On Wednesday, a man named Floyd Corkins allegedly walked into the office building of the powerful ultra-conservative lobby firm Family Research Council and shot an unarmed building manager.
CNN reports that Corkins had previously worked for an organization that served LGBT people, and because of that, conservatives are connecting the Southern Poverty Law Center’s declaration that the Family Research Council is a hate group with this crime, blaming SPLC for inciting extremists.
The SPLC criticizes the Family Research Council for asserting, “in Perkins’ words, that pedophilia is ‘a homosexual problem’ — an utter falsehood, as every relevant scientific authority has stated. An FRC official has said he wanted to ‘export homosexuals from the United States.’ The same official advocated the criminalizing of homosexuality.”
The fact of the Family Research Council’s being called a hate group by the SPLC became widely know during the Chick-fil-A controversy. Corkins was allegedly carrying 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches when he was arrested.
Asked what evidence he had linking the center to the shooting, Perkins referred to the Chick-fil-A matter.
[Dan Cathy said,]”You have seen Family Research Council listed in many of those stories — that Chick fil-A supports and underwrites the Family Research Council.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free“And in those stories where it says the Family Research Council, it says they’re a certified hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. We’ve seen that term used increasingly over the last two years and it marginalizes individuals and organizations, letting people feel free to go and do bodily harm to innocent people who are simply working and representing folks all across this country.”
The SPLC maintains that Perkins is using the SPLC’s condemnation of the Family Research Council to “pose a false equivalency between the SPLC’s criticisms of the FRC and the FRC’s criticisms of LGBT people.”
What do you think? Did the SPLC’s condemnation of the Family Research Council contribute to what the FBI may deem either a hate crime or domestic terrorism, allegedly at the hands of Floyd Corkins?
I do find this whole Ménage à trois bizzare. The SPLC uses it’s own definition of Hate and Hate Group, and under that The FRC meets the definition. They don’t meet the definition operated by the FBI – and neither does The SPLC. What is clear is that the whole mess is being sexed up for political gain. It’s an election year and driving votes is what most counts. As many have pointed out Hate Crime Statutes play out, and the FRC are now claiming it all falls under that umbrella along with Domestic Terrorism, when the Hate Crime statutes… Read more »
“What is clear is that the whole mess is being sexed up for political gain. It’s an election year and driving votes is what most counts.”
Then I wish these political events would stop. Too many people are dead and the 2nd Amendment is going to pay with its life.
Depends on the criteria. See the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, et al blamed for the Tucson shooting by nutcase Loughner. By those criteria, yes, the SPLC is to blame.
No I wouldn’t say that SPLC is to blame for extremists themselves. Yes the SPLC might be mislabeling people as extremists/hate groups (apparently copying/pasting headlines from the Examiner is enough to get one labeled as such) but they are not the cause of the hate.
Archy is correct. In this instance (for once), the SPLC’s label is corect, and the FRC is a hate group. But that doesn’t mean the SPLC is to blame for the shooter’s actions. The shooter is.
Agreed. No one should be shooting anybody; that’s the point of making lists of hate groups. Saying that keeping track of who is inciting hate crime causes hate crimes is ridiculous.
My question is, if Corkins is making a political case, what’s he doing with all those Chick-Fil-A sandwiches? Did he steal them?
Wait, what was the point of making lists of hate groups again? Is someone claiming that the FRC, itself clearly a ‘hate group,’ is responsible for inciting the shooter now?
I would call BS on that as well. Nobody is responsible for the shooter’s actions but the shooter. The FRC certainly deserves to burn to the ground, but they didn’t “cause” this incident any more than the SPLC did. They invite abuse, mockery, and scorn… but never, ever violence. No matter what they say.
SPLC labelling a group a hate group? Shouldn’t they label feminism a hate group by the logic they used for the MRM?
But no, labeling something a hate group doesn’t incite violence. Violent people incite violence.