Sunday Read Hate crimes rising, says FBI report

GRAPHIC FROM TWITTER

IN 2017, DONALD TRUMP'S first year in office, the number of hate crimes jumped up 17% from the previous year for a total of 7,175 hate crimes, the highest increase since 9/11.

It was the third year in a row that the FBI Hate Crimes Report has shown an increase. Part of the reason for the hike in hate crimes is that 1000 more jurisdictions are taking part in the voluntary program.
However, given that reporting hate crimes to the FBI is not mandatory, the FBI statistics likely represent only a fraction of such violence. Civil rights groups link the increase to Donald Trump statements and policies.

The report released Monday (Nov. 12) found that the majority of hate crime perpetrators were white, 50.7% followed by African Americans 21.3%.

Of the 4,832 single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry, 3.1% were directed against Asians.

Of those hate crimes motivated by religion, the majority, 58%, were directed at those of the Jewish faith. Anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh and anti-Buddhist, faiths usually associated with Asians and Asian Americans, were targetted in 21% of the hate crimes.

"This report is a call to action—and we will heed that call," said Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. "The Department of Justice’s top priority is to reduce violent crime in America, and hate crimes are violent crimes. They are also despicable violations of our core values as Americans,” 

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Some say Donald Trump's rhetoric has emboldened racist movements in the United States. He said that "there were fine people on both sides," when he addressed the Charlottesville violence.

“I am particularly troubled by the increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes—which were already the most common religious hate crimes in the United States—that is well documented in this report.“

As alarming as the hate crime stats are, the actual number is likely much, much higher because of inconsistencies of the definition of hate crimes among the different agencies that choose to report the incidents. Also, not all law enforcement jurisdictions bother to gather the stats or even to report them to the FBI.

The Anti-Defamation League said some police departments in major U.S. cities didn’t report hate crimes as part of the annual report, including the Honolulu Police Department, Indianapolis Police Department and police in Kansas City, Kansas. Other departments, like the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and police in Miami, Florida and Newark, New Jersey, reported zero hate crimes.

There were also notable hate crimes missing from the FBI report. 

For instance, the murder of Indian American tech worker Srinivas Kuchibhotla is missing. According to FBI statistics, no hate crimes were reported last year in Olathe, Kansas. But on February 22, 2017, Kuchibhotla was killed at a bar in Olathe when a man shot him because of his perceived national origin. His friend Alok Madasani was also targeted but survived the shooting, as did a man named Ian Grillot who attempted to intercede.

The shooter, Adam Purinton, was convicted on federal hate crime charges but the local law enforcement agency didn't officially report it to the FBI as a hate crime. The FBI depends on those local agencies to report hate crimes in their jurisdictions.

Another example that was included in the FBI report was the car attack in Charleston that killed Heather Heyer. Heyer, who was protesting against the Unite the Right demonstrators, was killed when white supremacist James Allen Fields, Jr. drove his car into a crowd.

Although Fields was convicted of a hate crime under state law but authorities failed to include the incident to the Feds as a hate crime.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring on Thursday unveiled legislation aimed at preventing hate crimes and white-supremacist violence as reports of such incidents increase around the country.

It is his third attempt to pass similar legislation. The proposals have so far been blocked by Republicans in the state legislature concerned that they were overly broad and restricted gun rights.

"It is well past time to acknowledge the threat posed by hate and white-supremacist violence and take action to stop it," Herring said.

Next year, FBI personnel will provide training for law enforcement officers on how to identify bias-motivated incidents and report that data to the FBI’s UCR Program. Additionally, the Department of Justice launched a new hate crimes webpage, which has information for law enforcement on reporting incidents.

Some of the highlights of the FBI report includes the following:

Of the 6,370 known offenders: 

• 50.7% were White 
• 21.3% were Black or African American 
• 19.1% race unknown 
• Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders

Of the 5,131 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported: 

• 25.0% were Not Hispanic or Latino
• 8.8% were Hispanic or Latino 
• 1.6% were in a group of multiple ethnicities 
• 64.5 ethnicity unknown 

In 2017, law enforcement agencies reported that 4,832 single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry. Of these offenses:

• 48.8 percent were motivated by anti-Black or African American bias.
• 17.5 percent stemmed from anti-White bias. 
• 10.9 percent were classified as anti-Hispanic or Latino bias. 
• 5.8 percent were motivated by anti-American Indian or Alaska Native bias. 
• 4.4 percent were a result of bias against groups of individuals consisting of more than one race (anti-multiple races, group). 
• 3.1 percent resulted from anti-Asian bias. 
• 2.6 percent were classified as anti-Arab bias. 
• 0.4 percent (17 offenses) were motivated by bias of anti-Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. 
• 6.5 percent were the result of an anti-Other Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry bias. 

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,679 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-biased offenses showed:

• 58.1 percent were anti-Jewish. 
• 18.7 percent were anti-Islamic (Muslim). 
• 4.5 percent were anti-Catholic. 
• 3.2 percent were anti-multiple religions, group. 
• 2.4 percent were anti-Protestant. 
• 1.8 percent were anti-Other Christian. 
• 1.4 percent were anti-Sikh. 
• 1.4 percent were anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other). 
• 0.9 percent (15 offenses) were anti-Mormon 
• 0.9 percent (15 offenses) were anti-Hindu. 
• 0.8 percent (13 offenses) were anti-Jehovah’s Witness. 
• 0.5 percent (9 offenses) was anti-Buddhist. 
• 0.5 percent (8 offenses) were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc. 
• 4.9 percent were anti-other (unspecified) religion.

Civil rights organizations that maintain their own data on hate crimes, such as the ACLU,  the Anti-Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center, Council for American-Islamic Relations and South Asian American Leading Together mention the harsh rhetoric coming from the White House and Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric as a catalyst for behavior based on prejudice.

“While everybody should be horrified by these jaw-dropping statistics, these numbers still fail to paint a complete picture of the enormity of the problem,” said Sikh Coalition Legal Director Amrith Kaur.


The omission of the Kuchibhotla murder was spotlighted by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) in its critique of the report. 

In SAALT's 2018 report Communities on Fire report found that perpetrators of hate violence referenced Trump, a Trump administration policy, or a Trump campaign slogan in one out of every five hate incidents documented. 

"White supremacist violence, fanned by the flames of racist rhetoric and policies at the federal level, has devastated marginalized communities," said SAALT in a press release.  "Until this administration confronts this crisis, we will continue to face a surge in hate crimes aimed at our communities."

California had the greatest number of hate crimes, but that was due to the fact that it also had the greatest number of jurisdictions reporting hate crimes.

“America’s elected president has mocked the disabled, called Mexicans rapists and murderers, executed a Muslim travel ban, issued disparaging remarks about women and African Americans, and is working to roll back protections for members of our transgender community,” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The country’s increase in hate crimes should be a surprise to no one, but it should be alarming to all. We look to our elected leaders to set an example.”

As of this writing, Trump hasn't said anything about the FBI report.
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