Professor: followers of hate groups often hurt one another

TAMPA (FOX 13) - The FBI complaint against Brandon Russell - self-proclaimed neo-Nazi - says he participated in online chatrooms where he threatened to kill people and wage bombings.

"What makes tracking hate more challenging now is we are not looking at group chapters but at hits and retweets," said Professor Brian Levin of UC San-Bernardino.

Levin tracks hate groups and says they no longer organize by geography, but rather by which ideas they can push into the mainstream and normalize.

"Bigoted or violent individuals, can dine from a hateful buffet," said Levin.

The Anti-Defamation League says the group Russell cited - Atom Waffen - has blanketed State College of Manatee-Sarasota and UCF with white supremacist flyers.

Right now, the Southern Poverty Law Center says of 917 hate groups in America, 63 are in Florida.

"If they can inspire violence, they're not criminally liable for it," said Levin. "But if they orchaestrate or direct something, they are."

In this case, the violence was pointed at one another. Ironically, an ex-Nazi killed two other Nazis for not being accepting.

Violence amongst those of a hateful group might even be more common than violence directed outwardly, says Levin.

"They're sociopathic not only with respect to their bigotry, but with respect to the relationships between family members, spouses and friends," said Levin. "These are people who incubate within a society of violence generally."

Of the 63 hate groups in Florida, ten of them are in Tampa Bay, according to the southern poverty law center.