CLOSE

US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein vowed Monday that the Justice Department is rededicating its commitment to preventing hate crimes, two days after a gunman killed eleven people in a Pittsburgh synagogue.. (Oct. 29)
AP

A Department of Motor Vehicles ID picture of Robert Bowers, the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue attack.(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON – Hate crimes spiked by nearly 17 percent last year and included a corresponding jump in anti-Semitic attacks, a new FBI review found.

The report comes weeks after a 46-year-old man stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue, shouting anti-Semitic epithets before fatally shooting 11 people.

There was a 17 percent increase in attacks against Jewish people: at least 976 offenses against 1,017 victims. That number was up from 834 cases involving 862 people the previous year. Though the numbers were on the rise, the bureau reported that the increase corresponded with an uptick in the number of agencies reporting such crimes to the FBI.

Last year, about 1,000 additional agencies submitted data to the bureau.

The report prompted calls from law enforcement and civil rights advocates for a new focus on such attacks.

“This report is a call to action – and we will heed that call,” acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said Tuesday. “The Department of Justice’s top priority is to reduce violent crime in America, and hate crimes are violent crimes. They are also despicable violations of our core values as Americans.”

Two weeks ago, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein pledged renewed commitment to hate crime enforcement across the country, citing rampant underreporting of such incidents.

Rosenstein said 88 percent of law enforcement agencies that provide hate crime data to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report reported none in 2016.

“We are reviewing the accuracy of those reports,” Rosenstein said. “Simply because hate crimes are not reported does not mean they are not happening. We need you to help us understand the reasons that keep victims from reporting hate crimes. We also need to understand the barriers that law enforcement officers and agencies face in reporting hate crimes to the FBI.”

Some civil rights groups seized on Tuesday’s report, baderting that the 2017 numbers did not account for a number of high-profile incidents, including the fatal shooting of Srinivas Kuchibhotla in a Kansas bar. The anti-immigrant attack against the Indian man left  Kuchibhotla’s friend, Alok Madasani, wounded.

“The reported increase in the FBI’s hate crime statistics warrants concern, as do the discrepancies between state and federal hate crime data, the omission of several high-profile hate crime incidents and the limited rate of hate crime reporting in some jurisdictions,” the Arab American Institute said Tuesday.

Sikh Coalition Legal Director Amrith Kaur said law enforcement agencies need additional training to recognize and report hate-motivated offenses.

“While everybody should be horrified by these jaw-dropping statistics, these numbers still fail to paint a complete picture of the enormity of the problem,” Kaur said.

The alleged shooter in the Pittsburgh attack, Robert Bowers, was charged in a 44-count indictment and could face the death penalty if convicted. Federal authorities have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Bowers, who allegedly launched his badault during a baby-naming ceremony, pleaded not guilty.

 

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/13/fbi-hate-crimes-surge-2017-jump-anti-semitic-attacks/1987305002/