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A2 UP FRONT
Monday 26 august 2019

Arkansas, home to supremacist groups, weighs hate crimes law

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — lives a short drive outside
Long before a mass shoot- town.
ing killed 22 people at a In recent years, billboards
Walmart in Texas, the threat occasionally have ap-
of white supremacy was peared with white suprem-
well known in neighboring acist messages such as,
Arkansas, where extremist "Anti-racist is a code word
groups over the decades for anti-white," or promot-
have made their home in ing a white pride website.
the mountains and dense "Once they get a toehold
woods of the state's remote people follow them in
rural areas. there," said Heidi Beirich,
In the 1980s, a group director of the Intelligence
known as the Covenant, Project at the Southern
the Sword and the Arm of Poverty Law Center, refer-
the Lord grew to more than ring to the remote, wooded
100 members before fed- area. The group tracked 14
eral authorities raided its hate groups in Arkansas last
compound in the Ozarks. year.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Harrison leaders insist the
Klan and a "Christian iden- city's reputation is being
tity" group that promotes unfairly tarnished by a small
racism have made their group of people. They've
headquarters in the state. In this Oct. 16, 2013 file photo, motorists drive past a newly installed billboard near the intersection posted "Love Your Neigh-
Just last February, prosecu- of Arkmo Road and Vine Road in Harrison, Ark. bor" billboards in response
tors in Little Rock unsealed Associated Press to the racist signs and even
indictments against 54 held a mock funeral to
members of the New Aryan dialogue, of conversation, posted an anti-immigrant Klan, one of several Klan "bury" racism.
Empire, a white suprema- and I know enough from screed online shortly be- factions, and the white su- "Our problem is that our
cist group that began as a the '80s that when you fore opening fire in the premacist Kingdom Iden- town struggles with a wide-
prison gang. have that conversation Walmart, targeting Hispan- tity Ministries are based in spread and long-lasting
Nonetheless, Arkansas is and increased dialogue ic shoppers. Santino Wil- the Harrison area. The Klan perception that we are
one of only four states with- some people are going to liam Legan, the gunman uses a Harrison post office dominated by bigotry and
out a specific hate crimes take it to the extreme and who killed three people at box for its mailing address, racism," said a message on
law, declining over the act on it," Hutchinson re- a food festival in California, while its national director the city's website.q
years to follow the national cently told reporters. had compiled a "target
legal trend for combatting Pressure for new legislation list" that included religious
ethnic violence as it dealt is also mounting in Georgia groups.
with other priorities it con- and South Carolina, two Arkansas hasn't experi-
sidered more pressing. other states without hate enced any similar mass
Now that reticence is giv- crimes laws. Wyoming is shootings recently, but few
ing way, one of the political the other holdout, while states are more familiar
tremors being felt across a measure enacted in In- with the threat from white
the nation after recent at- diana in April falls short of supremacy.
tacks. Republican Gov. Asa the standard recognized Such groups have long
Hutchinson, who as a fed- by the Anti-Defamation flourished in the Ozark
eral prosecutor wore a bul- League. Mountain region near the
letproof vest to negotiate The threat posed by hate Missouri border where
the end of the siege with groups, white supremacists towns are small and scat-
the Covenant, the Sword and militias has been high- tered far apart and the
and the Arm of the Lord, lighted by two recent mass population is overwhelm-
has called on lawmakers to shootings labeled as do- ingly white.
approve harsher penalties mestic terrorism by federal The largest town, Harrison,
for crimes targeting people authorities. population 13,000, was
because of their race, eth- The suspected gunman in the site of riots in the early
nicity or religion. the El Paso attack, 21-year- 1900s that drove out most
"We have seen a resur- old Patrick Crusius of Allen, of its black population.
gence of white supremacy Texas, is believed to have The Knights of the Ku Klux