Selective Hate Crimes?
Why are only some kinds of hate crimes counted and reported? (Jessica
Heslam, "Hate crime rate up, FBI says," Boston Herald, November 20, 2007)
Persons with disabilities are excluded from all efforts to end hatred and
unlawful discrimination. City human rights commissions, state commissions
against discrimination, US Dept. of Justice Civil Rights Division all focus on
racism, homophobia, gender and ethnicity. Let me guess, "It never entered their
minds?"
Human services corporations, the psychiatric industry, the drug companies,
and the academic research industry are grateful that persons with disabilities
are only clients and human subjects, not citizens with rights. It helps the
bottom line. Thank you journalism schools.
Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM
Hate crime rate up, FBI says
Jessica Heslam By Jessica Heslam
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - Updated 21h ago
Boston Herald Media Reporter
Reporter Jessica Heslam covers the media for the Boston Herald.
Hate crimes crept up slightly in the Bay State last year but shot up nearly 8
percent nationwide, with more than half the victims targeted because of their
race, according to a new FBI report.
Massachusetts law enforcement officials reported 379 hate crime incidents last
year, a slight increase from the 372 the year before.
The report comes amid escalating racial tension at the MBTA, the state’s largest
transit authority. The Herald last week reported two incidents involving nooses,
including one in which a black train conductor found a hangman’s rope on the
floor of his cab.
The Herald also reported last week that the T has been the subject of more than
a dozen racial discrimination complaints in the past two years, including one
from a Kenyan woman who said a bus driver did nothing as she was attacked by two
women, called the N-word and told to sit in the back of the bus.
Nationwide, law enforcement officials reported 7,722 hate crime incidents in
2006, up 7.8 percent from the 7,163 incidents reported in 2005.
One of the year’s most disturbing string of hate crimes took place in Jena, La.,
but those incidents weren’t included in yesterday’s findings because the local
agencies didn’t report them to the FBI. Only 12,600 of the country’s 17,000
police agencies participated in the 2006 reporting. In Massachusetts, only 85 of
328 statewide agencies reported incidents.
The Jena incident was sparked when three white students hung nooses from a tree.
The white students were suspended from school but never criminally charged. Six
black students were later charged with attempted second-degree murder for
beating a white student unconscious. Those charges have since been reduced.
The Justice Department is investigating a number of noose incidents at schools,
workplaces and neighborhoods around the country.
Nearly 52 percent of last year’s hate crimes were racially motivated, the report
states.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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The recently release FBI report shows that anti-white hate crimes increased 7 percent while anti-black hate crime increased 0.04 percent. Civil rights leaders have criticized the FBI hate crime report for grossly underestimating the number of hate crimes. The much more comprehensive Justice Department study, also released this month, lists 190,000 hate crimes per year compared to just 7,722 hate crimes in the FBI report.
The Justice Department statistics show that whites and Hispanics are more likely to be victims of hate crimes than blacks: "Per capita rates of hate crime victimization varied little by race or ethnicity: about 0.9 per 1,000 whites, 0.7 percent blacks, and 0.9percent Hispanics."
The Justice Department study states that whites (including Hispanics) make up only 43 percent of hate crime offenders, even though they make up nearly 80 percent of the population. It identifies 38.8 percent of hate crime offenders as black, even though blacks make up only about 13percent of the population. By contrast, the FBI numbers identified 58.6 percent of hate crimes offenders as white and 20.6 percent of hate crime offenders as black.
According the Justice Department study, 'About 4 in 10 white hate crime victims indicated that the offenders were white, and the same proportion reported the offenders to have been black. The small number of black hate crime victims precludes analysis of the race of persons who victimized them."
Hate crimes, according to the Justice Department report, make up less than one percent of crimes. Of the 7,330 hate crime offenders listed in the FBI report, 3,957 committed racially motivated hate crimes. This means that 0.0013 percent of Americans committed racially motivated hate crimes. If racially motivated hate crimes were reliable indicators of racial prejudice in society, we could conclude that more than 99.9 percent of Americans are free of racial bias.
Violence between races not reported as hate crimes is a much more serious problem than racially motivated hate crimes. According to the FBI report, for example, there were three racially motivated murders during 2006. However, 573 of the 3,709 whites murdered in 2006 were murdered by blacks, while 208 of the 3,304 blacks murdered during the same year were murdered by whites
Take another look at those FBI stats.
Blacks committed more hate crimes per capita than whites. Further, the number of black-on-white hate crimes also rose 8%.
Civil rights leaders have criticized the FBI hate crime report for grossly underestimating the number of hate crimes. The much more comprehensive Justice Department study, also released this month, lists 190,000 hate crimes per year compared to just 7,722 hate crimes in the FBI report. The Justice Department statistics show that whites and Hispanics are more likely to be victims of hate crimes than blacks: "Per capita rates of hate crime victimization varied little by race or ethnicity: about 0.9 per 1,000 whites, 0.7 percent blacks, and 0.9 percent Hispanics."
The Justice Department study lumps non-Hispanic whites and Hispanic together as whites in determining offender status. The survey states that whites (including Hispanics) make up only 43 percent of hate crime offenders, even though they make up nearly 80 percent of the population. It identifies 38.8 percent of hate crime offenders as black, even though blacks make up only about 13 percent of the population. By contrast, the FBI numbers identified 58.6 percent of hate crimes offenders as white and 20.6 percent of hate crime offenders as black. According the Justice Department study, 'About 4 in 10 white hate crime victims indicated that the offenders were white, and the same proportion reported the offenders to have been black. The small number of black hate crime victims precludes analysis of the race of persons who victimized them."
Violence between races not reported as hate crimes is a much more serious problem than racially motivated hate crimes. According to the FBI unified crime report, for example, there were three racially motivated murders during 2006. However, 573 of the 3,709 whites murdered in 2006 were murdered by blacks, while 208 of the 3,304 blacks murdered during the same year were murdered by whites.
Hate crimes, according to the Justice Department report, make up less than one percent of crimes. Of the 7,330 hate crime offenders listed in the FBI report, 3,957 committed racially motivated hate crimes. This means that 0.0013 percent of Americans committed racially motivated hate crimes. If racially motivated hate crimes were reliable indicators of racial prejudice in society, we could conclude that more than 99.9 percent of Americans are free of racial bias.
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