QUESTIONS

this week was based in Ohio.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and FBI say that an above-average number of hate groups and hate crimes are in Ohio.

And a state representative said that if Confederate monuments come down, so should those of Bill Clinton (“glorified adultery and perjury”) and Martin Luther King (was against gay marriage) in Ohio.

Perhaps surprisingly, Ohio has become an “epicenter of hate group activity,” said Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper, and he wants to know why.

“I think people are very quick to attribute this to being a Southern issue; we dismiss it as happening somewhere else,” said Pepper, who was on a press call Thursday with Rep. Stephanie Howse, president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus.

“I don’t think there’s any minimizing this. … Ohio is

unfortunately right in the middle of this problem. I don’t think you can sugarcoat this.”

Pepper noted that when party members protested President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Youngstown, a group of college-aged men came up behind them holding white-supremacist flags.

Howse said the Charlottesville violence has raised fundamental questions about the future.

“Where is America going? Where is Ohio going?” she wondered.

“We really have to have a conversation about homegrown terrorism, just as we do about terrorism from afar.”

While both called on Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to delve into the problem, his office no longer tracks such groups. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, that’s been the responsibility of the “fusion center” under the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

But Kristen Castle, communications director for Public Safety, said none of the several agencies that work together in the center actually track hate groups.

“The state monitors public events to make sure people and property are protected,” she said. “We coordinate with our federal partners and local law enforcement through the state’s fusion center network, where we share threat information to investigate threats, enforce laws and keep Ohioans safe.”

Howse, meanwhile, was especially critical of social media postings by state Rep. Candice Keller, R-Middletown.

Along with the the idea of tearing down statues of Democratic icons, Keller took to her Facebook page to blame that party for inventing white nationalism.

“I expect those with a discerning spirit to understand what is happening here,” she said in a post that apparently has since been removed. “Soon The Citadel will be torn down and the Reagan

Library will be trashed. Conservatives have surrendered for so long that now we are paying the price. It’s time to go on offense. No more running from the liars and the pillagers. It’s our country ...”

In a statement Thursday to The Dispatch, Keller said, “My personal Facebook posts over the weekend were simply to provide historical context to the issue of race relations in our country. Also, I was showing that taking down every statue of figures you disagree with is not the answer to this issue. The answer is dialogue. The answer is upholding the sanctity of every human life, no matter the race.”

In February, Keller was questioned by critics for appearing on a show hosted by Springboro Tea Party founder and white-power advocate Brian “Sonny” Thomas, whose website included messages such as “Our white culture is beautiful.” Keller told The Cincinnati Enquirer that she was unaware of Thomas’ views when she went on the show.

The Southern Poverty Law Center numbers 35 hate groups in Ohio — eighth most among the 917 it counts nationally. The total includes not only such groups as the Southern Ohio Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations Sadistic Souls, but also Nation of Islam and New Black Panther Party.

Also on the list are organizations labeled “anti LGBT” such as Faith2Action — prime supporter of the anti-abortion “Heartbeat Bill” that was passed by the legislature last year but vetoed by Gov. John Kasich — and Citizens for Community Values, co-host of a forum for Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidates in October.

Ohio was third in the U.S. for the number of hate crimes reported in 2015, behind only much-larger California and New York, according to FBI statistics.