Bad Economy May Fuel Hate Groups, Experts Warn

For 20 years, Bart McIntyre has tracked white supremacist movements, even spending two years undercover in Alabama to penetrate a violent young band of criminals who called themselves the Confederate Hammerskins.

Away from his wife and young daughter, McIntyre took the alias “Mark,” attended Ku Klux Klan rallies and educated himself in racist propaganda. He and a law enforcement partner ultimately helped build criminal cases that sent more than 10 men to prison for their involvement in the murder and vicious beatings of black men in the Birmingham area in the early 1990s.

Now, as McIntyre prepares to retire from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he and other analysts are warning that the threat from hate groups and splinter organizations connected to the Klan should not be underestimated, especially at a time of economic unrest.

“In society, you have a very small number of people who are going to push the envelope and take it to the next step,” said McIntyre, the resident ATF agent in charge in Roanoke.

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Veteran investigators say they have advocated for increased attention to the problem since late September, when the nation’s economic troubles widened, giving white supremacists a potent new source of discontent to exploit among potential recruits.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The number of U.S. hate groups has increased by 48 percent, to 888, since 2000, according to experts at the Southern Poverty Law Center, an independent organization that monitors racist movements.

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