Unfair from p9 order it, or the public will demand it.” Phillips, meanwhile, wants to see policy changes, receive his just compensation and be reinstated. He’ll continue to hold faith in the Constitution and the rightness of his cause. “I have the truth on my side … We have case law on our side, precedent on our side,” he said. “And I’m going to fight until I prevail.” ▼ HATE GROUPS F A NEW REPORT SAYS THAT ALTHOUGH THE NUMBER OF HATE GROUPS IN THE U.S. DECLINED LAST YEAR, BUT THAT EXTREMISM REMAINS A PROBLEM. BY MICHAEL MURNEY HATE GROUP TALLY ar-right extremism and white nationalist hate groups gained steam in 2021, even though the total number of active groups de- clined, according to a new re- port. In Texas, the number dropped from 54 to 52 compared with the previous year. Last Wednesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate groups, released an annual report that tallies the number of hate groups around the country. The tally includes white nationalists, neo-Nazis, anti-Muslim groups, anti-LG- BTQ groups and anti-Semitic outfits like the Nation of Islam, among others. For instance, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the list includes the Plano-based Probe Ministries, which the SPLC designates as anti-LGBTQ, the anti-Muslim Bureau on American Islamic Affairs and a Nation of Is- lam chapter. In northeast Texas, the list in- cludes the Patriotic Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the Church of the KKK. Right-wing commentators and groups in- cluded on the hate group list often dispute the designation, claiming the list includes mainstream conservatives. Probe Ministries President Kerby Anderson, for example, has rejected the label in the past, telling the Plano Star Courier in 2015 that the SPLC re- minded him of “an infant with a spoon. … They go at it with great enthusiasm, but with little accuracy.” (Probe includes several anti-LGBTQ posts on its website’s blog.) Around the country, the report con- cluded, hate groups and antigovernment ex- tremists have shoehorned their way into the national political conversation over the past year. SPLC researchers identified 733 hate and 488 antigovernment groups actively op- erating across the United States, a decrease from the number documented in 2020. Still, the SPLC says that, despite the de- cline, “hate and extremism in America has not diminished. Instead, it has coalesced into a broader movement that is both threat- ening our democracy at the community level and embracing violence as a means to achieve white supremacist goals.” The researchers pointed to a loose coali- 10 10 tion of hardline antigovernment extremists like the Oath Keepers, Republican politi- cians, die-hard Trump loyalists and heavily funded right-wing think tanks and media or- ganizations for pushing hardline extremist ideas out of the margins. The Jan. 6, 2021, at- tacks on the U.S. Capitol served as a symbol Mark Graham of how volatile the movement’s ideas re- main, the researchers said. “Our nation stands at a dangerous cross- road. The mainstreaming of hate and ex- tremism threatens our people, our communities, our education system and de- mocracy itself,” said Susan Corke, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the culmina- tion of years of right-wing radicalization. The attempt to rewrite the history of that day and evade accountability for the vio- lence shows the gravity of the problem and the urgency of addressing it.” The report also details how the far-right has galvanized followers using live-stream- ing across multiple platforms. As establish- ment tech companies and social media apps have taken steps to ban people spreading hate and disinformation, the leaders of the movement have migrated from platform to platform, pulling a loyal and massive group of followers along with them. The SPLC also said that backlash against widespread racial justice protests and activ- ism during 2020 accounts for much of the hate spreading in 2021. According to a Uni- versity of Chicago analysis of the Capitol siege, counties with the most declines in white populations (that is, the places where non-whites were moving to the most) were “the most likely to produce insurrectionists” that participated in the siege. Texans have played a central role in the movement documented by SPLC’s report. Earlier this year, former Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes was arrested in his North Texas home on charges of seditious conspir- acy for allegedly helping to plan and orches- trate the Jan. 6 siege. In recent years, far-right outfits like Patriot Front have put up anti-immigrant stickers and flyers around DFW. Last year, federal authori- ties caught a Grand Prairie neo-Nazi named Christian Michael Mackey, who referred to himself as the “radical Jew slayer” and later pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge. Meanwhile, neo-Nazi group the Aryan Freedom Network plans to hold its “White Unity Conference” in Dallas in October. ▼ DALLAS COUNTY D DALLAS COUNTY JAIL FAILS INSPECTION FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR.. BY MICHAEL MURNEY REPEAT OFFENDER allas County Jail failed to meet Texas’ minimum standards for ac- ceptable jail conditions for the sec- ond year in a row. According to a Texas Commission on Jail Standards’ report, state inspectors during an annual weeklong walk-through last month found that jail staff are violat- ing at least four of the state’s minimum standards. First on inspectors’ violations list is that officers have not been accurately document- ing the times and frequencies of check-ins on inmates on suicide watches. The jail’s standing policy requires officers to observe each inmate on suicide watch once every 15 minutes, according to the report. Officers’ logged observations and their actual obser- vations as recorded by surveillance cameras in the suicide watch wing didn’t match up, inspectors said. The same week as last month’s inspec- tion, a jailed man on suicide watch, Deron Tolbert, died after experiencing a sudden medical emergency in his single-occupancy cell. Officers weren’t aware of Tolbert’s dis- tress until fellow suicide watch inmates alerted them. The commission also cited the jail for failing to provide a clean uniform and towel to inmates in mental health “crisis care” at least once a week. Last fall, people held at Dallas County Jail went weeks without clean clothes. State inspectors described rampant dis- repair in the jail’s north tower as well; doz- ens of cell doors throughout the facility were broken, leaving officers unable to lock them. Many of these doors were in the same housing units within the tower, “compro- mising the safety and security of the facility,” the report says. This is the second consecutive year the jail has failed the state’s inspection since For the second year in a row, Dallas County jail can’t maintain basic hygiene standards for inmates. Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown took office in 2019. It’s also the second straight year the jail has specifically fallen short on multiple basic hygiene standards for in- mates. Inspectors came to Dallas on Feb. 14. That week began like any other annual in- spection, according to jailers: Inspectors walked through each of the jail’s towers, in- terviewing staff and inmates and reviewing staff records of incidents and rounds. As scheduled, the commission staff met with county commissioners on Feb. 18 to discuss their findings. Unlike in previous years, however, the commission’s report wasn’t released follow- ing the briefing, and neither state nor county officials ever clarified if the jail had passed or failed. Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price told reporters that afternoon that “they’re just saying that there are some technical issues that we have, and that they’ve given us a planned date to amelio- rate those issues.” On Feb. 23, the commission announced the jail’s failing grade and delivered the in- spectors’ report to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Sheriff Brown. Neither county nor state officials made a public statement about the failed inspection, and the report wasn’t made public. Then, state inspectors later returned to the jail, internal sheriff’s office emails and county memos show. The purpose of their multi-day return visit is unknown. Neither county nor commission officials immedi- ately responded to request for comment. For each of the four standards violated, the commission issued instructions to the sheriff’s office and the county for restoring compliance. The sheriff’s office will have to provide the commission with various forms of documentation within 30 days or less showing their compliance with the state’s instructions or risk an additional non-com- pliance notification. MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 MARCH 17–23, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
