Racine Calls for Better Data Reporting on Hate Crimes Nationwide
April 16, 2021
District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine is joining with 35 other state attorneys general calling for the passage of a new federal hate crimes law, saying hate crimes in the United States “is vast” and “increasing in dangerous ways.”
“This is a severe problem, but it’s completely and totally under- and unofficially reported,” Racine said in an interview with the D.C. Bar Thursday. “The senselessness of this hate violence and the pain it causes . . . we need federal resources to go to state and local law enforcement so that we can tabulate the data,” said Racine, who also serves as president of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG).
The attorneys general are backing newly proposed legislation — the Jabara–Heyer NO HATE Act — to improve hate crime reporting and expand assistance for victims of hate crimes.
More than 200,000 people are victimized by hate crimes in the United States every year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The FBI collects data on hate crimes, but it vastly underestimates the extent of the problem, according to the SPLC. At the same time, hate crimes are notoriously difficult to prosecute, often because state laws have gaps.
The new bill is named after two victims of hate crimes — Khalid Jabara, a Lebanese American man shot and killed by a racist white neighbor in Tulsa in 2016, and Heather Heyer, a counter-protester killed in a car attack at the 2017 Charlottesville white supremacist rally.
The bill has bipartisan backing in Congress and broad support from police chiefs, rights groups, victims’ advocates, and the NAAG, which hosted an online discussion on hate crimes on April 14.
The forum, hosted by Racine and the NAAG, brought together survivors of hate crimes, family members of victims of hate violence, advocates, and legal experts. Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer, talked about her late daughter’s passionate personality, laughter, and love of life. She recalled the tragic day Heyer was killed.
“I watched her murder on TV trying to figure out who she was in the crowd. Didn’t know where she was, didn’t know what she was wearing. I thought she was the young woman who went across the hood of the car. But that was not her. And I cried all night long,” Bro recalled.
Media started knocking on her door at 7 a.m. the next morning. And with no support from anyone, Bro started telling her daughter’s story. “I plunged in and haven’t really quit swimming yet,” she said.
Her daughter’s death and the injuries to 35 other people hit by the car were not counted in the Justice Department’s hate crime data, Bro said. The information was added only retroactively.
Jeff Binkley founded Maura’s Voice, an advocacy group named for his 21-year-old daughter who was killed in a yoga studio shooting in 2018. The killer was an “incel,” part of a misogynist subculture of men who define themselves as involuntarily celebate and target women.
Tallahassee police determined it was a hate crime, but the incident was not recorded as such because Florida state law did not recognize gender among victim classes.
“This should be a priority. This is not abstract. This is real world. People are being injured. People are losing their lives,” Binkley said.
In 2012 seven people were killed at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin by a white supremacist. The attack was a hate crime, but the FBI did not begin tracking these incidents in Sikh communities until 2015.
“There is dignity in being a statistic,” said Pardeep Singh Kaleka, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee whose father was killed in the shooting. “We need to get better at seeing both the hate and pain.”
Racine and the NAAG are calling on members of Congress to support the NO HATE Act, which would both streamline reporting and provide support for families and victims. “We need to understand the scope of the problem and the details in order for us to fully address it,” he said.
At the NAAG, Racine is developing a playbook of best practices for addressing hate crimes to be distributed to attorneys general nationwide. He and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong will be hosting an NAAG event next month focusing on the rising number of crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
