Hate crimes in California have increased just over the last year. The state is now home to 79 hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. That’s more than anywhere in the country.
When violence erupted in Charlottesville, many of us saw the images of young white men carrying torches and holding Nazi signs and wondered: Who are they?
AC Thompson, a reporter with ProPublica’s "Documenting Hate" project, is tracking hate crimes around the country. He recently wrote about this new crop of young white supremacists, and came by our studios to talk about what hate groups are now on the rise, and who these young people are.
"What I found interesting in talking to these young men — overwhelmingly young, overwhelmingly men, many of them college educated — was that many of them had converted to this ideology in the last couple of years, even in the last couple of months."
