ADL: Supremacists have committed 73 murders since Charlottesville rally
White supremacists have committed at least 73 murders since the far-right rally two summers ago in Charlottesville, Virginia.
That comes from a report released Thursday by the Anti-Defamation League, which says that 39 of the killings were “clearly motivated by hateful, racist ideology.”
The violence of the Unite the Right rally has led to an increase in white supremacist activity, according to the report, titled Two Years Ago, They Marched in Charlottesville. Where Are They Now?
“The violence on the streets of Charlottesville has kindled two major tracks of white supremacist activity,” the ADL said. “The first is the rampant dissemination of propaganda designed to promote their views and attract attention. The other, more troubling track is a broader series of violent attacks in the two years since Unite the Right.”
Among those attacks were the shootings at a Parkland high school, the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, the Poway Chabad and Saturday’s attack at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
According to the report, the recent attacks are part of a four-year resurgence in white supremacist activity and activism driven in large part by the rise of the “alt Right.”
The Unite the Right rally in August 2017, which left one counter-protester dead, drew far-right extremists from at least 39 states and presented approximately 50 different extreme-right movements, groups and entities, according to the report.
More than a dozen Unite the Right attendees have been convicted and sentenced for crimes related to violence committed during the rally, most notably James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio, who was sentenced to two life sentences plus 419 years for deliberately driving his car into a crowd of protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens more.
The report also traces the trajectory of the last two years for several other leaders of the rally, including several that now lead their own white supremacist groups. Some of the leaders have faced lawsuits as well as domestic and international travel bans.
Most of the white supremacist groups and individuals who attended Unite the Right remain active today, according to the report.