Hate CrimesFBI Works to Increase Hate Crimes Awareness

In a courtroom in Brunswick, Georgia, three white men face murder and hate crime charges in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an African American man who was confronted and shot while jogging in 2020. Last month, a California man was sentenced to life in prison on federal hate crime charges for a deadly shooting spree inside a San Diego synagogue in 2019. Such headline-grabbing cases are just the tip of the iceberg.

The United States recorded nearly 7,500 hate crimes in 2020, the highest level in more than a decade, according to annual statistics released by the FBI. The report, using data from 18,000 law enforcement agencies, noted an increase in assaults targeting Blacks and people of Asian descent. As eye-popping as the yearly total may be, researchers note the vast majority of hate crimes are never reported to police.

“The FBI report is the best national snapshot of violent hate and hate crimes across the country, but it’s definitely incomplete,” said Michael Lieberman, senior policy counsel with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights advocacy group. He noted that 70 cities with more than 100,000 people reported zero hate crimes to the FBI.

“That’s definitely wrong and there certainly shouldn’t be any cities that are not reporting data,” Liberman told VOA.

In October, the FBI launched a nationwide awareness campaign to encourage victims and witnesses to report hate crimes to law enforcement.

“Hate-motivated crimes against anyone will not be tolerated by the FBI,” Jermicha Fomby, special agent in charge of the Jackson, Mississippi, field office, said in a statement. Advertisements have been posted on billboards and buses across the state on how to report hate crimes.

Mississippi, a Southern state where African Americans constitute 38% of the population, has seen a sharp rise in bias-motivated crimes. Sixty-four incidents were reported in 2020, according to Mississippi law enforcement agencies who reported 14 cases in 2019. The FBI is working closely with state and local police on investigating offenses even when federal charges are not brought in a case.

Hate crimes are defined as offenses motivated by bias based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or ethnicity.