Anti-Defamation League says FBI’s hate crimes report shows need for ‘concrete action’
Hate crimes dropped slightly across the U.S. and Washington state in 2018, according to figures released Tuesday by the FBI.
But crimes motivated by racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of bigotry remain markedly higher than those reported five years ago.
While most hate crimes are motivated by race and ethnicity, Jews were the single most targeted religious group, with incidents ranging from mass murder at a Pittsburgh synagogue to library vandalism at Western Washington University in Bellingham, according to the report.
Officials at the Anti-Defamation League called the trend “unacceptable” and urged congressional legislation.
“We need to take concrete action to address and combat this significant problem,” the ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “We strongly urge Congress to immediately pass the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer National Opposition to Hate, Assault, and Threats to Equality (NO HATE) Act.”
U.S. law-enforcement agencies reported 7,120 hate crimes in 2018 as part of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, down from 7,175 reported hate crimes in 2017.
Some 5,928 hate crimes were reported in 2013.
According to the 2018 report:
▪ Most hate crimes — approximately 60% — were motivated by race or ethnicity, followed by religion at 19% and sexual orientation at 17%, according to the FBI report.
▪ Nationally, crimes against people of Hispanic heritage increased 14%, and it was the third straight year that crimes against Hispanics have increased, according to FBI data.
▪ Washington state was fourth in the nation in the number of reported hate crimes — behind only California, New Jersey and New York.
▪ In Washington state, hate crimes based on sexual orientation rose 30%.
▪ Violent crimes rose to a 16-year high, National Public Radio reported.
“It is unacceptable that hate crimes are at a near all-time high here in the Pacific Northwest and across the U.S.,” said Miri Cypers, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Seattle office.
State and local data
Washington police agencies reported 506 hate crimes in 2018, down from 510 in 2017 — but a 74% increase from the 291 hate crimes reported statewide in 2013.
In Washington state, a hate or bias crime is a Class C felony, carrying a sentence of up to five years in prison and fines up to $10,000.
It’s a much more serious crime than just saying something racist, said Bellingham Police Lt. Claudia Murphy.
Bellingham Police have a specific policy for hate crime reporting.
Local hate crime data shows:
▪ Bellingham Police reported six bias incidents in 2018, down from 11 in 2017.
▪ Whatcom County reported four hate crimes, down from six in 2017.
▪ Western Washington University reported four incidents, up from one in 2017.
Anti-Semitic vandalism in the Jewish literature section at Wilson Library accounted for two of those incidents, according to Bellingham Herald reporting.
Earlier this year, WWU began offering an undergraduate minor in genocide studies.
Sharp rise in Seattle
Seattle had one of the biggest increases in reported hate crimes in 2017, according to a study released earlier this year by safehome.org, which used FBI data.
Despite the rising number of bias incidents reported to authorities, many victims of such crimes remain silent, the ADL’s Cypers told The Herald.
“I think it’s widely believed that hate crimes are under-reported,” she said. “There is a lot of nuance in the data. Sometimes, there isn’t a lot of trust between victims and law enforcement.”
Victims can have several reasons for not reporting a bias crime, she said.
“It can be something that is seen as shameful,” Cypers said. “What we see in communities where law enforcement has strong community relationships is that reporting does go up.”
FBI hate crime data is broken down by location, offenders, bias types and victims.
More than 16,000 law enforcement agencies reported statistics to the FBI last year, according to the report, and the FBI said it has been working with law enforcement across the country to encourage reporting of hate crime statistics.
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 11:52 AM.
