NEW YORK - The Anti-Defamation League has devised an online guide to hate symbols, logos and tattoos to help parents and teachers identify warning signs in their communities.
The guide will be launched Wednesday on the ADL's Web site. Unlike a companion print edition, the ADL's Web site will be continually updated with new symbols and groups. The league will also encourage visitors to report new sightings via e-mail.
The effort comes as white supremacists and other hate groups increasingly turn to the Internet to organize and spread their messages.
''As much as those groups use the Internet to recruit people, we need to use the Internet to counter them,'' said Marilyn Mayo, author of the ADL's ''Hate on Display'' guide.
Having online resources could help with investigations of hate crimes, said Detective Sgt. Robert Reecks, commanding officer of the Suffolk County Bias Crimes Unit in Yaphank, N.Y.
''There are new symbols out there all the time,'' he said. ''Unless you're affiliated with these groups, these are symbols you wouldn't have any idea about.''
The ADL site, www.adl.org, will feature common symbols such as swastikas, as well as less-known ones, such as the inverted cross, used to signal the denial of Christianity.The ADL list includes the Confederate Flag, which ADL acknowledges is considered a symbol of pride for many Southerners. But the organization said it included the flag as a symbol of white domination over blacks.
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On the Net: http://www.adl.org/
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