THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605100009
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
It's distressing to see your front-page story in which investigators state they can find no evidence of conspiracy in the recent spate of black-congregation church arsons (23 churches torched in 16 months).
It seems likely the church arsons are part of the strategy of ``leaderless resistance'' outlined in 1992 by Louis Beam, a former head of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a prominent figure in ``patriot'' and white supremacist movements. Beam's widely dispersed concept was for small cadres of hatemongers to pick their own targets and take independent action, patterning their actions after the actions of others.
While it may be true that no traditional legal conspiracy exists (in that no person or group is overtly directing the arsonists), it seems obvious these fires are not coincidental.
The police and the public need to understand that simply because these small cadres don't behave like traditional criminal conspiracies, it doesn't mean a conspiracy doesn't exist. Indeed, the actions of right-wing religious extremists constitute a conspiracy in the oldest sense of the term.
``Conspiracy'' comes from the Latin con spiritus, which means to share breath - to breathe together. The arsonists who are targeting black-congregation churches are a vile and violent conspiracy, sharing the same foul breath, breathing the same hate-filled air.
GREG FALLIS
Norfolk, May 6, 1996 by CNB