History, Purpose & Criteria for Hatewatch

(update 05/03/21) After discovering that Kanab area residents Corson & Crosby were at the January 6th Capitol Insurrection, I shared Hatewatch with the public. Hatewatch is a list of individuals living in the Kanab, Utah area or acting in the area via social media group or partial-year residency who engaged in public extremist activity either in person or on-line.

Kanab lies within Kane County Utah with smaller, Fredonia, Arizona just 7 miles from Kanab. The largest cities near (40-70miles) Kanab are St. George, Hurricane & Cedar City Utah.

Purpose of KURW Hatewatch

It is a tough line to walk, that of disenfranchising the right further by exposing behaviors and exposing individuals so that we can intervene as a community before we have to respond to law enforcement after violent action. The FBI and DHS warn of a continued threat of action against politicians and journalists. Two area residents are confirmed at the Jan 06, 2021 Capitol Insurrection (Kanab “Patriots” at the Capitol Insurrection and Local Law Enforcement Praise), one implied and one out-of-state family member implied.

The purpose of a hatewatch is to monitor and expose activity of the far-right movement because the far-right has been identified by the FBI as the number one threat to US National Security. Note: this is 6% of the population and is not based on being Republican or Conservative (see KURW homepage digram). I provide Kanab’s Hatewatch because Kanab is where my most recent and relevant experience with the far-right occurred. Add to that the discovery of two Kanabians who I know personally that went to the Capitol Insurrection which prompted this outreach.

Examples of other hatewatch organizations:

• Southern Poverty Law Center: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch
• Militia Watch : https://militia.watch/
• Utah Right Wing Watch : https://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/utah/
• Left Coast Right Watch : https://leftcoastrightwatch.org/
• Anti-Defamation League : https://www.adl.org/what-we-do/combat-hate/extremism-terrorism-bigotry
• Center for Countering Digital Hate: https://www.counterhate.com/
• Hindu-American Hatewatch: https://www.hinduamerican.org/projects/hindu-hate-watch

CRITERIA FOR HATEWATCH

Criteria, are based on trends and warnings from the FBI, DHS and the University of Chicago (https://cpost.uchicago.edu/research/domestic_extremism/). Bigotry is defined as intolerance of groups, lifestyles, identities, opinions different from ones own. Inclusion on KURW Hatewatch includes one or more of the following criteria:

1. Engages with extermist groups on social media see Understanding Social Media in Kanab: Groups, Pages & Individuals and Kanab FB Page “Kanab Patriots” Recruits and Radicalizes Extremists
2. Posts bigotry and/or extremist rhetoric publicly on personal social media page 
3. Supports/shares posts of bigotry and/or extremist rhetoric on local social media groups 
4. Replies with bigotry and/or extremist rhetoric on posts to local social media groups
5. Organize/attend public rallies including:  Stop-the-Steal 2021, Save America MAGA 2021 after Capitol Insurrection, counter-protests to social justice 2020 (Back the Blue, All Lives Matter), Kanab Trump Cruise 2020 and 89/89A MAGA 2020
   • **attending only a MAGA rally in 2020 does not meet the criteria, however attending a 2021 MAGA event does and the Kanab events because these were
     • organized by Stephen Corson with signs of bigotry and he went to the Insurrection Kanab “Patriots” at the Capitol Insurrection and Local Law Enforcement Praise and
     • promoted by local extremist FB Page “Kanab Patriots” Kanab FB Page “Kanab Patriots” Recruits and Radicalizes Extremists
6. Multiple friends that meet these criteria
7. Compare to the common characteristics of those arrested at the Jan 6th Capitol Insurrection from FBI, DHS and University of Chicago
   • 34 years old or older (new trend)
   • White
   • Better employed (new trend): entrepreneurs & white collar
   • Financial hardship history
   • Military background, particularly Marine & Army (Kanab Veterans Engage in Extremism, Reflecting National Trend)
   • Law enforcement background (Kanab City Police Chief, bigotry on display and how to file a complaint)
   • Emotions: betrayal, anger & fear that someone will take something from them
   • Few ties to known extremists groups (new trend, see home page for groups)
   • Christian theocratic

Community Quality Control:

• Submit names for review if you feel that person does not meet the KURW Hatewatch criteria, the evidence will be shared with you and appropriate changes made if justified. That evidence will look something like this (Requests to review some on “Hatewatch”: Cram, Patton, Collins & Bunting-Erickson and Series: Expose and Expel or Expose and Reform? Religious Leaders).
• Submit additional names and information to add to KURW Hatewatch
• Submit suggestions for presentation of information and language used on this site, I’ve made several changes based on comments, thank you.
• **Every photo and FB content was shared with public setting to social media or from public events**.

Contact: email mgalaria@protonmail.com or use form on Contact page