A report due to be released by the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday morning and shared exclusively with USA TODAY says that the Ku Klux Klan appears to be weighed down by infighting and that activities are dwindling.
The 10-page report, "Despite Internal Turmoil, Klan Groups Persist," says the Klan's primary activity seems to be distributing hate literature.
"The distribution of racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and Islamophobic fliers remains the most consistent Klan activity," the report said. But such activity is down from 86 incidents in 2015 to 78 in 2016 to 39 so far in 2017.
The report also says that while 42 affiliated groups have staged activities in 33 states for the last 18 months, most groups have less than 25 members.
The report found that social media posts reflect a fractured Klan in which leaders come and go and members do not trust one another. Today's Klan, according to the report, is chiefly preoccupied with perceived threats such as Black Lives Matter, Islam, the LGBT community and transgender restrooms, immigration and removal of Confederate symbols from public places.
”The Ku Klux Klan movement is small and fractured, but still poses a threat to society," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. "These hardened racists and bigots are looking to spread fear, and if they grow dissatisfied with the Klan, they move on to other groups on the extreme far right. There's lots of instability and unpredictability in the Klan movement."
