2023 was a deeply challenging year that saw anti-democracy groups continue to amass power at the local level, bigoted rhetoric and conspiracy theories become more mainstreamed, and violence in the Middle East spur a spike in bias incidents on American soil.

A leader of the Proud Boys, who played a major role in organizing the insurrection on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Last week, a Washington DC jury had convicted Proud Boy Joe Biggs of several charges including seditious conspiracy for attempting to forcibly prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

Joe Biggs, a leader of the Proud Boys who led the infamous march to the capitol on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Over the weekend, in an attack reminiscent of the Buffalo massacre, a white gunman targeted Jacksonville’s Black community, killing three. The gunman, who left behind racist manifestos and had swastikas on the AR-15 he wielded, targeted and killed Black people at a Jacksonville Dollar General store.

In response to the verdict handed down in a lawsuit against paramilitary leader Ammon Bundy brought by St. Luke’s Health System, Lindsay Schubiner, Programs Director at Western States Center, issued the following statement.

Yesterday, a jury convicted five Patriot Front members on the misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to riot by disturbing the peace for their role in the intimidation stunt at a Pride event last year. Today they were sentenced to three days in jail plus a $1,000 fine.

Today, Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a figurehead of the white nationalist militia group Proud Boys was sentenced to 5+ years in prison for inciting and participating in political violence in north Portland in 2021.

The self-avowed white nationalist who wrote that Hispanics were “invading” America before killing 23 people in an El Paso Walmart, was sentenced to 90 life sentences in prison on federal hate crimes charges.

This afternoon, a federal judge sentenced Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in prison following this conviction on seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

As of Election Night, the second vote on a non-binding “Greater Idaho” resolution in Wallowa County to endorse seceding from Oregon and joining Idaho is too close to call.