Ku Klux Klan: Domestic Terrorists Term Paper

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This single act, as shown by the documentation of the criminal justice system undeniably meets every single criteria for definition as an act of domestic terrorism as defined by section 2331 of Chapter 113b in the United States Code, which was quoted earlier. Of course this certainly isn't an isolated event. The court documents cited above themselves describe numerous acts of violence committed by Klan members throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The violent activities extended beyond these decades as well.

In 1993 members of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan pelted civil rights activists with rocks and bottles during a brotherhood march in Forsyth County, Georgia. Throughout the 90s, Klan members had planned bombings and church burning specifically targeting those with black congregations. In April 1997, three Klan members were arrested in a plot to blow up a natural gas refinery near Fort Worth, Texas. Three more men with links to the Klan were arrested in February 1998 for planning to poison water supplies, rob banks, plant bombs, and commit assassinations. In a July 1998 court judgment, the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, its South Carolina state leader Horace King, and several other Klansmen were held responsible for their roles in a conspiracy to burn down a Black church (ADL, 2001).

Church burnings are a particular favorite of the Ku Klux Clan. "On the evening of June 21, 1995, members of the Christian Knights poured flammable liquids on the floor of a 100-year-old black Baptist church, ignited a fire and watched the building go up in flames." It is both sad and necessary to stress the label of "Christian" in the official name of the group that committed this crime (Macedonia vs. Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan).

Though court orders and general bad publicity has influenced the Ku Klux Klan to experience a waning membership, the Klan has found a valuable revitalizing tool in the internet. Even this new technology relies on traditional Klan themes: whites are victims of intolerance who face racial extinction from a horde of Blacks and foreigners eager to intermarry and destroy American culture and religion; America should belong to Americans, not Asians, Arabs or Jews (ADL, 2001).

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Again, this nationalism is mirrored in those extremist groups of international terrorist that have caused such tragedy over the last several years.

Though the beliefs of the Ku Klux Klan may not be particularly tasteful for mainstream Americans, the philosophies themselves are perfectly legal and the rights of the Klan to subscribe to and distribute these beliefs are, in fact, protected under the First Amendment. However, it is not the beliefs that are under scrutiny here, it is the clear, convicted criminal behavior that has won the Klan the label of domestic terrorists. Many Klan members enjoy lashing out verbally knowing that they speak from the safety of the First Amendment umbrella, however, messages of such strong hate and radical beliefs seem to inevitably explode into action. It is an unfortunate fact that the Ku Klux Klan has a history of resolving its disputes and taking out its frustrations on innocent victims in horrendous ways -- ways that are unthinkable to most Americans, but somehow perfectly justified in the warped sense of liberty that the Klan has adopted. They often proclaim that the masses of the American population has been brainwashed by the elusive Zionist Occupational Government, and yet their tainted thought processes are perpetuated through the brainwashing of their children and other vulnerable minds.

It has been shown time and time again that the Ku Klux Klan has met and continues to meet the legal requirements set forth in the United States Code to be labeled a terrorist group. This fact has become so clear that they have been legally labeled as such in at least two states, which has resulted in the removal of their First Amendment rights as an organization. Granted these rulings can be worked around and the KKK can still obtain licenses to demonstrate even in these states, but it is certainly a step in the right direction to remove this outdated extremist group from the country (AP, 1999). Hopefully, especially with such stress on battling terrorist groups outside of the country at the present, the other 48 states will follow suit and the Ku Klux Klan will be nothing more than a white-hooded bloodstain of.....

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