Abq Jew ® Blog: Hate in NM: March 2019

Great News! For our beloved Land of Enchantment, which regularly comes in last, next-to-last, or elsewhere near the bottom of state rankings for such things as education, poverty, and child well-being (as well as overall state rankings), there is (at last!) some truly great news:

New Mexico Has Hit Zero (0)!

It's true! On its latest Hate Map, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reports that

In 2018, SPLC tracked 0 hate groups in New Mexico.

Meanwhile, back in the [rest of the] US of A, the SPLC reports that

In 2018, SPLC tracked 1,020 hate groups across the US.

Now, Abq Jew (like anyone else who grew up in the '60s) always knew about Jew- and anybody else-hatred in general.

But he was not all that concerned about Jew- or anybody else-hatred coming up and biting him in the proverbial tuchus until that incident more than two(!) years ago, on Friday the 13th of January 2017 (see You've Got Hate Mail!).

Now, Abq Jew is a big fan of
the ADL, the SPLC, and the ACLU.

Abq Jew got the Hate Map numbers shown above from the Spring 2019 issue of the SPLC's Intelligence Report. Which also reported (in the entire US) -

51 Ku Klux Klan groups
112 Neo-Nazi groups
148 White Nationalist groups
63 Racist Skinhead groups
36 Neo-Confederate groups
17 Christian Identity groups
17 Anti-Immigrant groups
49 Anti-LGBT groups
100 Anti-Muslim groups
163 General Hate groups

None of them in New Mexico.

However -

The Intelligence Project identified 612 extreme

anti-government groups that were active in 2018.

Including four (4) in New Mexico (Google, if you must):

American Patriots (Albuquerque)
Constitution Party (Los Lunas)
Reign of Heaven Society (Statewide)
The Three Percenters - IIIers (Statewide)

And furthermore, in a letter to The New York Times, anthropologist Lyla Yastion states:

Members of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest
neo-Nazi groups in the United States, lighted a swastika last year
in Draketown, Ga. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Re “Rising Far-Right Extremism in America,” by Thomas T. Cullen (Op-Ed, Feb. 23), in which he cites statistics showing an alarming increase in hate crimes by far-right and white supremacist groups:

Not enough attention has been paid to President Trump’s rallies as a breeding ground for inflaming the passions of such extremism.

These rallies are dismissed as circus acts, but their power is insidious — dramas that agitate the hatred, anger and bigotry of a dictator’s followers. It is a parasitic relationship: Supporters of President Trump feed off his fame and wealth, which they know they will never have; he feeds off their adulation to validate the artifice of his presidency.

Eric Hoffer, in his classic “The True Believer,” attributes mass movements to discontent fueled by frustration. The resurgence of overt white supremacist sympathies is evidence of deep-seated frustration released into action by a president whose only motive in life seems to be self-glorification.

And JTA just reported:

White supremacists exchange insults with counterprotesters as they
attempt to guard the entrance to Emancipation Park in
Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

White supremacists targeting message to neighborhoods and campuses like never before, ADL says

White supremacists dramatically stepped up their propaganda efforts targeting neighborhoods and campuses in 2018 to never-before seen levels.

Such efforts increased by 182 percent, to 1,187 distributions across the U.S., up from 421 total incidents reported in 2017, the Anti-Defamation League reported Tuesday.

The number of racist rallies and demonstrations also rose last year, with 91 white supremacist rallies or other public events attended by white supremacists held in 2018, up from 76 the previous year.

In addition, hate groups increasingly used so-called “flash mob” tactics to avoid advance publicity and scrutiny.

In most cases the identities of individual members were hidden, according to the ADL.

you think this whole hate business

happened long ago and far away

Please allow Abq Jew to introduce you to Simon Romero.

Simon Romero is a national correspondent for The New York Times, covering immigration and other issues.

Mr. Romero, born and raised in New Mexico, graduated cum laude with a degree in history and literature from Harvard College and studied history at the University of São Paulo.

In 2000, he held a Ford Fellowship in business journalism at the University of Kansas at Lawrence. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

He lives in Albuquerque with his wife and their two children.

A historical marker to commemorate the massacre at Porvenir. Jessica Lutz

Mr Romero has just contributed an outstanding article to The Times. Which begins:

Lynch Mobs Killed Latinos Across the West. The Fight to Remember These Atrocities is Just Starting.

Arlinda Valencia was at a funeral when an uncle told her a bewildering family secret: An Anglo lynch mob had killed her great-grandfather.

“A mixture of grief and shock overwhelmed me since this was the first I heard of this,” said Ms. Valencia, 66, the leader of a teachers’ union in El Paso. “The more I looked into it, the more stunned I was at how many Mexicans were lynched in this country.”

Ms. Valencia and other descendants of lynching victims are now casting attention on one of the grimmest campaigns of racist terror in the American West: the lynching of thousands of men, women and children of Mexican descent from the mid-19th century until well into the 20th century.

Much of the article deals with the Porvenir Massacre of 1918. Of which Abq Jew had never, ever, heard. And about which he intends (Billy Nader) to write in the future.

And then there was this historical nugget:

In Albuquerque’s Old Town Plaza, where gift shops and restaurants now cater to tourists, three men identified as Escolastico Perea, Miguel Barrera and California Joe were hanged by a mob of about 200 local residents in 1881 in connection with the murder of a geological surveyor, Col. Charles Potter.

“Though lynching in general is to be condemned, yet to every case there is an exception,” The Santa Fe New Mexican reported at the time. “In the instance of the dastardly murder of Charles Potter, it is very doubtful whether justice can be too swiftly meted out.”

Abq Jew intends (Billy Nader) to write about this, too. Simon Romero's source?

Marc Simmons, who wrote a weekly Santa Fe New Mexican history column for more than 35 years. A few years ago, The New Mexican published reprints from among the more than 1,800 columns he produced during his career.

1880s murder in Sandias led to lynchings, shootout

By Marc Simmons Apr 22, 2016

In the fall of 1880, all of New Mexico was shocked to learn of the sudden disappearance of a prominent visitor, Col. Charles Potter. That he had become a victim of foul play, everyone believed.