In the interests of not running this one completely off-track I’ve opened up a new thread in GD so we can debate this point:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5943492#post5943492
Now that you mention it, after the murders but before the case was solved, I heard a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center (Hatewatch Project) interviewed on the radio. He had some interesting things to say: Hate groups, while they might not be “running amok,” actually have been somewhat on the rise in America since 9/11/01, capitalizing on the inevitable xenophobia. Also, they seem to have shifted their focus – from blacks to Jews (as being, you know, the string-pullers behind all the bad stuff).
Now, from the radio journalist’s point of view, the interview was based on the Lefkow murders as a “news hook” – because the police were initially looking at white supremacists as the likeliest suspects, for reasons explained in the OP. It turns out that was a dead end – but where’s the harm in this news coverage? What the lawyer had to say was relevant, important and interesting. If the whole thing unfairly tarnishes the reputations of racists like Hale – I find it hard to feel sorry for them. They’re always talking about hatred and violence, sometimes even about revolution; they have only themselves to blame if somebody takes them seriously.
And BTW, Razorsharp – are you suggesting you’ve got something against “the beautiful mosaic of contemporary American society”? If so, please tell us more.
And do you have an alternative theory about who was behind those church-burnings? I presume you’re talking about the wave of mysterious fires in black churches throughout the South in 1995 and '96 – http://gbgm-umc.org/advance/Church-Burnings/bguide.html[/ur]. Which were not actually blamed on hate groups, but were blamed on white racists. According to the Washington Post, – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/churches.htm:
What, IYO, is wrong with this picture?
Sorry, flubbed the link to the Washington Post story – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/churches.htm. The point being, these arsons were no blamed on hate groups, but they were blamed on white racists. You have a different opinion?
Weren’t a few of the black church arsons found to be done by a young white Satanist guy & his stripper girlfriend, both of whom I think are now in prison in Kentucky?
I think a small number of the arsons were found to be inside jobs by disgruntled members or staff.
To the point, my God, of course the white racists around Hale were the natural suspects of the Judge Leffdow family murders! And the black church burnings did seem, in timing & targeting, to be conspiratorial & racist, tho the motives turned out to be mixed & the timing perhaps more copycat than conspiracy.
Interesting. Cite?
The little KKK masks on that map are almost cute, which is just plain disturbing.