DENVER — The man in the Tactical Civics video sounds like a televangelist as he delivers an 11-minute talk about the organization’s belief that “citizen grand juries” and militias should be formed in counties across the United States to enforce the rule of law in God’s name and make sure elected officials follow the Constitution.

He encourages listeners to click on a link on the group’s website to become a member. There is no other information about the group’s beliefs, locations, leadership or philosophy.

But Tactical Civics was listed for the first time in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s annual Year in Hate & Extremism report as an anti-government, extremist organization operating in Colorado. Tactical Civics has a statewide presence with chapters in Colorado Springs, Fountain, Weld County and Longmont, according to the report, which documented groups active in 2024 across the United States.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a human rights organization that has tracked extremist groups in the United States for 25 years, found 33 extremist and hate groups operating in Colorado, according to its report. Of those, eight operate statewide and another 25 have local chapters.

The extremist groups in Colorado include anti-government organizations, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-immigrant groups, white nationalists and sovereign citizens. One organization, Northern Kingdom Prophets, is classified as a hate group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center counts each chapter of one of the organizations as a single group, so Tactical Civics accounts for five of the 33 listed.

Efforts to reach Kevin Ennett, a Tactical Civics leader who lives in Park County, were unsuccessful.

Twenty groups on the Colorado list are considered to be involved in anti-government or sovereign citizen movements. Six — mostly based in Colorado Springs — want to suppress the LGBTQ community, three are white supremacist groups and the rest either promote anti-immigrant ideology, run a militia or generate general conspiracy theories.

Last year, the report identified 30 hate and extremist groups in the state, up from 22 in 2019. While the total number of groups active in the state continues to increase, the names of the organizations and their ideologies continue to evolve. Some groups disappear from the public eye by moving to private, encrypted online sites where they are harder to track.

For example, the center reported in 2019 that there were three chapters of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group, in Colorado. That year, the group made the rounds across the Front Range, passing out literature and placing its logo in public places. However, Identity Evropa disbanded in 2020, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a group founded to fight the defamation of Jewish people.

In another example, MSR Productions, a white supremacist music label, once operated out of Wheat Ridge, but it also no longer appears on the list.

Nationally, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented 1,371 hate and extremist groups in 2024.

Margaret Huang, the center’s president, said in a news release that these groups are creeping into American politics and increasingly attempting to take over local governments and school boards.

“After years of courting politicians and chasing power, hard-right groups are now fully infiltrating our politics and enacting their dangerous ideology into law,” Huang said. “Extremists at all levels of government are using cruelty, chaos and constant attacks on communities and our democracy to make us feel powerless. We cannot surrender to fear. It is up to all of us to organize against the forces of hate and tyranny. This report offers data that is essential to understanding the landscape of hate and helping communities fight for the multiracial, inclusive democracy we deserve.”

The groups listed as operating in Colorado in the Year in Hate & Extremism 2024 report:

•Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform: Anti-immigrant, Longmont

•Family Policy Alliance: Anti-LGBTQ, Colorado Springs

•Family Research Institute: Anti-LGBTQ, Colorado Springs

•Focus on the Family: Anti-LGBTQ, Colorado Springs

•Gays Against Groomers, Colorado chapter: Anti-LGBTQ, Denver

•Generations: Anti-LGBTQ, Elizabeth

•The Pray in Jesus Name Project: Anti-LGBTQ, Colorado Springs

•Colorado Eagle Forum: Anti-government, Brighton

•Constitution Party Colorado: Anti-government, statewide

•Faith Education Commerce (FEC United): Anti-government, Northern Colorado

•Freedom First Society: Anti-government, Colorado Springs

•Moms for Liberty: Anti-government, Boulder, El Paso, Larimer, Mesa and Weld counties

•Parents Involved in Education-Colorado: Anti-government, statewide

•Tactical Civics: Anti-government, statewide with local chapters in Colorado Springs, Fountain, Longmont and Weld County

•We Are Change: Anti-government, Denver

•Scriptures for America Worldwide Ministries: Christian identity, Laporte

•American Freedom Network: Conspiracy propagandists, Johnstown

•Northern Kingdom Prophets: General hate, Pueblo

•Colorado Mountain Boys: Militia, El Paso County

•Asatru Folk Assembly-Colorado: Neo-volkisch, statewide

•The American States Assembly-Colorado: Sovereign citizen, statewide

•Colorado State Assembly: Sovereign citizen, statewide

•People’s Operation Restoration: Sovereign citizen, statewide

•Team Law: Sovereign citizen, Grand Junction

•Patriot Front-Colorado: White nationalist, statewide

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