Patriot games: counting domestic 'extremists'.

• Author: Walker, Jesse
• Position: Citings

IN MARCH the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released its annual report on "The Year in Hate and Extremism." Because its count of active hate groups has shrunk since last year, dropping from 1,018 to 1,007, the center instead hyped a 7 percent increase in another category: what it calls "conspiracy-minded antigovernment 'Patriot' groups."

SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok, writing in the center's Intelligence Report, cites that 7 percent increase as a reason why the Department of Homeland Security should "rebuild its important intelligence capabilities" to confront a domestic terrorist threat. Yet the SPLC's list is filled with nonviolent groups, from the John Birch Society to the webzine WorldNetDaily, and Potok offers no evidence that the number of "Patriots" inclined toward violence is on the rise.

Although Potok invokes the militia movement in the opening and conclusion of his article, his group's count shows the number of militia chapters in decline, dropping from 334 last year to 321 now. Furthermore, the SPLC makes no attempt to distinguish the elements of the militia movement that might support terrorist tactics from the elements opposed to them.

Potok's strangest statistical sleight of hand comes when he cites the 2012 West Point study...