HATE CRIMES ESCALATE 8 PERCENT

By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY

Hate crimes in the USA increased 8% in 2006, but some groups, including gays, Muslims and people with mental disabilities, experienced larger spikes in attacks, the FBI says.
There were 7,722 hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2006. A hate crime is one motivated by a bias against a person's race, gender or other status.

Some significant increases:

•A 19% increase in crimes motivated by religious bias. Attacks on Muslims increased 22% to 156 last year. Attacks on Catholics increased by almost a third to 76. Almost seven in 10 were crimes against Jews, which were up 14% to 967.

•An 18% increase in crimes against gay men and lesbians to 1,195 in 2006.

•Attacks on people with mental disabilities were up 94% to 62 in 2006.

•Hate crimes against Hispanics were up 10% to 576 incidents.

"Hate crimes impacted a wide range of groups," says Jack Levin, a sociology and criminology professor at Northeastern University in Boston. "It seems as though Americans are more suspicious of any group or members of a group seen as foreign, outsiders or intruders."

Acts against Hispanics have risen by double digits for several years. Now, Levin says, anti-immigrant feelings have extended to other groups, such as Muslims and gays, that may be seen as a threat to mainstream culture.

The number of hate crimes reported in 2007 is likely to grow, Levin says, fostered by the immigration debate, concerns about terrorism and high-profile racial conflicts.

Hate crimes have gotten more attention this year, since six black students at a high school in Jena, La., were charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.

The beating followed several racial encounters, including one in which white students hung nooses from a tree. That was not reported as a hate crime, partly because the FBI said the evidence did not prove the students were motivated by bias.

Since July, the Justice Department has investigated more than 40 noose hangings in schools and workplaces.

The FBI is the only agency that collects data on hate crimes, but numbers are flawed because victims are often afraid to report crimes and the number of police agencies participating fluctuates, says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

He cites a Bureau of Justice Statistics study that used police reports and surveys of 77,200 households from 2000 to 2003 to estimate that 191,000 hate crimes occur annually.

The FBI's 2006 hate crime stats.

THOUSANDS SHOW UP FOR HATE CRIMES MARCH

Thousands of demonstrators from across the U.S. heeded a call by Rev. Al Sharpton Friday and marched around the Justice Department in Washington D.C. to demand a government crackdown on hate crimes.


"We have so many people, we surrounded the Justice Department and two blocks more," the Rev. Al Sharpton told CNN as the orderly crowd marched around the building where newly sworn-in Attorney General Michael Mukasey was working. "This is a real outcry, a real outrage from people around this country."

In a statement, Mukasey said the Justice Department shares their vision of wiping out hate.

"Although there are limitations and challenges in bringing successful hate crimes prosecutions, the department takes each case seriously," Mukasey said. "As long as hatred and racism exist, the Justice Department will continue its hard and effective work on behalf of all victims of hate crimes," he said.

Led by Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and members of Sharpton's National Action Network, marchers walked from Freedom Plaza to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, which they circled seven times in an ode to the biblical story of the fall of Jericho.

The protest was sparked by a series of racially-charged incidents over the past 18 months: the police shooting of an unarmed man in New York, hours before his wedding, in November 2006; the appearance of nooses in several workplaces and schools; the case of a black teen charged with child molestation after having sex with another willing teen; and the story of a black West Virginia woman whom six white people allegedly raped, tortured and forced to eat animal feces as they berated her with racial slurs.

In a fact sheet released Thursday, the Justice Department said its Civil Rights Division "has set records and achieved notable successes in prosecuting defendants for civil rights violations."

It said 189 defendants had been convicted of civil rights violations in fiscal year 2007, "the largest number ever in the history of the department," breaking the previous year's record of 181 defendants convicted.

Meanwhile, the number of reported hate crimes has declined, according to the FBI. In 2005, when the latest FBI figures were released, the bureau said that the number of hate crimes reported that year was the lowest in a decade.

SHARPTON, JACKSON LEAD SEPARATE MARCHES

Two civil rights activists are attempting to call attention to two prevailing problems affecting the black community.


Rev. Jesse Jackson will march on Wall Street next month to protest subprime adjustable-rate mortgages that have sent many poor Americans – of all races – into foreclosures. Meanwhile, Rev. Al Sharpton plans to march in the Nation's Capital today against the rise of noose hangings and other hate crimes following the Jena 6 incidents in Louisiana.

Rev. Jackson hopes his New York rally, scheduled for Dec. 10 with similar marches the same day in other cities, will press the financial community and the government to relax terms of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages to head off a massive wave of home foreclosures he says will likely hit poorer communities hardest.

Jackson, who has long accused the finance industry of steering minorities to subprime loans, told the Sun-Times that a rally of "borrowers marching on lenders" will be held under the banner "Save our houses -- choose restructuring over foreclosing."

Foreclosures nationwide jumped nearly 100 percent in the third quarter this year compared with last year, and Jackson said it's likely to get worse as hundreds of billions' worth of ARMs reset from low "teaser" rates to higher rates over the next year.

"We see the tsunami coming in January and March, and before it hits, we're going to go to the streets," he said. "If somebody is paying $900 a month, they are already a good customer. If it goes to $1,500, they don't need counseling or refinancing, they need restructuring of that twisted ARM."


Sharpton and his National Action Network are leading the scheduled Washington D.C. March on Hate Crimes, which will take place from noon to 2 p.m. today at the U.S. Dept. of Justice (950 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W).

The march will circle the building seven times to symbolically represent the biblical story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, in which God's chosen people marched around the city of Jericho seven times for seven days and the walls of their oppressors came tumbling down.

More info about today's March Against Hate Crimes is available here: http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/html/washington_d_c__march.html