FBI Details U.S. Hate Crimes Rise

[Hissyspit]

Source: BBC News

FBI details US hate crimes rise

Calls have grown for greater action against hate crimes

More than 7,700 hate crimes were committed in the US last year, a rise of more than 7%, the FBI has reported. More than half of the victims were attacked because of their race, while 19% were targeted because of their religion, the annual report said.

However, there were wide discrepancies, with northern states reporting far more hate crimes than the southern states, despite the South's racial history. Black activists say the real figure is higher, with many incidents unreported.

The FBI's report details incidents of hate crimes where people were attacked because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability. More than half of the incidents were motivated by racial prejudice, with two-thirds of victims being black and one in five white.

- snip -

Louisiana reported 22 hate crimes, Alabama one, and Mississippi none, while California reported 1,297 and New Jersey 759.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7103244.stm

[BushOut06]

1. The real figure in the South is much higher than that

Like you say, many of these hate crimes simply go unreported. Racism is still rampant here in the South.

[noonwitch]

2. The figures for Michigan cities were very interesting.

Detroit had the largest number, being the largest city. It was something like 37. The shocker is that Grand Rapids, at second (the second largest city) had 35. Grand Rapids is about a third of the size of Detroit, so I found that pretty interesting.

It would be interesting to see what the victims were hated for in each city-in Dearborn, for example, are the victims of the hate crimes primarily people of arab descent? In Grand Rapids, is it black people or gays? It could help communities and police address the issue to have statistics like that.

[provis99]

3. Mississippi had zero hate crimes? Just like last year, and the year before,

yeah right. Enforcement of definitions of hate crimes is left to the states, so what is and is not a hate crime is completely arbitrary. There's no point at all at comparing across states.