There are so few hate crimes in the United States that demand exceeds supply, leading people to fabricate hate crimes over which to be outraged. The Southern Poverty Law Center has allegedly done one better, now being charged with funding the hate groups it opposes.
The SPLC is facing six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The case was brought forward by the Justice Department, which alleges that the organization was creating bank accounts for fictional organizations and funneling the money through shell entities to disguise where the money was coming from. Where the money was going, apparently, was to individuals affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi organizations.
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That includes $270,000 over eight years that allegedly was paid by the SPLC to someone involved in organizing the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which ultimately led to the death of a counterprotester. That incident also just so happened to lead to an increase in donations to “anti-hate” groups such as the SPLC.
The defenses are now pouring in for the SPLC, of course, summarized nicely by the tut-tutting from USA Today. The left-wing outlet outlined how liberal media, Democrats, and the SPLC would defend the organization with its summary of the situation: “The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted for paying sources to infiltrate hate groups, a tactic federal agencies have used for decades.” SPLC interim CEO Bryan Fair insisted that this was necessary because the SPLC’s offices were firebombed (43 years ago) and there have otherwise been alleged threats against SPLC staff.
It’s a neat story, but it raises a glaring issue. The SPLC was using “a tactic federal agencies have used for decades,” but it is not a federal agency. The SPLC is not a law enforcement agency. The SPLC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, not a police department or the FBI, and the best defense of it is that it was operating as a vigilante group trying to obtain “justice” by helping fund members of hate groups while disguising the financial trail. It isn’t exactly a compelling defense.
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What’s more, the SPLC is obsessed with right-wing hate, while the country is enveloped in left-wing hate from violent antifa-esque left-wing groups. Can you name an example of an organized right-wing hate incident since Charlottesville in 2017? In that same time period, ICE officers have been targeted for assassinations and assaults by left-wing hate groups, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and President Donald Trump was nearly killed twice. The SPLC, meanwhile, was allegedly pouring money into the KKK, which has been irrelevant for decades now.
The reality is that the SPLC ran out of hate to fight and, at best, was inadvertently funding and supporting the groups that it relies on to exist as its opposition. Perhaps there would be less hate in the country if the SPLC let police do their job of investigating threats. Then again, there would also be no need for the SPLC.
