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ADL report: Mass shootings in US linked to hateful ideology

By BELINDA ROBINSON in New York | China Daily Global | Updated: 2023-02-27 09:45

Many mass shootings that were done by extremists last year in the United States had ties to right-wing extremism and were often fueled by white supremacist ideology, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The ADL is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. Its Center on Extremism, which tracks slayings linked to various forms of extremism in the United States and compiles them in an annual report, found that right-wing extremists killed 25 people in 12 separate incidents in 2022.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings," the report said.

One of the most high-profile cases was the shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, by Payton Gendron, a white gunman who killed 10 black shoppers.

In another incident, a gunman killed five people and wounded 17 at Club Q, a LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The gunman, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, allegedly ran a neo-Nazi website and used racial and gay slurs while gaming, said police during a trial to determine if the shooter should face hate charges.

The ADL's report revealed that the number of cases that have been linked to extremism in the past 10 years was three times higher than it was in any other span over a decade since the 1970s.

Only two to seven cases related to extremism had occurred every decade since the 1970s until 2000. But by 2010, the figure rose to 21 and the number of cases has continued to climb, according to the report.

Between 2010 and 2020, 164 people died after being involved in a mass shooting by extremists. The number is higher than in any other decade except the 1990s. At least 93 percent of all murders were carried out with a firearm, the data showed.

Aside from right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism is also of concern. The ADL found that "left-wing extremists engage in violence ranging from assaults to fire-bombings and arsons, but since the late 1980s have not often targeted people with deadly violence".

Some other mass murders have been fueled by Islamic extremists who support the Islamic State group, or Muslim extremism.

However, those incidents have decreased significantly in the US over the past five years, and if that trend continues, the main domestic threat in the US will be from white supremacists in the future, the report said.

"Of particular concern in recent years are shootings inspired by white supremacist ‘accelerationist' propaganda urging such attacks," it said.

The Center on Extremism has followed trends in extremism since 2008 and has looked back at cases from the 1970s onwards.

It said it had identified 62 extremist-connected mass killing incidents since 1970, with 46 of them being ideologically motivated. Over half — or 57 percent — of these killings occurred within the past 12 years over extreme ideology.

In 2022, 18 of the 25 extremist-related murders were done in whole or part for ideological motives. The seven other murders either had no clear motive or were committed for a non-ideological motive, the report states.

"White supremacists commit the greatest number of domestic extremist-related murders in most years, but in 2022 the percentage was unusually high: 21 of the 25 murders were linked to white supremacists," the ADL's report said.

"Again, this is primarily due to mass shootings. Only one of the murders was committed by a right-wing anti-government extremist — the lowest number since 2017."

Many of the gunmen who were inspired by hateful ideology left public manifestos online about why they had to kill their victims.

Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old gunman carried out a shooting rampage in El Paso, Texas, in August 2019, killing 23 people who were mainly Hispanic at a Walmart. Minutes before his killing spree, he posted an ani-immigrant manifesto online explaining his actions.

Similarly, Gendron, the 18-year-old gunman in the Buffalo shooting posted a racist manifesto online before livestreaming his killings on social media. He killed 10 people and wounded three more and altogether, 11 of his victims were black.

In the days after the attack, President Joe Biden condemned his actions while visiting victims' families and local officials.

"Hate and fear are being given too much oxygen by those who pretend to love America but who don't understand America," Biden said.

"We're the most multiracial, most dynamic nation in the history of the world. Now's the time for the people of all races, from every background, to speak up as a majority of Americans and reject white supremacy," he added.

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