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Southern Poverty Law Center Defends Attorney Charged With Domestic Terrorism, Blames Police

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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) defended one of their attorneys after he was charged with domestic terrorism in Atlanta for violently protesting a new police facility.

SPLC Attorney Thomas Webb Jurgens was one of 23 people charged with domestic terrorism on Monday for allegedly rioting against the construction of a $90 million police training facility.

“An employee at the SPLC was arrested while acting — and identifying — as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). The employee is an experienced legal observer, and their arrest is not evidence of any crime, but of heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protesters,” SPLC said in a statement released Monday night.

“This is part of a months-long escalation of policing tactics against protesters and observers who oppose the destruction of the Weelaunee Forest to build a police training facility. The SPLC has and will continue to urge de-escalation of violence and police use of force against Black, Brown and Indigenous communities — working in partnership with these communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.”

(Read more from “Southern Poverty Law Center Defends Attorney Charged With Domestic Terrorism, Blames Police” HERE)

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Prominent Conservatives Warn Media About “Discredited” Southern Poverty Law Center While Weekly Standard Reports SPLC Has Millions Overseas

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By Samuel Chamberlain. Forty-seven prominent conservatives have signed an open letter warning the mainstream media against using data on hate groups compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The letter calls the SPLC a “discredited, left-wing political activist organization that seeks to silence its political opponents with a ‘hate group’ label of its own invention.”

Founded in 1971, the SPLC gained fame by successfully prosecuting legal cases against white supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan. It describes its mission as “fighting hate and bigotry and … seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Today, the SPLC is best known for tracking hate groups, which the organization defines as having “beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristic.” Currently, the SPLC says 917 hate groups are operating in the United States. (Read more from “Prominent Conservatives Warn Media About “Discredited” Southern Poverty Law Center While Weekly Standard Reports SPLC Has Millions Overseas” HERE)

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The Southern Poverty Law Center Has $69 Million Parked Overseas

By Jeryl Bier. The Southern Poverty Law Center invests almost 20 percent of its nearly $320 million endowment fund in offshore equities and other investments. The 2016 annual report of the Alabama-based civil rights organization reports $69,093,576 of “non-U.S. equity funds” among the assets comprising the total endowment fund of $319,283,961, a fund the SPLC describes as a “plan for the day when nonprofits like the SPLC can no longer afford to solicit support through the mail because of rising postage and printing costs.” (Given that 2016 contributions topped $45 million, that day has not yet arrived.)

Although the details of most of the SPLC’s foreign investments are unknown, the portfolio includes at least several million dollars in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Bermuda, as Joe Schoffstall reported in the Washington Free Beacon last week. The Beacon quoted two financial industry executives who expressed surprise and incredulity about the SPLC’s offshore investing.

When THE WEEKLY STANDARD inquired of the SPLC about the appropriateness of the $69 million in offshore investments for the U.S.-based civil rights group, SPLC president Richard Cohen responded: “It is common for universities, foundations and other nonprofit organizations to have a portion of their endowments invested in off-shore funds. Each such fund in which the SPLC is invested is a highly reputable one that was recommended by Cambridge Associates, one of the country’s leading investment advisory firms for nonprofit institutions.” (Read more from “The Southern Poverty Law Center Has $69 Million Parked Overseas” HERE)

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Study: Southern Poverty Center Ignores Liberal Hate

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Photo Credit: Breitbart An academic study has accused the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of having an anti-Christian bias in its reporting on hate groups in America.

Once considered the “gold standard” in reporting on violent anti-government or racist groups in America, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s reputation has begun to wither as it has started targeting conservative Christian groups including the Family Research Council (FRC) for what SPLC claims is anti-gay animus.

SPLC says FRC gins up hatred and possible violence against gays because it has reported certain ideas that are taboo to SPLC: that hate-crimes laws will be used to stifle preachers; that because of HIV-AIDS and other diseases gays may not live as long as others; that gay parenting is not as good for children as more traditional parenting; that same-sex attraction is not inborn; and that gays can stop being homosexual. Believing or espousing any of these ideas makes you eligible for the SPLC hate list. [Full disclosure: the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, of which I am president, was just placed on SPLC’s hate list for espousing some of these ideas.]

Professor George Yancey of the University of North Texas says he is not arguing one way or the other about FRC’s inclusion on the list but merely demonstrating SPLC’s outrage is subjective, selective, and never reckons progressive groups guilty of the same things of which it accuses conservative ones.

Yancey looks at the work of a left-wing group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), started by Michael Weinstein after he said he experienced discrimination at the hands of Christians in the military.

Read more this story HERE.

FBI Lists Southern Poverty Law Center As ‘Resource’ for Hate Crimes (+video)

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Photo Credit: Web screenshotThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says listing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a resource on its “Hate Crimes” website page and linking to the organization is “not an endorsement” of the group or its research materials on hate crimes.

“The Resource link to SPLC is for informational purposes and not an endorsement of the organization or the information on their website,” an FBI spokesman told CNSNews.com.

On the FBI’s “Hate Crimes” page, it gives a general description of hate crimes and then includes a section headlined “In Depth,” which includes a prominent sub-head, “Resources.” Listed there under the Resources with a hyperlink is “Southern Poverty Law Center.”

CNSNews.com asked about the link to the SPLC because the man convicted of domestic terrorism this year for the shooting attack at the Family Research Council (FRC) told FBI investigators that he targeted the FRC after finding their name on the SPLC’s own “Hate Map,” where the pro-family and Christian organization is labeled as “anti-gay.”

“I find it incredible that a federal agency charged with protecting the American people allows itself to be connected to a group that was certified in court as the source that inspired an act of terrorism,” Lt. Gen Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of FRC, told CNSNews.com.

Read more from this story HERE.

Southern Poverty Law Center: ‘Our Hate Map Doesn’t Cause Anybody to Attack’ (+audio)

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Photo Credit: APCo-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center Morris Dees said his group’s “Hate Map” “doesn’t cause anybody to attack,” despite Floyd Lee Corkins’ admission that he targeted the Family Research Council (FRC) after going to the center’s website.

As Corkins told the FBI after his arrest, he learned of the FRC online, “It was a, uh, Southern Poverty Law, lists, anti-gay groups. I found them online. I did a little bit of research, went to the website, stuff like that.”

Corkins attempted a mass shooting on Aug. 15, 2012, opening fire at the Family Research Council and wounding Security Guard Leo Johnson.

Armed with more than 95 rounds of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-a sandwiches, Corkins told the FBI that he chose the FRC as his first target after looking at a list of “anti-gay” groups on the SPLC’s website.

The Family Research Council is still listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hate Map” as “anti-gay.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Convicted Domestic Terrorist Admits He Attacked a Conservative Group Because of Southern Poverty Law Center (+video)

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Family Research Council (FRC) officials released video of federal investigators questioning convicted domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins II, who explained that he attacked the group’s headquarters because the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified them as a “hate group” due to their traditional marriage views.

“Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups,” Corkins tells interrogators in the video, which FRC obtained from the FBI. “I found them online, did a little research, went to the website, stuff like that.”

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.

Southern Poverty Law Center Website Triggered FRC Shooting

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Photo Credit: APThe Family Research Council shooter, who pleaded guilty today to a terrorism charge, picked his target off a “hate map” on the website of the ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center which is upset with the conservative group’s opposition to gay rights.

Floyd Lee Corkins II pleaded guilty to three charges including a charge of committing an act of terrorism related to the August 15, 2012 injuring of FRC’s guard. He told the FBI that he wanted to kill anti-gay targets and went to the law center’s website for ideas.

At a court hearing where his comments to the FBI were revealed, he said that he intended to “kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in victims’ faces, and kill the guard.” The shooting occurred after an executive with Chick-Fil-A announced his support for traditional marriage, angering same-sex marriage proponents.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said that the Southern Poverty Law Center should take responsibility for the shooting and take down their hate map.

Read more from this story HERE.

Emails Expose Southern Poverty Law Center Collaboration With DOJ

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Judicial Watch (JW), a Washington D.C. based non-partisan educational foundation, released some two dozen pages of emails it obtained on Tuesday revealing connections between the Department of Justice Civil Rights and Tax divisions and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

According to JW, the e-mails reveal “questionable behavior by agency personnel while negotiating for Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) co-founder Morris Dees to appear as the featured speaker at a July 31, 2012, “Diversity Training Event.” Judicial Watch obtained the records pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) submitted to the DOJ on September 10, 2012:

The Judicial Watch FOIA request was prompted by an apparently politically motivated shooting at the Family Research Council (FRC) headquarters in August, 2012. At the time of the shooting, FRC president Tony Perkins accused the SPLC of sparking the shooting, saying the shooter “was given a license to shoot… by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations as hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy.” On its website, the SPLC has depicted FRC as a hate group,” along with such mainstream conservative organizations as the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, and Coral Ridge Ministries.

The FOIA request specifically requested “any and all records concerning, regarding, or relating to the Sothern Poverty Law Center” between January 1 and August 31, 2012, including the Dees’ presentation sponsored by the Civil Rights and Tax divisions of the DOJ.

Read more from this story HERE.

New Study: Southern Poverty Law Center “Personifies the Hate, Dishonesty and Hypocrisy of the Left”

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The SPLC is an organization you need to become familiar with. It personifies the hate, dishonesty and hypocrisy of the Left. It is a hate factory that has institutionalized the Left’s favorite tactic, Alinsky rule #12:

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)…

We need to recognize that the SPLC does not merely represent an organized example of leftist lunacy. It is a dangerous organization, whose goal is to isolate its enemies and make them politically radioactive. They achieve this through calculated, disingenuous and hate-filled propaganda.

The SPLC has become a consultant to both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. These federal law enforcement organizations and others take SPLC’s “Hate List” and other similar products seriously. This incentivizes law enforcement and creates an automatic institutional bias against the SPLC’s foes; people with genuine concerns and legitimate gripes suddenly become societal pariahs.

Rather than focus on real enemies and threats within our midst, law enforcement agencies are directed to focus on principled, upstanding, patriotic and courageous citizens. Meanwhile, the left, demonstrably violent, demonstrably subversive and destructive, gets a free pass. Do you see the destructive cultural inversion and threat to national security this creates?

Jumaat al-Fuqra and its 35 U.S.-based terrorist training camps isn’t on any SPLC list. The many dangerous leftwing organizations in the U.S. are not on any SPLC list. The Communist Party isn’t. Occupy Wall Street isn’t, neither is the violent Occupy Black Bloc. Why not?

Read more from this story HERE.

Southern Poverty Law Center: A Morally Bankrupt Organization Founded by a Morally Bankrupt Man

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In the “Hate and Extremism” section of the SPLC website, the group lists 1,274 “Patriot Groups.” This category includes nonviolent conservative organizations like the Oath Keepers, the Constitution Party, Tea Party Patriots, the Tenth Amendment Center, and Joseph Farah’s WorldNetDaily.

In addition to fomenting hatred for groups with which it disagrees, the SPLC is the author of dangerous provocations. For example, in 1996 SPLC hyped a story that black churches were being torched at alarming rates in the South by white racists. As Michael Fumento wrote in the American Spectator at the time, this was soon proven to be false.

SPLC wildly exaggerates the number of groups genuinely associated with hate and violence as well. Laird Wilcox, an independent, non-conservative researcher found that of 800-plus “hate groups” over half them were either non-existent, existed in name only, or were inactive.

Wilcox has his own “extremist” lists. One is called “The Watchdogs … organizations who ‘monitor’ and combat the activities of their ideological opponents,” including many “organizations and individuals who have nothing to do with racism.” SPLC tops the list.

SPLC’s co-founder, Morris Dees, has been harshly criticized by former SPLC employees, a former business partner, and many liberal critics. They see him as little more than a rank opportunist and the SPLC’s chief purpose as raising money for SPLC coffers.

Read more from this story HERE.