Several white supremacist groups are using Cincinnati's recent civil unrest as a means to spread their message across the Internet.

        The Anti-Defamation League, which polices the Web for hate speech, said Monday it has noticed a significant increase in online discussions and postings on racist Web sites since the protests ignited by the April 7 shooting death of an unarmed black man by a Cincinnati police officer.

        The league said the riots have been a focus of discussion by the racist groups online. More than one of the groups called the riots “the most recent example of white victimization.”

        “We saw the hate messages hit the Web almost immediately,” said Gail Gans, director of the ADL's Civil Rights Information Center in New York City. “It's not uncommon for these groups to exploit incidents like this to try and sow seeds of confusion and fear and gain support for their cause.”

        Officials at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups and hate crimes nationally, said it is a standard tactic for hate groups to increase their communi cations after such racially explosive events.

        “They use it as a recruiting tool to attract people who might be upset or concerned about a certain situation,” said Joe Roy, spokesman for the Montgomery, Ala., center.

        The number of hate groups rose nearly 10 percent from 1999 to 2000 to a total of 602, the center said. The number of hate groups online grew 20 percent during the same time period, from 305 to 366, Mr. Roy said.

        Cincinnati is no stranger to hate groups. One of the oldest and most well-known white extremist group, the Ku Klux Klan, erects a cross on Fountain Square nearly every year.

        “The alarming thing about it is that these groups have grown year after year since 1997,” Mr. Roy said. “Usually when the econ omy is real solid, these groups don't seem to prosper, but in the last four or five years they have. That tells us their recruitment is reaching a lot broader base thanks to improvements in technology like the Internet.”

        Some of the messages posted about the Cincinnati protests on hate group Web sites, bulletin boards and e-mails:

        • From the Aryan Nations Web site: “Roving gangs of sub-human beasts burn, plunder and pillage the city. Kinsfolk, you better be prepared ... it's going to be a LONG, HOT, SUMMER!”

        • World Church of the Creator leader Matt Hale, after forwarding news articles under the headings “N------ Pillage Cincinnati” and “N------ Continue Savagery,” e-mailed his supporters about the possibility of holding a public meeting in Cincinnati.

        Considered an anti-Semitic and racist group, World Church of the Creator said it has more than 24 chapters in the United States and overseas.

        • Reno Wolfe, leader of the National Association for the Advancement of White People, demanded on its Web site that "the city of Cincinnati pay for all those medical bills and therapy as required for each and every victim of the black-on-white rioting.”

        Mr. Wolfe also said he was planning a trip to Cincinnati to rally supporters and ask city officials to press hate crime charges against those arrested during the rioting. He threatened to press for a recall election of Mayor Charlie Luken, saying he likely incited the riots.

        • The National Organization for European American Rights (NOFEAR), founded and led by former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke, called for the prosecution of black rioters and blamed the Cincinnati media for creating a “climate of racial hatred” against whites.

        “Never has there been a more blatant case of racially motivated crimes than these attacks on innocent whites in Cincinnati last week,” wrote NOFEAR's National Community Relations Director Vincent Edwards in a letter to Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery featured on the Internet.

        “We are asking you to send a strong message that attacks on whites will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

        Archive of reports on the riots and their aftermath

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