“Right-wingers” absurdly blamed despite suspected killer’s leftist beliefs

Hicks, who is charged with the brutal murders of three Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was found to be a hardened atheist, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) supporter and Rachel Maddow fan after investigators and reporters began searching for a motive this week.

According to multiple online news sites such as Salon and Raw Story, who carried an Alternet article entitled “Angry, armed and white: The typical profile of America’s most violent extremists,” Hicks’ ideology is a completely irrelevant point.

“On Thursday, GOPUSA.com sought to replay that script and portrayed Hicks as a liberal, by reporting his Facebook likes included Rachel Maddow, gay marriage groups, Neil deGrasse Tyson and others,” the article states. “That relabeling is absurd on many levels, because Hicks appears to fit the psychological profile of violent extremists—regardless of their ideological stripes—and that includes many white Americans.”

Alternet instead argued that the suspected shooter’s white skin and history of gun ownership were the only data points worth examining.

“Hicks had a state-issued concealed handgun permit and was a ‘champion of Second Amendment rights,’” says the article.

Using statements from the SPLC, while conveniently ignoring the suspected shooter’s support for the group, the article continued by desperately and falsely connecting Hicks’ to the “radical right.”

“‘… perpetrators spend many years on the radical right, absorbing extremist ideology, before finally acting out violently,’” an SPLC quote from the article states. “That summation strongly resembles Craig Stephen Hicks.”

According to the author, the obvious remedy to the horrific incident would be stricter gun control and a greater focus on “right-wingers” by law enforcement.

“Just as the Violence Policy Center hopes the Chapel Hill killings will push politicians to reconsider concealed handgun permit laws, SPLC hope the threat of lone-wolf violent extremists—especially white right-wingers—will prompt police and mainstream media to stop demonizing Muslims,” the article says.

The SPLC also made no mention of the fact that Hicks’ followed their organization on Facebook when commenting on the shooting Friday.

“Hicks’ Facebook page was filled with statements against religion of all types, although Islam was not particularly singled out,” the SPLC wrote. “Hicks also was a gun enthusiast, as evidenced by his many postings on gun websites and also an Amazon ‘wish list’ that included such items as rifle scopes.”

Despite their constant and obsessive attempts to link nearly all violent extremism to “patriot groups,” actual extremists have admitted to using SPLC information when searching for victims.

In 2012, a Washington, D.C.-based Christian organization came under fire after the gunman learned of the group on the SPLC’s website.

Speaking with the FBI in custody, the shooter stated that he targeted the organization after seeing it listed as an “anti-gay” hate group by the SPLC.

The fact that left-wing organizations constantly attempt to link any and all violence to the political right, but claim such links are unimportant when the violence comes from a fellow leftist, shows that such groups are not truly interested in stopping hate. Instead they are only interested in demonizing all opposition by ignoring logic and capitalizing on violence.