The Ku Klux Klan as an American Terrorist Group - Essay Example

The Ku Klux Klan- An American Terrorist Group Introduction The Ku Klux Klan is one of the oldest and the most prominent terrorist organizations in the United States. As per Ridgeway's notice, originated in the year 1866, the Klan has preceded through government interference, the Civil War, and the civil rights epoch (Ridgeway, 1995). Nonetheless, the Ku Klux Klan has gone through many stages of eminent social organization, a clandestine society, and even separated in to different fractions all the way through the transforming history. In order to comprehend totally with the U.S. born terrorist organization, it is required for us to investigate the beliefs, rituals as well as the strategies of terror of the Ku Klux Klan. 2. Faiths, Rituals, and Strategies of the Ku Klux Klan The faiths and beliefs of the Ku Klux Klan are fascinating and help delineate the motives and targets for their rituals and strategies of terror. However, there is a correct understanding of the history of the Ku Klux Klan and the United States that helps in understanding the origins of their faiths. By following the Revolutionary War, the United States was led by the main-stream of white Protestants who shared the old Puritan belief in their elite status (Horn, 2006). This group believed that the liability of self-government and the full liberties as well as civil rights profited from independence were in their fit in. many of the white Southerners possessed a long family history of owning slaves and felt supreme to the African Americans. The unshackled blacks living in the South were resented and observed to be inferior by most of the white Southerners. As America continued to conceive a number of immigrants from diverse cultures and ethnic backdrops, some white Protestants construed to the transformations as a threat to their image of the ideal America and the faith of their superiority. According to Kelly, Regardless of the American ideals of equality and democracy, the emergence of Ku Klux Klan followed the Revolutionary War against religious, ethnic, and cultural groups who were targeted as non-Americans (Kelly, 1998). The Ku Klux Klan was founded in the year 1866 by the retired Confederate soldiers who looked for a social group and the activity in order to fulfill their time (Horn, 2006). Firstly, the Klan targeted African Americans as a resource to imitate their humorous pranks on. Nonetheless, the Klan was soon organized in to a military ladder and profited of thousands of members who were politically and emotionally driven against the blacks and equality politics. in following the Reconstruction, Klan members delineated the purpose of their organization as a peace-maintaining organization which was targeted at self-defense. Most of the members feared the rise of independent blacks, thinking that they were becoming violent and threatened the security of the white Southerners. The second era emerged with Klan becoming as a secret organization. However, as noticed by Martin, in the third epoch the Klan grew as a glorified public organization with approximately four million members (Martin, 2006). The widespread recognition of the Ku Klux Klan came from the shared faiths in nativism and wistful ideas of a previous better America. Moreover, with the help of Ridgeway and Stalcup's view, the Klan emerged as an organization which was focused against the rapidly transforming world and the perceived threat to its being and value system (Ridgeway, 1995; Stalcup et. al, 1995). The belief system of the KKK was centralized on the issues of the deteriorating country and value procedure. It held fundamentalist views and believed that the Anglo-Saxon Protestants were the divine influential group who held the righteousness to rule and viewed the African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and other ethnic minorities as a danger to their values and norms. Klansmen used their targets as scapegoats for their dissatisfaction with the current economic and social conditions in the United States. In Ku Klux Klan's views, they were the victims of the transforming nation and believed that their actions targeted self-defense of their righteousness as well as liberties (Ku Klux Klan, 2005). The Klan initiated with a ritualistic nature in he year 1915 during the rule of Imperial Wizard William Joseph Simmons who was a former minister and head of the Klan. He began to mimic the rituals of Klan after religious ceremonies, and Ku Klux Klan is often acknowledged with the cross-burning rituals which became a part of the regular meetings as well as ceremonies. It was often brought in to use in order to excite members and the public so as to raise the morale of the group, and to remind them to act like Jesus Christ and serve Klan (Horn, 2006). The KKK routinely incorporated religion in to its beliefs and actions. It was tied in religion too closely with the ministers' help to the point which, as Maclean has put, states that the Klan would be called upon during the church to give announcements for speaking to the public about issues (Maclean, 1994). Regarding their various strategies, they used many approaches of terror in order to influence, terrorize, and support their cause. Since, they strongly believed on themselves, the KKK too commonly made use of the terrorism and justified themselves in their actions. They regularly practiced the additional terrorist methods. One of the most common methods was the public or secret lynching. They kidnapped and executed the victim by hanging, burning and many other extremely brutal acts (Horn, 2006). There was another method of terror which was the public notes which served as threats to the African Americans to vacate the area or to abide by the wishes of Klan. This method backed up during the night shootings into houses, flogging, and lynching. These methods were usually targeted at infusing fear and driving African Americans and other white supporters of the black community for their property and out of the Klan's arena. During the civil rights movement, which served as the fourth era of the Klan, the violence and terror rapidly escalated. According to the estimations by Kelly, 500 individual cases of racially motivated violence or acts of terror took place from Ku Klux Klan's side and supporters who followed the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court in Brown v. the Board of Education (Kelly, 1998). This period retarded the ceremonies and rituals of the KKK, however, the Klan continued to use public beatings, brutal murder, and marching to terrorize the black community and their white supporters. The conventional outlook of the white hooded KKK was replicated during the fourth and the fifth-epoch by camouflage uniforms. The Ku Klux Clan continued their violent acts against the civil rights movement until the late 20th century. 3. Domestic terrorist Groups and the FBI The FBI has separated the terrorist threat facing the United States in to two wide categories, international and domestic. Where international terrorism involved violent repression which are dangerous to human life and are a violation of the criminal laws of the US or any other state, Domestic terrorism is the unlawful use of violence by a group or individual based and operating totally within the United States, with least direction from foreign entities, committed against persons or property so as to intimidate a government, the civilian population or any segment of the furtherance of political and social objectives. The FBI and law enforcement partners have made many arrests of individuals and groups alleged to have perpetrated acts of eco-terrorism. Scrutinizing the investigation of the Phoenix, Arizona, arsons, Mark Warren Sands have been indicted and arrested on 6.14.2001 (Jarboe, 2002). In Feb 2001, teenagers Jared McIntyre, Matthew Rammelkamp, and George Mashkow pleaded culprit, as adults, to title 18 U.S.C. 844 (i), Arson, and 844 (n), Arson Conspiracy. These charges pertained to a sequence of arson and tried arsons of a new home construction sites in Long Island, New York. On the Sept 16, 1998, a federal grand jury in the Western District of Wisconsin indicted Peter Young and Justin Samuel for the violation of Hobbs act as well as for animal enterprise terrorism. On August 30, 2000, Samuel pleaded guilty of two counts of animal enterprise terrorism and was sentenced to two years of prison on November 3, 2000 and ordered to pay $364, 106 in restitution. Further, On April 20, 1997, Douglas Joshua Ellerman turned himself in an admitted on video to purchasing, constructing and transporting some pipe bombs to the scene of the March 11, 1997, he also admitted setting fire to the facility. He was, hence, indicted on June 19th, 1997 on 16 counts and eventually pleaded guilty to three (Jarboe, 2002). Another conviction occurred on February 2, 1992, when Rodney Adam Coronado was convicted for his role, arson at an animal research laboratory on the campus of Michigan State University. According to the public sources, the damage counted for $200,000 and was inclusive of the destruction of research records. This incident was claimed by ALF. The FBI, ATM, and the Michigan State University police played a significant role in the investigation, arrest, and prosecution (Jarboe, 2002). Presently, more than 26 FBI field offices have pending investigations associated with ALF/ELF activities. Regardless of all the efforts, law enforcement has a long way to go appropriately address the problem of eco-terrorism. The FBI all the other enforcement partners would continuously address the difficult and distinct challenges posed by the eco-terrorists. Regardless of the recent focus on the international terrorism, they remain entirely aware of the full range of threats which confront the United States. 4. The United States Homeland Security Policy and KKK American lives, being at war with terrorist enemies who intend on attacking the Homeland, remain at risk from natural catastrophes which are inclusive of the naturally occurring infectious diseases such as hurricanes and earthquakes as well as man-made accident. The National Strategy for Homeland Security recognize that the US addresses the full range of potential catastrophic events and must continue to focus on the persistent and evolving terrorist threat. The purpose of this policy strategy is to guide, organize and unify the efforts of Nation's homeland security efforts. It facilitates a common concept which the entire Nation ought to focus its efforts on the following four targets: 1. to prevent and disrupt the terrorist attacks, 2. protect the Americans, critical infrastructure and key resources 3. reply to and recover from the incidents that occur, and 4. Continue to strengthen the foundation in order to ensure the long-term success. This policy strategy, which builds directly from the first national Strategy for Homeland Security issued in July, reflects the incremented comprehension of the terrorist threats which confront the United States in today's scenario, assimilates lessons learnt from the exercises and real world calamities, thereby, proposes new initiatives and approaches which enable the Nation to achieve homeland security objectives. Moreover, this Strategy also complements both the National Security Strategy which was issued in March 2006 and the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism as issued in September, 2006 (News and Policies, 2007). In order to counter the threats of domestic groups, this National Strategy has recognized that to the American people, progress should be measured not only in the terms of plans or incremented budgets, but by the results achieved. Since September 11, they have made extraordinary progress in the full range of homeland security activities having been attained through the means of efficacious national and international partnerships. They have greatly increased counter-terrorism efforts since September 11, which has limited the ability of many terrorist groups to attack their Homeland and have led them to realize that the Homeland is a harder target to strike. They have instituted an effective, multi-layered approach to securing the Homeland that integrates the capabilities of local, Tribal, State and Federal governments as well as those of the private as well as the non-profit sectors so as to secure the Land, maritime, air, space and cyber battlefields. Through a concerted effort which galvanizes the strengths and capabilities of Federal, State, Local and Tribal Governments, along with the partners in the international community work to attain a secure Homeland which sustains the way of life as a free, prosperous and welcoming America. The United States Homeland Strategy uses all the instruments of the national power and influence, which are diplomatic, information, military, economic, financial, intelligence and law enforcement in order to achieve their goals of preventing and disrupting domestic terrorist attacks such as those of the KKK, to protect the American People, critical infrastructure and key resources, thereby, responding to and recover from the incidents experienced by them. They incessantly create, strengthen and transform the principles, systems, structures and institutions which are needed to secure the United States over the long term (News and Policies, 2007). Moreover, their strategy to prevent the terrorist groups to act they role completely focuses on the prevention of the terrorist use of illicit pathways in to the homeland, thereby, disrupting their activities and networks. The US response to fight against KKK was to attack the white supremacist ideology behind the movement. It was an all-out total war which involved social, economic, ideological and other aspects of life. This effort was fought in schools, churches, and every other public place, and defended democratic values and pluralism against extremism, regardless of engendering high costs and huge divisions in the US society. It was also undertaken that no matter who was offended and without any regard to the white supremacist claims of a war against the white Americans. The US ought to fight the current terrorist threat without the concern of the alienating audiences and encourage them to side with the terrorists. Had the US confronted a movement like KKK while trying to prevent people from joining the movement, the US would have been lost (Forum, 2008). 5. Conclusion Being the longest lasting United States born terrorist organization, Klan has lasted almost 150 years through government intervention, civil right movements and public opposition (Horn, 2006). It has been successful in deploying the strategies of terror to support and wield the organization's interests. The terror harvested by the KKK was extremely effective in the history of the U.S. today, the US continues to provide strict prosecution to racial hate crimes and terrorist activities in order to prevent the KKK and other U.S. born terrorist organizations from being successful as the former Ku Klux Klan. The one strategic policy delineated above is an efficacious example of fighting against such organizations so as to lead to a prosperous and terrorism-free nation. Work Cited Page 1. Kelly, R. J. The Ku Klux Klan: Recurring hate in America. In R. J. Kelly & J. Maghan (Eds.), Hate crime: The global politics of polarization (pp. 51-78), 1998. The Elmer H. Johnson and Carol Holmes Johnson series in criminology. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Retrieved October 23, 2006, from Monmouth College eContent Collection database (Product ID 2319). 2. Forum. Words Matter: The Role of Lexicon in Counter-Terrorism Communications Strategy. the Homeland Security Policy Institute, June 24, 2008. 3. Jarboe, James F. The Threat of Eco-Terrorism. the House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health (February 12, 2002), 2002. 4. Ku Klux Klan. Extremism in America. 2005, Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network. [Offial Website] December 15, 2008; . 5. Maclean, N. Behind the mask of chivalry: The making of the second Ku Klux Klan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. 6. Martin, G. Homegrown racism: The legacy of the Ku Klux Klan. In Understanding terrorism: Challenges, perspectives, and issues (2nd ed., Pp. 456-459). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2006. 7. News and Policies. Overview of America's National Strategy for Homeland Security. The White House [Official Website], October 9, 2007. 8. Ridgeway, J. Blood in the face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi skinheads, and the rise of a new white culture (2nd ed.). 1995, New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. (Original work published 1990) 9. Stalcup, B et. al. (Eds.). Reconstruction: Opposing viewpoints. American history series. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc, 1995. Read More