White supremacists committed the largest # of extremist killings in 2017?

A tweet from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted that:

White supremacists committed the largest # of extremist killings in 2017.

According to Statista in 2017 there were 8,584 terrorist attacks worldwide resulting in 18,753 deaths and 19,461 injuries. Many were in the Middle east with 1,951 in Iraq, 1,171 in Afghanistan. There were also 860 in India and 574 in Pakistan. I doubt any of these were perpetrated by white supremacists so I’m going to assume Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is referring to the US only.

Her source is probably articles based upon the ADL’s Annual Report on Extremism such as an article in Quartz whose headline read:

The far-right was responsible for the majority of America’s extremist killings in 2017

According to the report, this is true. The ADL report listed 19 incidents. One possible problem with this report is that it includes criminal incidents perpetrated by people with extremist leanings even if the actions had nothing to do with their extremist politics. But let’s not quibble.

Lafayette, Indiana, January 16, 2017 — Self proclaimed white supremacist murdered a man during a home invasion. 1-0

San Antonio, Texas, January 29, 2017 — A member of the Aryan Brotherhood shoots to death a man over a dispute. 2-0

Denver, Colorado, February 1, 2017 — Convert to Islam who had pledged his allegiance to ISIS kills a security guard. 2-1

Leadwood, Missouri, February 9, 2017 — KKK leader murdered by his wife and son. 3-1

North Judson, Indiana, March 3, 2017 — Aryan Circle member shot and killed man who was dating his ex-girlfriend. 4-1

New York City, New York, March 30, 2017 — White supremacist who wanted to stop white women from engaging in interracial relationships stabs and kills homeless man. 5-1

Fresno, California, April 18, 2017 — Black Nationalist kills a security guard and then kills three more people over several days. 5-5

Dallas, Texas, May 1, 2017 — Black Nationalist kills his godfather. 5-6
Broadwater County, Montana, May 16, 2017 — Anti-government extremists kill a sheriff. 6-6
Tampa, Florida, May 19, 2017 — White supremacist kills two of his roommates for making fun of his conversion to Islam (!?). 8-6
Portland, Oregon, May 26, 2017 — White supremacist stabs to death two men who tried to help an African-American girl and a girl wearing a hijab being harassed by the guy. 10-6
Putnam County Georgia, June 13, 2017 — Member of a white supremacist prison gang and another inmate killed two guards while trying to escape. 12-6
Century Correctional Institution, Florida, June 19, 2017 — White supremacist inmate stabs African-American inmate to death. 13-6
Samish Island, Washington, July 14, 2017 — Alt right theorist murders his father in argument over his beliefs. 14-6
Charlottesville, Virginia, August 12, 2017 — White supremacist drives car into crown killing 1 and injuring 19. 15-6
Greeley, Colorado, August 16, 2017 — White supremacist gang member, along with his wife and sister, murdered his uncle. 16-6
New York City, October 31, 2017 — Islamic extremist drives a rental truck down a bike path killing 8. 16-14
Aztec, New Mexico, December 14, 2017 — White supremacist disguises himself and kills two students. 18-14.
Reston, Virginia, December 22, 2017 — An accused white supremacist teenager kills his girlfriend’s parents because they wanted to her to stop seeing him because of his beliefs. 20-14.

So, we have 19 incidents resulting in 34 deaths and white supremacists were responsible for 20 of them. I’m sure these weren’t the only homicides involving extremists because there were 17,284 homicides in the US in 2017. There were 650 homicides in Chicago alone. There were also 135,755 rapes.

But these were the 19 incidents the ADL chose to highlight for whatever reason. The 2018 report was worse with 50 deaths documented. It also updated the 2017 total to 37 but didn’t identify the additional 3 victims.

You'll excuse me if I'm not about to panic over 34 extremist related homicides out of 17,284.