Hate crime reports increase 21.5 percent in Florida

[RagingInMiami]

Sun-Sentinel.com
Posted December 28 2005, 11:48 AM EST

The number of hate crimes reported statewide increased 21.5 percent in 2004, compared to the number in 2003. The total -- 334 -- is "the third-highest total since reporting began in 1990," according to a news release from Attorney General Charlie Crist.

The figures for 2004 showed a moderate increase in the share of hate crimes attributed to race, compared to the previous annual report. The report showed a decrease in hate crimes motivated by the victim's sexual orientation.


According to the report, crimes motivated by the victim's race or ethnicity/national origin combined to account for 72.2 percent of all reported hate crimes in 2004, up from a combined 67.2 percent one year earlier.

The report also concluded that offenses motivated by the victim's sexual orientation accounted for 15.6 percent of all hate crimes in 2004, one year after that category showed its highest proportion ever recorded in Florida (20.0 percent).

(more)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-1228hatecrimes,0,5452527.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[sasquatch]

1. Well I figured this was happening from listening to Neil Rogers

Hearing him square off against the Cubans you know there's something going on down their.

[WhereThereIsFire]

2. Kooky crimes in Florida

There are always lots of KOOKY crimes (hate ones too) committed in Florida. Did you notice that Keith Olbermann did, in end of year roundup, a special "thank you" to Florida for providing so many outlandish stories? Also, Carl Hiassen (Miami Herald columnist and author of some pretty funny mystery novels) has mined the territory for use in his "fiction." And people think his "stuff" is far-fetched. NOT. It comes right out of local news stories.

People who think it far fetched probably just don't live in a state that, in addition to pregnant chads, has had a man charged with cruely to animals after he used his pet alligator to beat his girlfriend at their trailer park home; or where a man died of poisoning after his much younger wife bit him repeatedly during an argument. Or how about the elderly woman who blew herself up at a nursing home (injuring a health care worker too) while smoking and using an oxygen mask at the same time? We just have lots of CRAZY people down here ... and "hate" can be interpreted a little differently here too ... they seem to be able to hate almost anyone, for almost anything! Maybe it's the weather?