the same breath talk about setting up “collectives”, which again, is a form of government. Basically replacing one form of government with another. That is more like Marxism.

      The two are completely incompatible.

      Report Post » Wat Tyler  
  • Avigdor
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:59pm

    It is against US law and several executive orders to engage in gathering intelligence on US persons (citizens and resident aliens). EO 13333 is an example. No agency of the US government can use intelligence gathered in this manner.

    Think of what the outcry would be if some group would gather intel on the various leftwing groups such as ALF, ELF, DailyKos, Code Pink as well as on individuals,

    Report Post »  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:53pm

    This may factor into the fact they do not see the Occupy movement worth monitoring; see what they have stated in the past on the Tea Party:

    http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/03/03/southern-poverty-law-center-tries-to-alinsky-the-tea-party-movement/

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:12pm

      Good catch Snow. As I was reading the article above I kept thinking to myself that the SPLC had injected itself against the Tea Party.

      Report Post » RJJinGadsden  
    • Lloyd Drako
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 5:15pm

      Since the Occupy movement is not overtly racist, not particularly southern, and at least claims to be defending the poor, it would seem rather outside SPLC’s mandate to monitor it.

      Report Post » Lloyd Drako  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 9:24pm

      @LLoyd – on the surface true; yet the fact that the Occupy bands do accept violence and demand the rich be brought to street justice, burn buildings and the like, that marks them as a group to be watched closely.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • kevymac
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:50pm

    They have no shame.

    Report Post » kevymac  
    • TurboCat
      Posted on May 6, 2012 at 2:47am

      @SNOWLEOPARD I was also remembering the way that the SPLC would come on MSNBC all of the time to denigrate the Tea Party in 2010. And they were constantly trying to imply that the Tea Party would try to start a ‘revolution’. I remember them whispering in hushed tones about how awful that anyone would want a ‘revolution’. Of course the accusations were false, but now MSNBC seems very much okay with the OWS constantly talking about revolutions in America. Oh the hypocrisy!

      Report Post »  
  • Tabasco81
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:48pm

    http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Finfo.publicintelligence.net%2FUSArmy-InternmentResettlement.pdf&h=NAQF15RaJ

    Report Post »  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:56pm

      Advice from an old Soldier….when you hit the camp… don’t volunteer for anything! Lol.

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • Wat Tyler
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 9:29pm

      @ TIME_2_BEGIN_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_16:

      You sound like a goldbrick. I remember your type, always trying to sham out of work. You probably went on profile a lot so as to get a free ride while your fellow soldiers carried your weight.

      Report Post » Wat Tyler  
  • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:40pm

    Soooo, in essence… the SPLC should never be taken seriously.

    Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • mils
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:52pm

      absolutely right!!!! soooooo tell us what are they “prepared” to cover?…actually,. nothing, without bias

      Report Post »  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:56pm

      Judging from what I know of them, they have condemned the Tea Party for the most part; demonizing them with techniques out of the book “rules for radicals.“ The full information can be found by a yahoo search of ”Southern Poverty Law Center and Tea Party,” I am still digging for more on this matter.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:02pm

      SNOW. The shame of it is that some bad actors have attached themselves to the Tea Party Movement which gets distorted by the MSM as the “entire” Tea Party Movement for the sole purpose of marginalizing it. I have been to a number of Tea Party events and I have written here about who those bad actors are and why they need to be put out with the trash…

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • sillyfreshness
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:08pm

      TIME_2_START_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_16 (whether is be Ron or Rand).

      Report Post » sillyfreshness  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:10pm

      SILLY. That IS… frofoundly…. SILLY.

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • barber2
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:11pm

      maybe they should be labeled a hate group.

      Report Post »  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:13pm

      BARBER2. Hmmmm, good point!

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • barber2
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:17pm

      Like the anarchists who have “attached ” themselves to the Ron Paul campaign..and who post here as “conservatives ”….more of the MediaMatters / Jason Levin Trolls who target the Tea Party…all part of the smoke and mirrors..Guy Fawkes masked, hoodie wearing Lefty wackos..

      Report Post »  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:31pm

      BARBER2. Like Obama, Ron Paul has a large tent which is purposely very welcoming to many nuts with many different agendas… and it isn’t all end the fed and sound money.

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
    • Wat Tyler
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 4:43pm

      TIME_2_START_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_16. Very good! I wonder where I heard that before?

      The “tea party” has now been usurped and is a tool of “inside the beltway” neo-cons. Avoid anything to do with it like the plague.

      Report Post » Wat Tyler  
    • TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 5:03pm

      WAT. Ohhhh, that’s right… you think Ron Paul can take credit for the Tea Party based on a “Money Bomb” event and the Tea Party was stolen out from under his fringe pandering arse right??

      Report Post » TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12  
  • EqualJustice
    Posted on May 5, 2012 at 1:39pm

    He paused. “We’re not really set up to cover the extreme Left.” HAHAHAHA We never knew! CAll me shocked!!!

    Report Post » EqualJustice  
    • HKS
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:04pm

      I think what he really meant was “we were told not to cover the left”. That would be the truth, liberals being what liberals are, would not know the truth if it bit them on the ass.

      Report Post » HKS  
    • momrules
      Posted on May 5, 2012 at 2:08pm

      That kind of jumped out at me too, Equal……….

      Report Post »  
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