We must heed call to combat hate crimes

Most Americans hardly needed a new FBI report to recognize that hate and the pernicious crimes it spawns continue to rise at an alarming rate throughout this country.

In recent weeks, for example, just consider a few of these hate-inspired headlinegrabbing examples:

Eleven Jewish worshipers were attacked and killed while taking part in worship services at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

A deranged white man opened fire at a Kroger grocery store near Louisville, Ky., killing two blacks after he tried but failed to execute an attack on worshipers in a nearby black church.

And a man created panic and fears of mass violence when he stood up in a crowded Baltimore theater and shouted “Heil Hitler” at a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof,” a musical about a Jewish family facing persecution in Tsarist Russia.

These and many, many other examples of mayhem and tragedy triggered at least in part by hatred toward minority groups make the conclusions of the FBI’s annual report on hate crimes completely unsurprising. They are nonetheless disturbing.

Overall, it reported hate crimes climbed a significant 17 percent in 2017, the third year in a row of spikes in crimes rooted in hatred. What’s more, many reasonably argue the scope of hate-based crime in America is far worse than projected in the FBI’s admittedly incomplete data.

According to the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990, hate crimes are those “that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race; gender and gender identity; religion; disability; sexual orientation; or ethnicity.”

Highlights of the 2017 report show a total of 7,106 single-bias incidents that involved 8,493 victims and 6,307 known offenders. Of them, 58.1 percent were motivated by a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias; 22 percent were prompted by religious bias and 16 percent by sexual-orientation bias ....

The rise of hate-based websites and social media platforms have succeeded in enlisting growing ranks of recruits who range from thrill seekers to passionate opponents of those of differing races, ethnicities, gender or sexual identity. Divisive rhetoric from politicians of all political stripes also make our national turf fertile ground for growing hate.

The FBI report, then, has value in taking the pulse of hate crimes in the nation even if that pulse is inaccurate.

Some are reasonably calling on Congress to provide law enforcement with incentives for hate-crime reporting or to make such reporting mandatory.

But before any dent can be made in the level of hate-based violence, a tamping down of hate-based attitudes must come first.

For his part, President Trump provided some hope in this reaction to the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre: “It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country, frankly, and all over the world, and something has to be done”

He and all decent Americans would be wise to respect and follow through on Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker’s response to the new hatecrime report: “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.

“This report is a call to action — and we will heed that call.”

All Americans should do likewise.