Counting Hate Crimes in the USA
By Leonard Zeskind
Searchlight magazine
February 1993
On New Years day Christopher Wilson, an African American tourist from New York, was kidnapped in Tampa, Florida by three white men. After driving Wilson to a deserted area, they doused him with gasoline and set him on fire. Wilson survived, but is in serious condition. The three white men left a note signed "KKK." Although they will be charged with attempted murder and kidnapping, the Florida state attorney's office will not charge them under the state's hate crime law. In fact, hate crime laws–which specifically penalize crimes motivated by bias based on race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation–are under attack in the courts.
In the U.S.A., most crimes are prosecuted under state laws which vary widely from state to state. In 1990, however, Congress passed the Federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act, which mandates the FBI to collect statistics on crimes motivated by race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. The statistics are provided by local law enforcement agencies. In a similar fashion, the FBI already collects data for murder and other serious crimes; and ten years ago the Justice Department launched a special effort to collect statistics on sexual assault.
Last month, the U.S. Justice Department finally released the data for 1991: They reported 4,558 hate crime incidents, including 12 murders. The highest numbers of incidents were directed against blacks–1,689; the second highest numbers were directed against Jews–792. Nine percent of the reported incidents were against gays and lesbians.
While the Justice Department statistics give a small picture of the epidemic of hate crimes, it is a very small picture. Only 2,771 law enforcement agencies provided data, less than 19% of the 16,000 such agencies in the United States. For example, in California, the most populous state with 30 million people, only two agencies participated and reported five incidents. (The CDR routinely reports more than two incidents a week in California.) In North Carolina, where at least four Klan groups are headquartered, there were no participating law enforcement agencies.
Instead of providing an accurate account of hate crimes, the Justice Department report is distorted by the lack of reporting by local law enforcement agencies.
But even this minimal reporting is threatened by U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In June 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that a St. Paul, Minnesota hate crime ordinance was unconstitutional because it violated First Amendment protections of free speech. The Court ruled that a crossburning at an African American's home was a form of speech. In an even more far-reaching case, the Wisconsin state Supreme Court ruled that a state law which increased penalties for crimes motivated by bias was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the Wisconsin state appeal next June. If the Wisconsin state law is ultimately ruled unconstitutional, then it will extremely unlikely that any hate crimes laws will stand.
The FBI's annual report will be even thinner in the future.
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