Groups of American patriots are under attack not only by the federal government and some state governments, but also by some so-called public-interest watchdogs such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, according to a number of pro-American activists such as religious leader and prolific NewsWithViews.com columnist Chuck Baldwin and constitutional attorney Larry Klayman founder of Freedom Watch and Judicial Watch.
On Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released a report that claims the number of people dedicated to federal government overthrow is increasing especially after actions taken by the administration of President Barack Obama.
A growing number of Americans believe the federal government plans to confiscate weapons from citizens while Obama and his minions impose socialism.
The groups' recruiting has been fueled by the stagnant economy, anxieties over illegal aliens being treated better than U.S. citizens, and their ability to push their ideas and conspiracy theories into the mainstream, the report said.
"As in the period before the Oklahoma City bombing, we now are seeing ominous threats from those who believe that the government is poised to take their guns," wrote Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center and a member of the Department of Homeland Security working group on violent extremism.
"The SPLC's list of so-called 'hate groups' includes the organization Oathkeepers with its membership of military and law enforcement veterans, but the list fails to mention groups such as Occupy Wall Street, whose members have rioted, defecated in public parks, damaged police vehicles and in some cases raped women in their 'tent cities,'" said former NYPD detective Samuel Dirksen.
"While mentioning dozens of well-known conservative groups, SPLC is silent about groups such as the anti-American leftist group Code Pink, the anti-Semitic Free Gaza, and the militant, pro-gay organization Bash Back!, which has chapters in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Ill., Memphis, Tenn., Denver, Colo., Milwaukee, Wisc., upstate New York and Lansing, as well as the Alliance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students (LGBTS), which targets churches" said Dirksen.
"If you're not left-wing, then you're a hate group, it seems," Dirksen added.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said in statements sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that "patriot groups now hold the potential for a wave of domestic terrorism. The groups overshadow the danger posed by more traditional hate groups -- neo-Nazis and others dedicated against blacks, Latinos, Catholics and Muslims, for example, the report found. The group's letter urged federal officials to create a new task force to assess federal resources devoted to the threat."
"In other words, the SPLC is advising left-wing political hacks Holder and Napolitano to forget about Islamic terrorists, organized crime gangs, criminal aliens and other lawless groups and concentrate on patriotic American citizens who oppose Big Government, Statism, and New World Order actions by politicians," said attorney and political strategist Mike Baker.
Patriot groups have been classified by the law center as hate organizations because their anti-government sentiment is always painted as racist. There are many who fear everyday crime and what appears to be a looming race war, in spite of the fact that America's President and many top government officials are Blacks, Hispanics and homosexuals.
And where is the SPLC's evidence of this rising tide of "crazy" American patriots? One incident that occurred in 2011: Law enforcement officers in 2011 intercepted one patriot group member headed towards El Paso, Texas, where he planned to equip patriot groups near the U.S.-Mexico border with devices from his arsenal (?) of homemade explosive devices.
The Southern Poverty Law Center also singled out individuals they claim are inciting the growth of patriot groups.
For example their report mentions:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) proposed a law that would nullify any executive gun control actions by Obama, accusing the president of having a "king complex." U.S. Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) said the president could be impeached for those actions. State lawmakers in Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee proposed laws that sought to prevent federal gun control from applying to their states.
Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff who sued the Clinton administration over the Brady Bill's imposition of background checks on gun buyers, claims that of 200 sheriffs he'd met with, most "have said they would lay down their lives first rather than allow any more federal control."
Matt Barber of the anti-gay Liberty Counsel said he feared that the nation, which he described as already on the brink of civil unrest, was headed for "a second civil war." "Freedom ends. Tyranny begins," tweeted Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes. "Get ready," TeaParty.org said. "Right now government gun grabbing plans are being covertly organized."
Chuck Baldwin, a Montana-based Patriot leader long associated with the Constitution Party, made the claim that Christ had ordered his disciples to carry "their own personal arms" and vowed to refuse to register or surrender his firearms.
The Oath Keepers, a Patriot group of current and former military and law enforcement officials, who issued a threat – "MESSAGE TO THE OATH BREAKERS AND TRAITORS: We will never disarm" – and added that gun control plans were "unconstitutional filth." Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman called the proposals "a declaration of war against the American people" and demanded "liberation" from the "evil clutches" of proponents.
Even before the election last year, Patriots sounded ready for action: "Our Federal Government is just a tool of International Socialism now, operating under UN Agendas not our American agenda," the United States Patriots Union wrote last year in a letter "sent to ALL conservative state legislators, all states."
"This means that freedom and liberty must be defended by the states under their Constitutional Balance of Power, or we are headed to Civil War wherein the people will have no choice but to take matters into their own hands."