The Popularity of Hate

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups has been on the rise, and so have violent, race based crimes. Particularly evident is the rise in crimes and groups that are dedicated to stopping immigration from Latin America. For the most part the public image of groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform is quite professional but the ugliness lies below the surface. Take for instance the debate between the two aforementioned groups.

From The Houston Chronicle:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a report titled The Year in Hate, said it counted 888 hate groups in its latest tally, up from 844 in 2006 and 602 in 2000.

The most prominent of the organizations newly added to the list, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, vehemently rejected the "hate group" label, and questioned the law center's motives. FAIR said the center was using smear tactics to boost donations and stifle legitimate debate on immigration.

"Their banner may be 'Stop the hate' but it's really 'Stop the debate,'" said FAIR's president, Dan Stein. "Apparently you can't even articulate an argument for immigration reform without being smeared."

The law center's report contends there is a link between anti-immigrant activism and the significant rise in hate crimes against Latinos in recent years. According to the latest FBI statistics, 819 people were victimized by anti-Latino hate crimes in 2006, compared with 595 in 2003.

"The immigration debate has turned ugly and the result has been a growth in white supremacist hate groups and anti-Latino hate crime," said Mark Potok, director of the law center's Intelligence Project. "The majority of anti-Latino hate crimes are carried out by people who think they're attacking immigrants, and very likely undocumented immigrants."

People who fear immigrants is nothing new in this country. It has been going on since immigrants arrived at the shores in the early 17th century, particularly worsening in the 19th century. Regardless of what year it is, as long as people are taught to fear someone based on their country of origin or skin color, that fear is more than likely able to translate itself into anger and possibly violence. So as long as leaders put the fear out there, we will continue to see groups with misleading names like FAIR.

Falafel Fascination With Lesbian Gangs

O'Reilly likes to tout that he brings the news that is relevant to people who watch his show. With that said, there has to be a lot of Americans out there that are being harassed by gangs of lesbians. It is something I worry about every waking moment. According to O'Reilly and his focus on this ridiculous idea, it is something you should be terrorized about too.

From The Southern Poverty Law Center:

A "national underground network" of pink pistol-packing lesbians is terrorizing America. "All across the country," they are raping young girls, attacking heterosexual males at random, and forcibly indoctrinating children as young as 10 into the homosexual lifestyle, according to a shocking June 21 segment on the popular Fox News Channel program, "The O'Reilly Factor."

Titled "Violent Lesbian Gangs a Growing Problem," the segment began with host Bill O'Reilly briefly referencing for his roughly 3 million viewers the case of Wayne Buckle, a DVD bootlegger who was attacked by seven lesbians in New York City last August. Deploying swift, broad strokes, O'Reilly painted a graphic picture of lesbian gangs running amok. "In Tennessee, authorities say a lesbian gang called GTO, Gays Taking Over, are involved in raping young girls," he reported. "And in Philadelphia, a lesbian gang called DTO, Dykes Taking Over, are allegedly terrorizing people as well."

(snip)

The Authorities Disagree
Nine-millimeter Glocks painted pink? Dykes taking over? More than 150 lesbian gangs in the Washington, D.C., area alone? These claims are, as Wheeler suggested, "very, very interesting." They're also very, very flimsy. Gaithersburg, Md., Detective Patrick Word, president of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gang Investigators Network, an intelligence-sharing organization of 400 criminal justice professionals in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, said there is no evidence whatsoever of a lesbian gang epidemic in his region. "Our membership reports only one lesbian gang," Word told the Intelligence Report.

Sgt. Brett Parson, a member and former commander of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit, also questioned Wheeler's numbers. "We have 150 to 175 total gangs in the D.C. area, and out of those only nine where the predominance of members are female," he said. "You simply can't make the jump that they are lesbians. I think it is fair to talk about violence and female gangs. But to sensationalize or marginalize a community by making a statement like that seems irresponsible."

Sgt. Parson, there is nothing responsible about Bill O'Reilly and the "experts" he brings on to prove his hateful theories and remarks. It is amazing that Bill still has three million viewers. It is incredible that one single person would buy his bullshit. Then again, when one is sucked into being made afraid of people that they have no contact with (especially when groups being attacked are mostly fictitious) it is easy to tune in to learn about who they should be afraid of next. Speaking of next....what will the Falafel come up with next week? I hear those two-headed Democrats are especially creepy.