An organization that monitors hate groups has called Michigan a “petri dish” that fosters radical anti-government sentiment.
Klanwatch, an arm of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., frames its latest report around the upcoming trial of Oklahoma City bombing suspect Terry Nichols, a former Decker, Mich., resident.
The report says Michigan has as many as 56 “patriot” groups, 13 “hate groups” and six common-law courts. Michigan and California have the nation’s highest concentration of right-wing groups, it said.
“It’s not . . . to say Michigan is even one of the worst places in the country, but it does have a long history of extremism,” said Mark Potok, author of the study.
Potok said the number of anti-government groups has started rising for the first time since the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building that killed 168 people.
