As defined by the FBI’s report released on Nov. 16, a hate crime is a crime motivated by bias based on a person’s race, religion or sexual orientation, among other categories. The report shows the highest number of hate crimes in more than a decade.
The FBI’s 2019 data includes 7,314 criminal incidents motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity or gender identity. 2019 had the highest number of hate-motivated crimes since the 7,783 FBI reported incidents in 2008. Overall, there was an increase in hate crimes against Hispanics and Jews. Hate crimes against Black people fell slightly (<1%), but they are still targeted more than any other group, as crimes reported are twice the level they represent in the U.S. population.
In 2019, there were more hate-motivated murders than ever before, 51, according to the FBI report. The August 2019 mass shooting in an El Paso Walmart largely contributed to the increase, as authorities say the 21-year-old suspect killed 23 people and injured many more in an attempt to scare Hispanics into leaving the U.S.
Only 2,172 law enforcement agencies out of about 15,000 nationwide reported hate crime data to the FBI. Because hate crime data is not mandatory to report, and because some victims may have chosen not to report incidents, the FBI’s number is most likely lower than in reality.
Brian Levin, a California State University, San Bernardino professor and director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, began studying 2020’s preliminary data. He found an overall decline of hate crimes from 2019, which could be pointed towards stay at home orders. In three cities, though, Los Angeles, Houston and San Antonio, there was no decline. 2020’s reported hate crimes had an increase in bias crimes mainly towards transgender people and Asian Americans.
Questions to consider:
1. Should law enforcement agencies be required to report hate crimes? What reasons are there for not reporting?
2. What has contributed to this increase? Trump’s rhetoric has been identified in a series of attacks, but could he be the only reason?
17 comments:
Law enforcement agencies should report hate crimes because it would contribute to more data, which can help us understand more about the nature of hate crimes and what groups are likely to be targeted, which could possibly help prevent crimes like these from happening in the future. I can see why they aren't currently required, since a hate crime is a very specific type of motivated crime, but since we are seeing a rise in such crimes, I don't think it's a bad idea to start keeping count. As to why there has been an increase recently, it might have something to do with an increase in political polarization, and definitely has something to do with a change in leadership. President Trump has set an example for the nation that xenophobia is acceptable, which is a message that is reaching more and more extremist individuals. This rise in American "hatred" could also have something to do with the internet. More extremist ideologies are being pushed on people through groups on Facebook, and as these sources that validate dangerous beliefs become more available to more people, there are more people who get pushed to commit something serious.
I think that law enforcement agencies should be required to report hate crimes because it would help us as a people understand and tackle them in order to create a safer country for everyone. In terms of not reporting, I think some reasons why they aren't required is because it is hard to measure the number of hate crimes, as they are specific and a lot of times, the motivation of a crime is unknown or blurry. I think the Police Brutality(and Protests)as well as the Trump Presidency are probably the two biggest contributions to the increase in hate crimes, as these things motivate extremists on both the right and the left to do things in order to get their voices heard, especially as the Trump presidency is(at least from what I see) on the extreme right in terms of ideology. Trump has also repeatedly reposted things on his twitter from racist and extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the KKK, which has basically told his supporters that its okay to be racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic. The political polarization is also a huge contributor to the increase in hate crimes, as this polarization has increased the number of people on the extremes of both sides. Also, social media has been a huge contributor to hate crimes, as most social media sources do not limit the kind of content on their platforms enough. Thank you so much for sharing!
As president of the United States, Donald Trump has effectively divided the nation in a way that is unlike many past presidents. Rather than pursuing unity and a common American identity, he has made apparent his views of what an American is, and these views do not seem to include a large portion of the population. While he has likely contributed to hate crimes due to the way he has divided Americans, there are most definitely other causes. As many Americans have spent their time in lockdown or otherwise quarantined, they are likely to have become frustrated and upset, seeking to blame their situation on others. With the loss of jobs due to the closure of businesses, I would not be surprised to be an increase in hate crimes as a way for people to blame their struggles on others rather than taking charge of their lives or recognizing that they do not have much they can do.
I agree with Nathan that reporting hate crimes is beneficial overall. The more information the better. In order to increase awareness and take steps to prevent future hate crimes, it is essential that groups have information on what is happening. Evidence is a priority when trying to support a claim and solve a problem, so having departments report relevant data is necessary going forward.
I believe hate crimes derive from polarized view whether on politics or any other perspectives. Especially right now, there exists much discrimination against Asians as a result of the coronavirus's origins. The entirety of Black Live's Matter embodies the idea of racism and hate crimes as well. The hate crimes themselves are a result of Americans needing somewhere or someone to vent their anger to/upon. Law enforcement should always report hate crimes despite personal biases if the interpretation of the act is perceived as harmful to the degree of hate, then the police should crack down on it. As stated by Ben in his paragraph above, the Proud Boys, KKK, sexism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia are very prevalent throughout the nation. The existence of these should entail the existence of law enforcement stopping this. Hate crimes would decrease as awareness increases, I believe ignorance is the biggest factor. But if people are able to separate fiction from fact, then it really is just their own volition that is flawed.
I find it interest that the hate crimes towards African Americans has drop in recent years. It shocks me because so often the media reports on hate crimes focus towards African Americans. Especially during the early months of the 2020 as BLM and other groups became active over the death of George floyd. Maybe the media is controlling which hate crimes we see and become active about.
One problem that comes with understanding the increase in hate crimes is that we don't have a baseline. People are just starting to become comfortable in reporting hate crimes. We have more people willing to report hate crimes now which contributes to an increase. However this does not take away from the fact that their are some hate crimes motivated by president trumps rhetoric. Another thing to take into account when considering the increase in hate crimes is the factor COVID plays. During times of instablity people are more likely to scape goat others and blame them for their struggles leading to hate crimes.That would contribute to a recent rise in hate crimes. In responce to Liam's statement that hate crimes towards african americans droping in recent years I would like to comment how their would be something wrong with the country if it didn't after this issue has been brought up on the news and brought to the attention of society time and time again. However I do agree that the news media unfairly focuses on hate crimes towards african americans vs other minorities.
While Liam claimed that hate crimes against African Americans have dipped over the years, I would just like to say that hate crimes have not dipped overall and that still a majority of them are from a racial/ethnicity bias. Also, not all hate crimes are reported because according to feds, around only half are. Many people do not report hate crimes here in the U.S. because they are scared to and sometimes they just feel like they are expected to deal with these instances because in certain situations, when the police are reported, they seem unsympathetic towards the individual. Continuing on, the media does focus on hate crimes and VIOLENCE towards African Americans a lot because the BLM movement has become especially widespread after the death of George Floyd and the media does control what people see but this does not diminish the importance of these topics in any way. I agree with Zion about how they do tend to focus on African American hate crimes vs. other minorities and I wish the hate crimes and violence against Asians (due to people's ignorance about Covid) was talked about more. I feel like many people, even in the Bay Area, are racist/ignorant towards Asians. They always try to defend themselves when they are called out by saying that their comments aren't "offensive", even though they have no place to determine what is and what isn't.
I completely agree with Zion's comment about the "baseline" or "premise" of what a hate crime is— that it's too subjective. There are hundreds of incidents reported to the police as hate crimes, but at the end of the day, they seem to be dismissed, and are not categorized as hate crimes. Thus, because of the importance of reporting and categorizing these incidents, I think there needs to be a more rigid categorization of what a hate crime is, so that incidents that are clearly motivated by prejudice on the base of race, religions, etc can be easily and distinctively labeled as hate crimes. Adding on to what my peers have been commenting above, Trump has indirectly perpetuated a large amount of hate crimes, with him scapegoating & calling the coronavirus the "chinese virus" as just one of many examples. Hate crimes towards Asian Americans have skyrocketed during this time, but a significant amount of times, they are not labeled as hate crimes. About 1/3 of hate crimes are not reported, which poses many severe issues, two examples being that it further motivates and emboldens hate groups, and they significantly increase as long as they are not acknowledged. I hope that we can step towards reform where hate crimes are addressed more.
I am shocked that law enforcement agencies are not required to report hate crimes. I would hope that maybe the rise of social justice movements and the knowledge that comes with these actions can possibly improve the amount of cases that are reported? But seeing that, regardless of stay-at-home orders, in LA, Houston, and San Antonio the number of crimes in fact had an INCREASE is astonishing. If a police department "reports" more crimes, and their county's "crime rate" consequently increases, maybe police will choose not to report the "optional" crimes in an effort to make their cities seem safer? I have to agree with most of the other comments and their analysis about the divide caused by Trump's presidency, and how the divides have caused people to feel negatively about others and to be vocal about this displeasure.
It’s shocking to know that law enforcement aren’t required to report hate crimes. It clearly has contributed to people claiming that because the rates have dropped it isn’t happening as much, when it is. Just that people don’t report them out of fear of not being taken seriously. Many also can be reported, but after are just ruled not hate crimes, when they could clearly be so. But currently there has been a rise of social movements and hopefully with these things that there is an improvement in how we categorize hate crimes and that hopefully more get reported too. Politics and many other factors have contributed to hate crimes. With Trump scapegoating and him calling COVID-19 the “kung flu” or “chinese virus” has certainly increased crimes towards Asian Americans. By having someone in such a high leadership role perpetuating these things only fuels others to think that it is okay to do so. I hope that we can soon recognize the problems and also that hate crimes are more addressed in law enforcement.
The only reason not reporting hate crimes would be allowed is if there is a separate agenda to be met, most likely for Trump to downplay the amount of hate crimes to make himself look better. Hate crimes should all be reported because like Nathan said, it would allow us to have a better estimate about which groups are being targeted more than others. Id say Trump has a big influence on the increase of hate crimes, as his behavior kind of normalizes this type of xenophobia with some of those comments going viral. To have the president of the United States making disparaging comments against specific minority groups would defiantly affect the increase of hate crimes
I do believe it is not a coincidence that this year, the start of the Black Lives Matter movement, has had the highest rate of hate crimes. Most likely, supporters of Trump and those who do not follow the BLM ideals will rebel during these protests. And definitely Trump's presidency (and the message he sends to his followers) is not one to promote sensitivity and respect across the nation. Hopefully going into the next presidency, Biden will focus on not only COVID-19 reliefs but also hate crimes and reporting them.
I think determining when a crime is considered a hate crime is somewhat subjective to the law enforcer, so it may be difficult to require law enforcement to report hate crimes. This may account for law enforcers who do not report hate crimes. Additionally, maybe hate crimes are not as pressing of an issue than other crimes or some hate crimes are not significant enough for some law enforcers to report it. Trump has probably played a role in the increase in hate crimes, but I also think that ironically BLM has also contributed to the increase. BLM has become a very partisan issue and anyone that may not support the whole movement or do not want to support the democratic party or rather supports ALM also receive a lot of hate and has even contributed to people losing their jobs. While BLM does try to end racism towards black people, on the other side, there has also been a growing sentiment of hate towards white people. One the one hand, Trump's rhetoric has most likely influenced hate crimes against minority groups, however on the other hand, the whole rise of the anti-racism movement might have also led to more hate crimes
I believe yes, law enforcement agencies should be required to report hate crimes. Although it can be slightly subjective, the public has a right to know what groups are being targeted in certain areas. Looking at the chart, it looks like there has been a considerable increase in hate crimes in the last four years, leading me to believe Trump has contributed to a level of this. While he may not have directly caused this, his disrespect towards LGBTQ+ and Hispanic and Black communities definitely influenced those with more extreme ideals to take "further action." Additionally, there is a large decline in hate crimes between the years 2009 and 2016, the exact years Obama was in office. Furthermore, I believe the president in office has an enormous influence on the individual actions of its people, and given the data, I'd say Obama did a much better job promoting equality and peace.
Law enforcements should definitely be required to report hate crimes because it will open the eyes of many Americans who are unaware of this issue. If people are not aware of a serious issue like hate crimes, then they will never acknowledge/understand what the problem is and will not be able to help contribute to stopping it. I agree with Ian that Trump has divided the nation and has influenced people’s ideas of others. For example, he refers to the coronavirus as the “China virus” which has made people believe that Chinese people have caused Covid-19. The virus created such a negative impact for everyone, so many people will feel a great hate towards Chinese people. During the pandemic, we have seen hate crimes towards African Americans, but there is a little amount of talk about other races facing hate crimes. Because Trump talked so negatively and looked down on colored people, this has influenced others to develop the same mindset as him. I think if hate crimes are reported and are addressed, then people will understand this problem and will try to fix it.
I think that law enforcement should be required to report hate crimes. There are people who think that racism doesn't exist. It very much does and is very bad in the U.S. They think that because slavery was abolished (despite the prison system being like modern-day slavery), these problems do not persist in this country. This will be proof and recognition that marginalized communities are still victims to hate.
I believe that 100%, Trump's rhetoric has fueled hate in this country. He has a problem with taking accountability and deflects at any opportunity. He did a poor job managing the pandemic and blames China. This only leads to more anti-Asian sentiment in this country, which is extremely terrible. He also knows that his following consists of a lot of white supremacists and racists, so he definitely plays into that. He knows that they will eat up his pro-white commentary. They love his outspoken, very direct nature because if he, the President, can get away without any consequences for his actions, they can too, so they are very open about their hate towards BIPOC communities.
I think that law enforcement should be required to report hate crimes. There are people who think that racism doesn't exist. It very much does and is very bad in the U.S. They think that because slavery was abolished (despite the prison system being like modern-day slavery), these problems do not persist in this country. This will be proof and recognition that marginalized communities are still victims to hate.
I believe that 100%, Trump's rhetoric has fueled hate in this country. He has a problem with taking accountability and deflects at any opportunity. He did a poor job managing the pandemic and blames China. This only leads to more anti-Asian sentiment in this country, which is extremely terrible. He also knows that his following consists of a lot of white supremacists and racists, so he definitely plays into that. He knows that they will eat up his pro-white commentary. They love his outspoken, very direct nature because if he, the President, can get away without any consequences for his actions, they can too, so they are very open about their hate towards BIPOC communities.
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