A.C. Thompson
Reporter A.C. Thompson covers hate crimes and racial extremism for ProPublica.
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A.C. Thompson is a staff reporter with ProPublica. His stories, which often examine the criminal justice system, have helped lead to the exoneration of two innocent San Francisco men sentenced to life in prison and the prosecution of seven New Orleans police officers. In addition to working as a print and web journalist, Thompson has reported extensively for television, serving as a producer and correspondent for the PBS documentary series Frontline. His life was fictionalized on the HBO show “Treme.”
Inside Atomwaffen As It Celebrates a Member for Allegedly Killing a Gay Jewish College Student
ProPublica obtained the chat logs of Atomwaffen, a notorious white supremacist group.
California Murder Suspect Said to Have Trained With Extremist Hate Group
The 20-year-old man charged in Orange County with killing a gay Jewish college student earlier this month is said to have belonged to Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group.
Hate Crime Training for Police Is Often Inadequate, Sometimes Nonexistent
Only a fraction of bias crimes ever get reported. Fewer still get successfully prosecuted. Perhaps the widespread lack of training for frontline officers has something to do with that.
Will Texas Massacre Finally Get Military to Improve its Criminal Reporting System?
The Air Force’s apparent failure to send the criminal records of the airman behind Sunday’s mass killings to civilian authorities allowed him to obtain guns. Such reporting failings are widespread and longstanding.
White Supremacists Share Bomb-Making Materials in Online Chats
Chat logs made available to ProPublica show talk of mass killings and the recipes that could be used to carry them out.
A White Hate Group’s Campaign of Menace
They train to fight. They post their beatings online. And so far, they have little reason to fear the authorities.
A New Generation of White Supremacists Emerges in Charlottesville
A group that included many people who were college-educated or ex-military displayed effective planning. “White people are pretty good at getting organized,” said one.
Police Stood By As Mayhem Mounted in Charlottesville
State police and National Guardsmen watched passively for hours as self-proclaimed Nazis engaged in street battles with counter-protesters. ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson was on the scene and reports that the authorities turned the streets of the city over to groups of militiamen armed with assault rifles.
Sikhs in America
Demonized as immigrants. Mistaken for Muslims. For more than a century, Sikhs in the U.S. have faced suspicion and violence.
More Than 100 Federal Agencies Fail to Report Hate Crimes to the FBI’s National Database
The gaps in data damage efforts to understand the nature and scope of violence driven by racial and religious hatred.