By Steve Levy
There was the blaring headline in Newsday: “Southern Poverty Law Center lists Long Island groups as anti-government.” https://www.newsday.com/long-island/southern-poverty-law-center-report-ve8h0ryt
Sounds ominous doesn’t it? Are these a bunch of burgeoning skinhead or KKK groups among us? You would certainly think so based upon this story that was precipitated by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The self-proclaimed guardians against hate, this group labeled the Long Island Loud Majority among 488 “extreme anti-government groups.“
So that begs the question: What is the Southern Poverty Law Center, and who are those making up the Long Island Loud Majority? Sure sounds like a case of good guys versus bad guys. But that’s far from the truth.
In reality, the SPLC is a radically leftist propaganda outfit disguised as a benevolent watchdog for people of goodwill. Its goal is to disparage conservatives and to tar them with the intolerant tin hat label simply to marginalize them and to reduce any credibility for the group before it ever gets off the ground in its efforts to challenge Critical Race Theory in our schools.
But the SPLC has a troubled history. Just a few years ago it had to pay a $3.4 million settlement to end a lawsuit brought by a Muslim American who the center tried to label – believe it or not – as being anti-Muslim. https://www.newsweek.com/splc-nawaz-million-apologizes-981879
What was his crime? He had the audacity to make the claim that some Muslim groups were extremists.
Check out the SPLC website. Almost all the groups they label as being hate inspired are groups on the right. They go after conservative Breitbart News, conservative columnist Dennis Prager, and the fact that a person who attended the January 6th rally received pandemic relief. They’ve even labeled the Famiiy Service League a hate group for supporting traditional marriage and opposing abortion. Nowhere on the front pages is there any reference to Antifa, or Louis Farrakhan and his anti-Semitic Nation of Islam.
They are a publicity seeking group whose main purpose is to raise money. And they raise a lot of it. As in half a billion dollars.
https://nypost.com/2019/03/14/a-shocking-shakeup-at-the-southern-poverty-law-center/
The SPLC is anything but objective, and their tactics are deplorable..
They entered into Suffolk County politics during my tenure as county executive so that they could write a report claiming that the Suffolk County Police Department was employing anti-Hispanic policies.
The SPLC gathered testimony from the most radical leftist groups in the county, but never once reached out to the Suffolk County police commissioner or the county executive’s office.
They made the false statement that I, as county executive, had promoted legislation to allow police officers to stop Hispanics on the street and ask for their papers. This was an outright lie. We did in fact ask individuals arrested for their citizen status, but that is a far cry from going up to people on the street indiscriminately.
They, thereafter, made the claim that police had ignored complaints by Hispanic immigrants of having been attacked. Yet, they did not cite a single example of where evidence existed to arrest an individual for a hate crime and the evidence was not pursued.
But last week, the SPLC got its headline and probably a lot more donations pouring in. And now they sent their attack dogs on the Loud Majority here on Long Island.
The Loud Majority is a conservative group that sprung up to counter the emergence of Critical Race Theory and its offshoots being promoted in our schools. That’s the subject line that teaches white children to feel guilty for their privilege and black children to feel that they cannot get ahead in the US because they are perpetual victims. It is an odious concept that divides our kids and one that is deserving of castigation. Because the Loud Majority dared to push back, they were tarred as a hate group looking to overthrow the government. What a crock! Unfortunately, the horrendous tactics of the Southern Poverty Law Center will probably have its intended effect.
They got the headline they wanted, and now when you Google the Loud Majority, you’ll see that they’ve been labeled an anti-government hate group by this entity called the Southern Poverty Law Center – which few people know is a bogus radical leftist organization with the intent to disparage any conservative thought.
The Law Center started off as a very noble cause. Its original founder, Maurice Dees, gained notoriety calling out the KKK and white nationalist groups. That was decades ago. The new leadership is now just a mouthpiece for the radical left.
Rather than being able to disparage the credibility of conservative groups they disagree with, the media should be more focused on the lack of credibility from the center itself.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com