Group: Extremism-related killings are on the rise in the United States

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of mass murders linked to extremism in the United States has been at least three times higher in the past 10 years than in any decade since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). ).

The report, provided to The Associated Press ahead of its release on Thursday, also found that all identified extremist killings in 2022 were linked to far-right radicalism, with a particularly high number linked to white supremacism. Among them are the racist shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, which killed 10 black shoppers, and one at an LGBT club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which left five people dead.

“It is no exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass murder,” the ADL Center on Extremism report said.

Between the 1970s and the 2000s, between two and seven such incidents were recorded, but in 2010 the number jumped to 21, according to the report.

The trend has continued upward since, with five extremism-tinged mass murders in 2021 and 2022, as many as in the first decade of the new millennium.

Victims have also increased: between 2010 and 2020, 164 people perished in ideologically motivated mass murders, according to the report. That number is far higher than in any other decade except the 1990s, when an attack on a federal building in Oklahoma City left 168 people dead.

Extremist killings are those perpetrated by people linked to radical movements and ideologies.

The increase recorded over the last decade is due to a combination of several factors. There were incidents inspired by the rise of the extremist group Islamic State, as well as a handful against police after shootings at civilians and others linked to the growing promotion of violence by white supremacists, said Mark Pitcavage, senior fellow at the Center on Extremism. .

The center tracks killings linked to various forms of extremism in the United States and compiles them into an annual report. In 2022, it recorded 25 such incidents, a decrease from 33 the previous year.

93% of murders last year were committed with firearms. The report further states that for the first time since 2011, no police officers were killed by extremists.

With the decline of the Islamic State, the main threat in the short term could be white supremacist shooters, the report adds. On the other hand, the increase in the number of mass murder attempts is one of the most alarming trends in recent years, according to the vice president of the Center, Oren Segal.

“We cannot sit back and accept this as the new normal,” he said.