What Happens When Your Town Lands on the Hate Crime Map
For POLITICO Magazine, Tony Rehagen reports on the efforts of the people of Gurnee, Illinois, to remove their town from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Map. The map marks towns alleged to be harbors for hate groups. The SPLC designated Gurnee as host to a KKK chapter in August 2017, but town officials and police were unable to substantiate the allegation after their own investigation. “Gurnee was not content to sit and wait,” Rehagen writes. “Instead, city and county officials embarked on a months-long campaign to restore the town’s good name. And what they found is that it’s a lot easier to get on that map that it is to get off.”