Bad and Getting Worse: Violent Far Right Groups on the Rise

“The heirs of Timothy McVeigh are busy. Violence perpetrated by individuals and groups affiliated with far-right groups is bad and getting worse, according a report released last week by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, a privately-funded, independent institution located at the Army academy.

Not only is right-wing violence claiming more victims every year, the main ideological strands within it—white supremacy, anti-federalism, and Christian fundamentalism—which are united by a common American nationalism, link violent conduct to their underlying ideology and “reinforce one other in the organizational frameworks of the American violent far right.”

To understand the American violent far right, the report analyzes 4,420 violent incidents that occurred between 1990 and 2012 in the United States, and which caused 670 deaths and 3,053 injuries. All the incidents were perpetrated by groups or individuals affiliated with far-right associations or were intended to promote ideas compatible with far-right ideology.

The report found a “very clear” overall trend of increasing attacks from the early 1990s onward, with the average number of attacks rising from 70.1 in the 1990s to 307.5 in the 2000s, a jump of more than 400%. Fourteen of the 21 years covered saw an increase in attacks over the previous year. Other findings include the following…”

Full article