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Hate Crimes in America
Texas Killing Spotlights Nation’s Racial Divide
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| (Source:
Southern Poverty Law Center/ Map by Mark Bloch/
ABCNEWS.com) |
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By Rebecca Leung
June 17
— Hate is growing in America.
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The number of organized hate groups in the
United States increased 20 percent last year, according to the Southern
Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala.
Nearly 9,000 hate crimes, more than half of
them motivated by race, were reported to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in 1996—compared to 7,947 incidents in 1995, and 5,932
incidents in 1994.
Last week, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was dragged to death
in Texas by a chain from the back of a pickup truck.
Recently, two black men also became the targets
of possible copycat crimes in Illinois and Louisiana.
Authorities say the three men who have been
charged with Byrd’s murder may have ties with white supremacist
groups, which have grown to over 400 organizations nationwide, according
to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In fact, the Ku Klux Klan has been granted
permission to rally later this month in Jasper, Texas, the town where
Byrd was killed.
“These groups are getting better with the
public,” said Joe Roy, director of the Intelligence Project of the
Southern Poverty Law Center.
“They’re no longer racist but racialist,
not segregationists, but separatists. They are using a lot more
attractive buzz words to lead people into their organizations.”
Of the 474 hate groups documented by the
Intelligence Project, 127 were related to the Ku Klux Klan, 100 were
neo-Nazi, 42 were Skinheads, 81 were Christian Identity, a racist
religion, 12 were Black separatists and 112 subscribed to a melange of
hate-based doctrines and ideologies.
Tracking
Hate Crimes
The FBI is investigating the Texas case as a possible hate crime,
defined as an offense motivated by the dislike of a person’s race,
religion, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin.
“This was an act of violence that had a much
broader implication than just the murder of a single person.” said
Hillary Shelton, deputy director of the NAACP in Washington D.C. “A
much larger message was being sent by this horrible action.”
Many civil rights groups attribute the rise in
hate crimes to the proliferation of Internet hate sites, racist music
lyrics and white power literature—propaganda tools for promoting
race-hating ideology that have reached an audience of as many as 2
million people.
Since 1995, more than 160 hate sites are active
online, according to the Intelligence Project. Less than three years
ago, there was only one.
“Technology has a lot to do with opening up
new recruitment opportunities for these groups,” said Roy.
“It’s a place where young people of the
computer generation can vent their frustration, exchange ideas and
download information to feed their hatred.”
Increased
Federal Attention
Hate
Crimes:
A Racial Breakdown |
| Anti-Black
Crimes |
4,469 |
| Attacks
by Whites |
2,647 |
| Attacks
by Blacks |
103 |
| Anti-White
Crimes |
1,384 |
| Attacks
by Whites |
219 |
| Attacks
by Blacks |
818 |
| Source:
Dept. of Justice 1996 |
In the past decade, the federal government has increasingly focused its
attention on hate crimes.
In 1990, the passage of the Hate Crime
Statistics Act established a data collection system for nearly 17,000
voluntary law enforcement agency participants.
Now, 45 jurisdictions and 39 states have
specific laws against hate crimes. Twenty states also formally collect
data on hate crimes.
In January, Attorney General Janet Reno pushed
for the passage of a new bill, the Hate Crimes Prosecution Act, which
would expand the federal government’s jurisdiction to prosecute more
hate crimes.
“We are just beginning to grasp the problem
of hate crimes and how best to fight back,” said Reno in January.
“We are not going to let up.”
According to Michael Lieberman, a Washington
attorney with the Anti-Defamation League, the federal government has
been selective in considering which cases to prosecute.
In 1996, there were more than 8,000 documented
hate crimes. The government was active in only 38 federal civil
prosecutions.
Byrd’s killing, however, is one case in which
the government may get involved.
“This murder was so outrageous, it screams
the outrage of race, and it is so offensive to our sense of community as
Americans,” Lieberman said.
“There is a message sending aspect to federal
involvement in these hate crimes that demonstrates to victims and
perpetrators that these attacks will be prosecuted to the full extent of
the law.” 
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