ADL’s Response to the Charleston Shooting

  • June 29, 2015

ADL has been deeply involved in investigative and community responses to the horrific shooting at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina by a young man influenced and radicalized by white supremacist ideology.

Immediately after the shooting, ADL’s Center on Extremism was among the first to identify the suspect, 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof, as having white supremacist leanings.

We spoke out immediately in a statement condemning the attack and pointing to the motive as hate.  Just days later, when the perpetrator’s racist manifesto came to light revealing he was also an anti-Semite, we spoke out again, bringing to the fore his hateful rhetoric against Jews and noting how anti-Semitism remains a calling card of racists everywhere. We called for Jews and African-Americans to join together in common cause against the hatred that effects both of our communities.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, ADL mobilized expertise and resources on several fronts:

  • ADL’s Center on Extremism  provided extensive information to law enforcement and the news media about the shooter, the racist symbols he adopted, and the state of extremist groups in America.
  • Our investigative work is ongoing, and our investigative researchers are monitoring the situation and extremist websites for “chatter” on the incident.  So far, we have no indication of active participation by the suspect in organized white supremacist groups or activities.  In all likelihood, he was on the periphery of the white supremacist movement—which is common for “lone wolf” violent offenders.
  • ADL has been quoted in numerous news stories and appeared on various national television networks including The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC Nightly News, The New York Daily News, and NBC’s The Today Show, among many others. ADL contributed an article to Times’ “Room for Debate” blog in response to the question, “How should we deal with the threat of domestic extremists,” where we laid out our multi-tiered prescription for battling the bigots.
  • We issued a new report on the Council of Conservative Citizens, the white supremacist group that Roof, in his manifesto, claimed influenced him.
  • ADL’s Hate on Display database has been extensively quoted and used in connection with the Confederate flag, and the apartheid-era South African flag that Roof donned in his online photos.
  • ADL took a firm position in support of bringing down the Confederate Flag in South Carolina. In a statement from Mark Moskowitz, ADL Southeast Regional Director, we applauded Gov. Haley’s immediate and bi-partisan efforts to remove the flag from Capitol grounds.  In a blog post, we also called for an end to Confederate Flag license plates, which are still available as specialty plates in at least eight Southern states.
  • We reasserted our longstanding concerns about gun violence in America. In a blog published in The Huffington Post, Abe Foxman made a compelling case for why we can no longer afford to ignore the clear and present danger of guns in the hands of bigots. We called for imposing sensible, stricter controls on firearms, such as comprehensive background checks and mandating reasonable waiting periods.
  • Since the shooting occurred in one of five states where there are no hate crime laws on the books, ADL is ramping up efforts to encourage state legislators in South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Indiana and Wyoming to finally pass effective hate crime laws, pointing to the S.C. tragedy as an example of why these laws are so important, necessary and potentially efficacious.
  • We are currently exploring ways to assist the African-American community to ensure the safety of their houses of worship by making available our resources on community institutional security and other efforts. These resources are available online.
  • We have made available educational resources, including a blog on “What Should We Tell Our Children About Charleston?”

Meanwhile, the ADL Southeast Regional Office has spearheaded our response on the local level.  In addition to sending a letter to the staff and congregation of Emanuel AME Church offering our condolences and support, Mark Moskowitz reached out to the Charleston Jewish Federation to offer security advice and assistance and has been in regular contact with law enforcement and the local community in South Carolina. In addition, Mark has been in conversation with the Charleston Jewish Federation Director discussing ways to bring No Place for Hate and other educational programs into the Charleston public and private school system. South Carolina State Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D) is working with ADL on language on Hate Crimes legislation to be introduced in January 2016. ADL Center on Extremism staff is currently in Charleston, SC, where, at the invitation of President Obama, they will represent ADL at the funeral for the pastor killed in the attack, and he will also be meeting with local community leaders.

Many regional offices have been reaching out to their friends and partners in the African American and interfaith communities and have been attending vigils and offering our education and security resources, including through this specially created webpage.

Finally, one ray of hope that has come out of this tragedy: Last Monday, we wrote to our network of supporters across the country and called on our social media followers to join us in writing letters or notes of condolence to the church and community in Charleston.  To date, we have received more than 6,000 signatures and messages of sympathy on our website, which we intend to forward to members of Emanuel AME Church in a show of solidarity.  If you haven’t contributed a message yet, please add your name and expression of sympathy to ADL’s condolence book.