A Klan Initiation Murder: A Backlash to Obama's Victory?

[beltanefauve]

Source: Time

"People still come to this spot at the end of Lock Three Road, in the swamps along the Louisiana-Mississippi border, where Cynthia Lynch's bloodied body was found beneath shrubs. Her death was an unlikely culmination to a weekend-long Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony, coming just days after Barack Obama's victory. She had applied to join online and traveled hundred of miles to attend the ceremony. Her death has left this region shocked, fearful of resurgent white supremacist groups, and dreading becoming a symbol of racial hatred in America.

(snip)She arrived in Slidell on Fri., Nov. 7. It was precisely three days after Barack Obama's election as America's first black President. There had been some nervousness in parts of the country in the months leading up to that milestone. In October, two men had been arrested in Tennessee for allegedly plotting to kill Obama. His victory seemed to incite a violent revulsion among a few whites already dismayed by the economic crisis and surging immigration. White supremacist groups and Internet forums like Stormfront.org reported a surge in interest. "I think there's a perfect storm coming together, and we're at a very worrying moment," says Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, which tracks hate crimes in America.

(snip) Lance Hill, executive director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University, in New Orleans, has studied hate group activity for years. He was struck not only by the groups' resurgence, but by its members' youth and apparent embrace of hooded robes — symbols that in recent years had become passe for many white racists. Particularly given the presidential election's outcome, Hill says, "In the rural white south, there's a sense that they've become marginalized, and are politically irrelevant to national politics. Taking up those robes and rituals of the Klan can be seen as an act of defiance," he says, adding, "That's a dangerous turn, because that kind of hopelessness can lead to more extremist and violent acts of desperation." "

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1870709,00.html

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As predicted by many of us on DU, there will be a lot more incidents like this. And Obama's not even in office yet.

[sasquatch]

1. ¡Muerte al Sur!

:patriot:

[bluestateguy]

2. These groups are a bigger threat to America than Al Qaeda

They have actually killed more Americans in our history than Al Qaeda. The tactics that the Bush Administration has used (NSA warrantless wiretapping, USA Patriot Act, etc.) should be continued, but only for the purposes of finding and stopping white hate groups from committing further terrorists activities.

[Mugweed]

5. Most of those groups were taken off the "domestic terrorist" list

to make room for the Earth Liberation Front, PETA, the Amish, and other super-duper dangerous folk. Thanks George and Dick!

[beltanefauve]

6. You forgot the Quakers!

(sarcasm smilie really needed here?) But seriously, the money and resources thrown away on these so-called "fringe" groups boggles the mind.

[patrice]

3. Cynthia Lynch wanted to join them and they killed her?

Never, ever underestimate the depth and CRAZY intelligence of Racism.

[TWiley]

4. It was probably a sex crime that happened to be committed by the Klan

She tried to join, they shaved her head, and the "iniation process" never seemed to end, so she said she wanted to leave. At that point, one of the kkk nose-pickers killed her. I believe the origional story said she was nude when found which led me to think that these ordinary thugs "couldn't stand the rejection" killed her, and then took off her clothes to see what she looked like.

Right Wing radical politics is the greatest threat our nation faces; you are far more likely to be attacked and abused by the local Republican than you are by a foreign terrorist.