New white supremacist groups have formed in Florida while existing neo-Nazi factions have increased their reach online and in-person, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League.
The newest participants jockeying for supremacy in the extremist field include the following groups: Sunshine State Nationalists, NatSoc Florida, White Lives Matter, and Florida Nationalists. More established organizations “such as Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have shifted their strategies to focus on the local level, disrupting school board meetings and even running for political office,” the ADL said in its latest report released Tuesday.
“The past two years have seen a significant increase in extremist related incidents both nationwide and in the state of Florida,” the nonprofit group said. “These incidents have been driven, in part, by widespread disinformation and conspiracy theories which have animated extremists and fueled antisemitism. The result: unrest and violence, from the January 6 insurrection to white supremacist activity to a spike in hate crimes.”
DOJ POURS FUNDS INTO DEVELOPING HATE CRIME HOTLINES AMID HISTORIC SPIKE
In Florida alone, hate crimes have increased more than 70% in the past two years.
“We’ve had two incidents in recent years and earlier than that,” Joy Spill, the president of Temple Emanu-El, told CBS Miami. “We’re very vulnerable because we’re so very visible. We have that magnificent copper dome.”
Spill told the news station that being a target has affected the way congregants approach safety.
“It does affect, you know, the way we enter the building, the way we enter the building and think about being there, are we safe?” Spill said.
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The ADL’s Center on Extremism has documented more than 400 instances of white supremacist propaganda being distributed in Florida between January 2020 and August 2022.
