KKK groups plunge amid hate group surge in U.S.

BATON ROUGE, LA. • The number of Ku Klux Klan chapters in the United States is plummeting as a new generation of khaki-clad racists rejects hoods and robes for a hipper brand of hate, according to a report Wednesday by an organization that tracks far-right extremists.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said its count of Klan groups fell from 130 in 2016 to 72 last year, despite a surge of activity in the broader white supremacist movement.

The Alabama-based law centre reported an increase in neo-Nazi groups, from 99 in 2016 to 121 last year. It counted 954 active hate groups in 2017, a four per cent gain over 2016.

Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said Klan groups seem to be “collapsing” and struggling to recruit new members because younger white supremacists are turned off by their traditions.

“It’s just extremely old school and, I think, honestly weird to them,” she said. “That’s not the image that they have of what white nationalism should be.”

The Anti-Defamation League said in a report last year that 42 Klan groups were active in 22 states between January 2016 and June 2017. But more than half of them had formed in the previous three years.

“Even within the white supremacist movement, they’re seen as anachronistic,” said Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism. “They’re often a small group of people ... and they tend to fade away due to their inability to organize.”

Beirich said the law centre can’t accurately estimate how many people are active members of Klan groups.

“They don’t provide their membership lists. They’re not going to tell us or, if they give us numbers, they exaggerate,” she said.