Neo-Nazis Are Terrorists: Illinois Senate

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Should white supremacist groups be treated the same as ISIS? The Illinois Senate thinks so. Days after a white nationalist rally turned deadly at the University of Virginia, senators passed a resolution asking police across Illinois to designate neo-Nazi groups as domestic terrorists. The resolution asks police to "recognize these white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations, and to pursue the criminal elements of these domestic terrorist organizations in the same manner and with the same fervor used to protect the United States from other manifestations of terrorism." The resolution adds, "Today, white nationalism has attempted to reinvent itself, self-identifying as the 'alt-right,' yet their present-day rhetoric and terrorism conjure painful memories of our nation's past."

An Ohio man who took part in Saturday's "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, is charged with ramming his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring more than a dozen others. The violence prompted Illinois legislators to take action Monday.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, is charged in Heyer's death. Just hours before the killing, he was photographed carrying the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that organized the "take America back" campaign in protest of the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville.

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The Illinois Senate resolution notes that while free speech is a "bedrock value for Americans," white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups "promote agendas that are in irreconcilable conflict with our nation's foundational principles of liberty and justice for all." The legislation adds that "white nationalism and neo-Nazism are continuing to grow as menaces to societal order." Read the full text of the resolution.

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The resolution came a day after protesters took to the streets of Chicago in response to the Charlottesville violence. The Aug. 13 demonstration was organized by the political action group Refuse Racism, with protesters marching through the Loop to Trump Tower to join with a larger group of demonstrators. President Donald Trump faced criticism over the weekend for blaming "many sides" for the violence in Charlottesville and what some saw as hesitation to condemn white supremacist groups.

Since Trump's election in November, demonstrations have taken place across the country, including Women's March events and protests against the administration's travel bans. A rallying cry for some demonstrators has been the chant, "No Trump, No KKK, No racist USA!"

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Photo: Getty Images/Staff/Chip Somodeville