ADL: White Supremacist Groups Focused on Unannounced Off-Campus Events in 2018

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report on Mar. 5 stating that white supremacist groups turned their focus to unannounced events outside of college campuses in 2018.

According to the report, white supremacist incidents increased from 421 in 2017 to 1,187 in 2018, an increase of 182 percent. The number of white supremacist incidents on college campuses increased from 292 in 2017 to 319 in 2018, a 9 percent increase, and the number of white supremacist incidents away from college campuses spiked from 129 in 2017 to 868 in 2018, an increase of 572 percent.

The report notes that white supremacists “focused on tactics designed to circumvent intensified public scrutiny,” which involved less “pre-announced events and more unannounced flash demonstrations.”

“A lot of times these flash demonstrations are random, but they also like to pick a location that adds to the hype, and then they can video it, use it on their online propaganda,” Carla Hill, a senior researcher for the ADL’s Center on Extremism, told the Journal in a phone interview. “So go to Washington, D.C., march around, and then make videos of it as [an] ‘unopposed event,’ where they’re not opposed by the public, which it was just a very quick demonstration with no time for the public to respond to it.”

Hill said that the white supremacists’ change in strategy was done to “circumvent unwanted scrutiny and provide images and video that they can convert easily to online propaganda.”

“These groups are attempting to normalize hate in our communities with propaganda,” Hill said. “A lot of the propaganda we’re seeing has subtle messages that aren’t easily identified as white supremacist symbols or messaging. And so, it’s a real attempt to normalize their message as a mainstream conservative message instead of a white supremacist message.”

One example is that white supremacists will use the slogan “America First” coupled with a link to their websites, Hill said.

According to a press release from ADL Los Angeles, white supremacist incidents in the Los Angeles area included the white supremacist group Patriot Front placing a banner in February 2018 at the Skirball exit on the 405 northbound freeway that read, “America is for Americans. The rest must go.”

“We must remain vigilant on these trends and encourage community members to report hateful propaganda wherever and whenever they encounter it,” ADL Los Angeles regional director Amanda Susskind said in a statement.