-Caveat Lector-
Thursday, August 12, 1999
These Aren't Isolated Acts of Violence
These crimes are not the work of just a maladjusted few; appoint a task
force to focus on ways to deal with rogue militias.
By TOM HAYDEN
ADVERTISEMENT
hen violence is attributed to black or Latino street gang members, the
authorities react with strike teams, increased expenditures for law
enforcement, roundups of parole violators, as well as programs directed at
prevention. So why the failure to similarly respond to the violence that
arises from white male "Christian" hate groups in America?
In the wake of the Granada Hills shooting and similar tragedies, the
governor or attorney general should appoint an official task force to
recommend effective approaches to combating right-wing hate groups,
paramilitaries and militias.
According to Kenneth Stern, the American Jewish Committee's expert on
hate groups, there has been a "lackluster local law enforcement response to
the militias [because] of the willingness of many to write off militia
activities as nuttiness or 'isolated incidents.' "
The immediate tragedy this week at the Jewish community center in
Granada Hills is about virulent anti-Semitism, coming weeksh after the
synagogue burnings in Sacramento. At other times the violence is connected to
racism or hatred of women, homophobia, even anti-environmentalism.
It is a dangerous denial to believe that these acts of violence are
nothing more than the work of deranged and isolated individuals. Of course,
there is no single conspiracy linking them. But there are supremacist
ideologies, networks and armed groups that together create an atmosphere that
stimulates and condones these violent eruptions.
There are 224 militia groups in America, according to a 1995 survey, 35
of them in California. But their reach is broader. In 1994, the National
Rifle Assn. stated that while they were not creating militia groups, neither
would they "contemplate discouraging the exercise of [this] constitutional
right." For legal reasons, supremacist groups consciously practice
"leaderless resistance," in which apparenty isolated acts of mayhem fulfill a
larger agenda.
So intense are the simmering crevices beneath the benign surface of
America that there is no center, no common understanding of reality. Most
whites and blacks held utterly different understandings of the O.J. Simpson
verdict. The all-white militias believe that they, not racial minorities, are
the victims of economic downsizing and political correctness. While a large
American majority supports gun control, the militia viewpoint is that gun
control is the first step toward military occupation by either the federal
government or the United Nations.
We need stronger steps to deter violence, such as a law enforcement task
force on militias. But we must ask how this loss of trust in common ground
could happen in a democracy with a free media and public education system. A
task force should consider the following actions:
* Enact a law, as proposed by the Anti-Defamation League, banning
paramilitary training of militias that advocate supremacist ideologies or
taking up arms against the state. Such laws against private armies existed in
24 states by 1995--not including California--but there have been no
prosecutions since the mid-1980s.
* Enact local or state ordinances requiring the disclosure of weapons
arsenals owned by individuals. This was proposed after the 1997 North
Hollywood shootout, only to die in Sacramento.
* Toughen programs to train law enforcement and administrators generally
in understanding, detecting and deterring hate crimes and militias. Currently
the required training is minimal.
* Review proposed "tolerance curricula" for their effectiveness in
public schools and other civic institutions and consider mandating such an
educational requirement.
* Assess whether it was coincidental that militias and hate groups
surged in the 1990-95 period when economic downsizing was ripping through the
industrial economy long dominated by white males. If so, what policies are
needed to provide a sense of economic security for all during the transition
to a multicultural society?
* Review whether television and films contribute in any way to the
atmosphere of division, resentment and violence in our society, and what
might be encouraged to promote public tolerance of diversity.
It is time to look in the mirror, not the other way.
- - -
State Sen. Tom Hayden Is a Democrat Representing Parts of West Los Angeles
and the San Fernando Valley
Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
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