Op-Ed: The Southern Poverty Law Center nearly caused me to be murdered | USA Today

[NightHawkeye]

Op-Ed: The Southern Poverty Law Center nearly caused me to be murdered | USA Today

While I was missing lunch, a crime scene played out in the office lobby below me. My coworker and friend Leo wasn’t armed, but he’d played the quick-thinking and inadvertent hero, disarming a young man on a mission to kill me and as many of my colleagues as possible. The gunman had packed his backpack with ammo and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches — later admitting that he’d planned to smear them on our lifeless faces as a political statement. Leo took a bullet in the arm but managed to disarm and hold the attacker until law enforcement arrived.
...
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled us a "hate group"
...
The assailant acknowledged later in FBI testimony that he had selected our office precisely because the SPLC had labeled my employer a “hate group.”
...
If the SPLC thought that their hate would intimidate or silence me and my colleagues, they’re sadly mistaken. I’m lucky — blessed, really — that I didn’t take a bullet for my beliefs back in 2012. But the center’s ugly slander and the gunman’s misguided attack have sharpened my resolve and deepened my faith in my Savior, who commands my destiny and shields me from the schemes of man. The same is true for my colleagues.
...
The SPLC, as an institution, has thoroughly disqualified itself as an arbiter of justice. But this country would be a better place if the center’s donors, lawyers and friends would truly believe and apply Dr. King’s legacy — his peaceful pursuit of justice and his love of neighbor.​

 

[Sarsath]

Op-Ed: The Southern Poverty Law Center nearly caused me to be murdered | USA Today

While I was missing lunch, a crime scene played out in the office lobby below me. My coworker and friend Leo wasn’t armed, but he’d played the quick-thinking and inadvertent hero, disarming a young man on a mission to kill me and as many of my colleagues as possible. The gunman had packed his backpack with ammo and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches — later admitting that he’d planned to smear them on our lifeless faces as a political statement. Leo took a bullet in the arm but managed to disarm and hold the attacker until law enforcement arrived.
...
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled us a "hate group"
...
The assailant acknowledged later in FBI testimony that he had selected our office precisely because the SPLC had labeled my employer a “hate group.”
...
If the SPLC thought that their hate would intimidate or silence me and my colleagues, they’re sadly mistaken. I’m lucky — blessed, really — that I didn’t take a bullet for my beliefs back in 2012. But the center’s ugly slander and the gunman’s misguided attack have sharpened my resolve and deepened my faith in my Savior, who commands my destiny and shields me from the schemes of man. The same is true for my colleagues.
...
The SPLC, as an institution, has thoroughly disqualified itself as an arbiter of justice. But this country would be a better place if the center’s donors, lawyers and friends would truly believe and apply Dr. King’s legacy — his peaceful pursuit of justice and his love of neighbor.​

Social Justice almost gets people killed? Imagine my shock!

 

[Nithavela]

Nice to see that conservatives are waking up to the fact that hatefull speech results in hatefull action.

 

[SkyWriting]

Op-Ed: The Southern Poverty Law Center nearly caused me to be murdered | USA Today

While I was missing lunch, a crime scene played out in the office lobby below me. My coworker and friend Leo wasn’t armed, but he’d played the quick-thinking and inadvertent hero, disarming a young man on a mission to kill me and as many of my colleagues as possible. The gunman had packed his backpack with ammo and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches — later admitting that he’d planned to smear them on our lifeless faces as a political statement. Leo took a bullet in the arm but managed to disarm and hold the attacker until law enforcement arrived.
...
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled us a "hate group"
...
The assailant acknowledged later in FBI testimony that he had selected our office precisely because the SPLC had labeled my employer a “hate group.”
...
If the SPLC thought that their hate would intimidate or silence me and my colleagues, they’re sadly mistaken. I’m lucky — blessed, really — that I didn’t take a bullet for my beliefs back in 2012. But the center’s ugly slander and the gunman’s misguided attack have sharpened my resolve and deepened my faith in my Savior, who commands my destiny and shields me from the schemes of man. The same is true for my colleagues.
...
The SPLC, as an institution, has thoroughly disqualified itself as an arbiter of justice. But this country would be a better place if the center’s donors, lawyers and friends would truly believe and apply Dr. King’s legacy — his peaceful pursuit of justice and his love of neighbor.​

My eyes skipped over the word "nearly".
I wonder if my optometrist is up to something?

 

[section9+1]

The SPLC is just doing its job. If it's your job to find hate groups, you have to keep finding them. How do they expect the paychecks to keep coming if the don't find what they are paid to find?

 

[essentialsaltes]

SPLC response then:

Yesterday’s attack on the Family Research Council and the shooting of a security guard there was a tragedy. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) deplores all violence, and our thoughts are with the wounded victim, Leo Johnson, his family and others who lived through the attack.

For more than 40 years, the SPLC has battled against political extremism and political violence. We have argued consistently that violence is no answer to problems in a democratic society, and we have strongly criticized all those who endorse such violence, whether on the political left or the political right.

The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.

and now:

FRC is listed as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the SPLC for its demonizing rhetoric about the LGBTQ community.

The SPLC defines a hate group as an organization that, based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities, has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. The organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity — prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines. The FBI uses similar criteria in its definition of a hate crime.

 

[Nithavela]

The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.

Projection.

 

[NightHawkeye]

The SPLC defines a hate group as an organization that, based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities, has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.

In other words, it looks like anyone they want to, they can put on their hate list.

The organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity — prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines. The FBI uses similar criteria in its definition of a hate crime.

Incorrect.

The Family Research Council is not a hate group!

Even the FBI and the U.S. Army have “deleted the [SPLC] from the[ir] lists of legitimate ‘hate crime’ resources” because it is so politically motivated.​

 

[variant]

In other words, it looks like anyone they want to, they can put on their hate list.

So, you don't think the FRC is an anti LGBTQ hate group? I am pretty sure they are.

I remember this nugget specifically:
Family Research Council Lobbied Congress on Resolution Denouncing Ugandan Anti-Gay Bill

They didn't want the US denouncing Uganda's bill to criminalize and execute homosexuals...

The FRC's main thing is to write and distribute anti-gay propaganda. They are what they are.

Blaming the SPLC for violence directed at them is thin, I see no where where they advocate violence.

By that token we could blame the FRC for violence directed at gay people.

 

[MyOwnSockPuppet]

In other words, it looks like anyone they want to, they can put on their hate list.

I'll just leave the name Maajid Nawaz and the number 3,375,000 here...

 

[NightHawkeye]

Blaming the SPLC for violence directed at them is thin, I see no where where they advocate violence.

By that token we could blame the FRC for violence directed at gay people.

Using the SPLC's own logic, the SPLC itself should be designated a hate group. After all, the SPLC's actions have resulted in innocent people being victimized.

It seems that the SPLC has some hateful people inside of it. Of course, the same can be said of almost any other organization with more than a few members. Perhaps the SPLC should reconsider the term 'hate group'. The term has seriously lost meaning when any group that protests can qualify for the designation.

 

[variant]

Using the SPLC's own logic, the SPLC itself should be designated a hate group. After all, the SPLC's actions have resulted in innocent people being victimized.

That's their logic? Where can I find it?

Perhaps everyone who doesn't like bigots is part of some sort of nebulous hate group.

 

[NightHawkeye]

That's their logic? Where can I find it?

See post above ... repeated below:
The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group as an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people.

The SPLC categories many 'classes' of people as haters. The SPLC having done that then results in attacks sometimes on such classes of people. There can be no doubt that what the SPLC does results in harm to those they categorize as haters.

 

[variant]

See post above ... repeated below:
The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group as an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people.

The SPLC categories many 'classes' of people as haters. Their having done that

Yeah that's the old "were not allowed to discriminate against hate groups because it's discrimination" idea. In this case we're just talking about categorizing what they do as being a hate group.

Shame. I was hoping to see something more than unoriginal faf like that.

Wake me when the SPLC openly lobbies to have the congress not denounce Christians being executed in some African country.

Christians who want gay people executed make them a hate group. It's simple.

 

[cow451]

Nice to see that conservatives are waking up to the fact that hatefull speech results in hatefull action.

Wish I could give more than one winner rating!

 

[NightHawkeye]

Yeah that's the old "were not allowed to discriminate against hate groups because it's discrimination" idea.

No. Not at all.

You're getting ahead of yourself if you categorize a group as a hate group when they are not. Designating an organization as a hate group when they clearly are not calls into question the motives of those who decide to call it a hate group, so much so that the very logic they use to define 'hate group' then makes them a 'hate group' according to their very definition.

Defend it all you want, but the SPLC has done some despicable things. However good their motivations might have been at one time, they went far afield of their intended target.

Disclaimer: I contributed to the SPLC in its very infancy, more than 40 years ago, because I believed they had the best of intentions. I no longer believe that.

 

[variant]

No. Not at all.

You're getting ahead of yourself if you categorize a group as a hate group when they are not. Designating an organization as a hate group when they clearly are not calls into question the motives of those who decide to call it a hate group, so much so that the very logic they use to define 'hate group' then makes them a 'hate group' according to their very definition.

Clearly not? I've read some of the stuff the FRC puts out and I've seen them defend Uganda's law to execute homosexuals.

There's nothing "clearly not" about this.

Once you start calling for other peoples death I think it's fair to designate you a hate group.

 

[grasping the after wind]

The SPLC is just doing its job. If it's your job to find hate groups, you have to keep finding them. How do they expect the paychecks to keep coming if the don't find what they are paid to find?

When your livelihood depends upon others being victims you must make sure they stay victims.

 

[grasping the after wind]

Nice to see that conservatives are waking up to the fact that hatefull speech results in hatefull action.

Never been a time Conservatives did not know that can happen. Conservatives just don't think the two are equivalent things nor do they think that saying " I don't agree with you " is hateful speech or think that they have the right to control what others are allowed to say. If the SPLC wishes to play fast and loose with the facts and demonize non hateful right leaning organizations by unjustly proclaiming that they are hate groups while ignoring actual hate groups on the left, they simply unmask themselves as political partisans who are totally disinterested in objectivity or fairness. Reasonable people will see this and act accordingly by no longer taking them seriously. Conservative ought to just point out the dishonesty. The kinder ones will perhaps encourage them to mend their ways but I just expect them to remain in the sad state they have sunk to as their ideological underpinnings will not allow them to examine their own motives lest it hamper their propaganda efforts. So for everyone that pays attention to reality the SPLC will remain a very questionable source of information.

 

[rambot]

Nice to see that conservatives are waking up to the fact that hatefull speech results in hatefull action.

I'll etransfer you 10$ if they are.
They are not.
They're upset because a liberal was violent and they have an opportunity to say "look. Lefties do it to!"
Let's not think this is learning on display.

For those who are curious, here's the SPLC's website on the organization:

Family Research Council

I would LOVE to hear a breakdown of how this particular website is, in any way encouraging violence.

I would also LOVE to hear how this woman can justify making some of the outlandish claims she does.

I don't think that the SPLC making the public aware of the messages of a particular group is, in ANY WAY making them a hate based organization. The central claim, that the SPLC almost caused her to be killed, is, IMHO, misguided. The messages, beliefs and values of that organization being shared with a less than enthusiastic audience, is what caused that possibility.