New Maps Show Hate Group Is Active In Boulder

BOULDER, CO -- Identity Evropa, recognized as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is active in the Boulder area, according to the most recent maps from the center. The updated version, released this week, allows users to see more details, including which states have the most hate groups per capita and how the number of hate groups has changed over time at the state and national level.

"Identity Evropa is at the forefront of the racist 'alt-right's' effort to recruit white, college-aged men and transform them into the fashionable new face of white nationalism," explains the Southern Poverty Law Center website. Rather than denigrating people of color, the campus-based organization focuses on raising white racial consciousness, building community based on shared racial identity and intellectualizing white supremacist ideology.

According to Identity Evropa's own literature, the group's members are American Identitarians "descended from the great traditions, history, and people that flowed from Europe." The group's own website asserts that it does not accept "participation in supremacy, violence, or illegal activity."

Nonethless, Identity Evropa members have been identified as among those who helped plan the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, where rally participants chanted Nazi-associated phrases and carried torches—and where a woman was killed after a man associated with the white supremacist movement accelerated his car into a crowd of counter-protestors

Beyond a rash of stickers and posters that appeared throughout Front Range communities last August, the group has kept a fairly low profile locally.

The Southern Poverty Law Center identified 1,020 active hate groups operating in the country last year, a record high and a 30 percent increase over the last four years. Moreover, an estimated 40 people were killed in North America in radical right terrorist attacks last year and there were more than 1,200 incidents of hate groups passing out flyers.

Here are the 22 hate groups currently operating in Colorado, identified on the SPLC hate map:

• Act for America - ANTI-MUSLIM - Denver
• Atomwaffen Division - NEO NAZI - Statewide
• Colorado Alliance For Immigration Reform - ANTI-IMMIGRANT -Lakewood
• Family Research Institute - ANTI-LGBT - Colorado Springs
• Generations - ANTI-LGBT - Elizabeth
• Identity Evropa 3 chapters - WHITE NATIONALIST - Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs
• Israel United in Christ - BLACK NATIONALIST - Denver
• Mass Resistance - ANTI-LGBT- Denver
• MSR Productions - HATE MUSIC - Wheat Ridge
• Nation of Islam -BLACK NATIONALIST - Denver
• Northern Kingdom Prophets - BLACK NATIONALIST - Pueblo
• Patriot Front -WHITE NATIONALIST - Statewide
• Pray in Jesus Name Project, The - ANTI-LGBT - Colorado Springs
• Proud Boys - GENERAL HATE - Statewide
• Scriptures of America Worldwide Ministries - CHRISTIAN IDENTITY- LaPorte
• Soldiers of Odin - ANTI-MUSLIM - Denver
• The Right Stuff - WHITE NATIONALIST - Statewide
• Traditionalist Worker Party - NEO-NAZI -Statewide

Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project, which publishes the award-winning Intelligence Report and the Hatewatch blog, said in a release it’s become “critically important” that people understand what she called “the landscape of hate.” The number of these groups is surging in the era of President Donald Trump, who has faced fierce criticism for his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“We hope the new, interactive map helps people recognize and better understand the extremist activity occurring in their communities and how it’s part of a larger movement,” said Beirich.

The map allows users to filter by ideologies tracked by the organization. Some of the categories include anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, anti-muslim, holocaust denial, Ku Klux Klan, male supremacy, Neo-Nazi, racist skinhead and white nationalist.

The map shows that states with the most hate groups per capita tend to be concentrated in the Southeast, northern Rocky Mountain regions and western Great Plains. This includes Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas, as well as Idaho and Montana.

Meanwhile, several states in the Midwest saw the least number of hate groups per capita. Among these states were Kansas, Iowa and Wyoming.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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