Feb. 23 (UPI) — Extremist-related murders rose substantially in the United States over the past decade, with a recent surge in mass killings motivated by ideology and White supremacists emerging as a more serious threat, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The agency’s findings were spelled out in a report — titled “Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2022” — which was published Wednesday by the agency’s Center on Extremism.
Various right-wing elements that exist in the shadows of the country were invariably responsible for all extremist-related killings that occurred throughout 2022, the report says, adding that attacks in the U.S. by Islamist extremists had fallen significantly over the past five years.
In recent years, White supremacists have been largely responsible for the greatest number of extremist-related killings in the U.S., including 21 of the 25 that occurred in 2022.
The death toll was lower than the 33 extremist-related killings the year before, yet slightly higher than the 22 extremist-related murders that occurred in 2020.
The killings were the result of at least a dozen cases of domestic extremism, including two mass shootings that claimed the lives of 15 people, while 18 of 25 of the murders appear to have been committed in whole or part for ideological motives, the report says.
The study also points to data from the past three years that shows a sharp drop in such extremist killings when compared to the period between 2015 and 2019, when the country saw as many as 78 murders per year related to extreme causes.
The report calls extremist-related mass killings an emerging concern for the nation, while noting that mass shootings did not occur as ubiquitously before the turn of the 21st century.
Over the past 12 years, however, mass killings have surged, including those committed by right- and left-wing extremists, and domestic Islamist extremists, the report said, citing White supremacist propaganda that continue to urge such attacks.
The report also identified 62 extremist-related mass killings in the U.S. since 1970, 46 of which were ideologically motivated.
