FBI: Hate crimes rising in Conn. following trend

Following a national trend, there was an increase in reported hate crimes in Connecticut last year, according to data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s 2020 hate crime statistics report, released last week, cited 7,759 criminal incidents and 10,532 related offenses nationally that were motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender and gender identity.

The data is based on information the FBI gathered from 15,136 law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Last year’s data showed the county’s highest number of reported hate crimes since 2008, when the FBI data showed there were 7,783 incidents. Connecticut agencies reported 101 reported hate crime incidents in 2020 to the FBI, up from 76 in 2019, according to the data. There were 98 reported incidents in 2018 and 110 in 2017.

Hate crime incidents targeting Black people rose nationwide from 1,930 in 2019 to 2,755 last year, the data showed. Incidents targeting Asians increased from 161 in 2019 to 274, according to the FBI report.

In Connecticut, 41 percent of the 101 reported hate crime incidents last year were against Black people, according to the FBI data, up from a steady 29 percent from 2017 to 2019.

But some say the numbers — nationally and locally — are likely much higher than what was reported. In a statement, ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt called attention to the number of law enforcement agencies failing to participate in the report.

For the third straight year, the number of law enforcement agencies participating in the report decreased. The number of reporting agencies — 15,136 out of 18,623 — was 452 less than those the previous year. Many agencies also reported zero hate crimes.

“While these numbers are disturbing on their own, the fact that so many law enforcement agencies did not participate is inexcusable, and the fact that over 60 jurisdictions with populations over 100,000 affirmatively reported zero hate crimes is simply not credible,” Greenblatt said. “Data drives policy and without having a complete picture of the problem, we cannot even begin to resolve the issues driving this surge in hate and violence.”

Of the 7,426 hate crime incidents reported last year, around 53 percent were for intimidation, roughly 28 percent were for simple assault and about 18.1 percent were for aggravated assault.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement that the 2020 statistics show the “urgent need” for action.

“Last year saw a 6.1 [percent] increase in hate crime reports, and in particular, hate crimes motivated by race, ethnicity and ancestry, and by gender identity,” Garland said. “These numbers confirm what we have already seen and heard from communities, advocates and law enforcement agencies around the country. And these numbers do not account for the many hate crimes that go unreported.”

Garland said the Department of Justice, at his direction, has rededicated itself to combat hate crimes, including by improving incident reporting, increasing law enforcement training, prioritizing community outreach and making better use of civil enforcement mechanisms.

“All of these steps share common objectives: Deterring hate crimes and bias-related incidents, addressing them when they occur, supporting those victimized by them and reducing the pernicious effects these incidents have on our society,” he said.