Damn Lies and Statistics
Dear Leading Ladies,
Hate crimes and hate groups seem to be everywhere. We hear and read about them on a daily basis. While discrimination and prejudice against “the other” are nothing new, these current strains of venom seem to be striking dangerously and frighteningly close to home.
Hate groups far and near
For example, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) tracked 13 hate and anti-government groups in Massachusetts in 2023, including four statewide groups.
Many with benign and misleading names, the list includes:
Bay State Active Club – White nationalist, statewide
Citizens for Responsible Education – Anti-government general, in Newburyport
Citizens Organized to Restore Rights – Anti-government general, Fall River
Mass Resistance – Anti-LGBTQ, Wakefield
Moms for Liberty – Anti-government general, Middlesex County, MA Chapter
Moms for Liberty – Anti-government general, Plymouth County
National Socialist Movement – Neo-Nazi, Statewide
Nationalist Social Club – Neo-Nazi, Statewide
Patriot Front – White Nationalist, Statewide
Scott Liveley Ministries – Anti-LGBTQ, Springfield
Super Happy Fun America – Anti-government general, City of Woburn
Tinnitus Records – Hate music, Boston
For the sake of comparison, the SPLC tracked 78 such groups in Pennsylvania; 63 in New York; 21 in New Jersey; 3 in Delaware; 114 in Florida; 49 in Georgia; and 9 in Wyoming. In the two states closest in population to Massachusetts, Indiana and Tennessee, there are 31 and 37 hate and anti-government groups, respectively.
So, once again, the Commonwealth scores well, but not without reasons for concern.
Crimes reported and unreported
Looking at hate crimes across the country, we know there has been a frightening uptick. In 2023, 1,970 hate crime offenses were reported in California, the most out of any state, according to the Statists Research Department. New Jersey, New York, Washington, Texas, and Massachusetts (552) were the next top five states for hate crime offenses in that year.
These statistics can be a bit misleading, however, because the reporting of these crimes to the FBI by local agencies is not enforced. In fact, about 88% of cities don't report hate crimes, according to the Department of Justice. It seems fair to ask why the federal government can’t demand that local police departments report hate crimes? The answer is some inconceivable nonsense about a new data entry program at the FBI that the police departments say they have insufficient time or training to use. Other police admit they don’t want the numbers to look too high. Either excuse is weak.
Even with underreporting, the numbers can be staggering. “On September 23, 2024, the FBI released the hate crimes data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program as reported by law enforcement agencies across the country,” according to justice.org. There were 11,447 single-bias incidents that involved 13,857 victims:
52.5% were based on racial/ethnicity/ancestry
18.4% on sexual orientation
22.5% on religion
4.1% on gender identity
1.6% on disability
.9% on gender
So now that we know that hate crimes go under-reported, we can assume that the scope of the problem is presented to the public as smaller and less significant than it is. Sure, we can say to ourselves that even one LGBTQ teen beaten up on the field is too many, but the truth is that if we think it is only happening a few times a year in a few faraway places, we aren’t going to be as upset. Numbers are supposed to tell us the scope of a problem and alert us to issues that need attention. When those numbers lie, well, we know what happens. Our response may not be as extreme.
The short range of laws
The problem isn’t just with the under-reporting of hate crimes. The laws against hate crimes are woefully insufficient in most states. The Anti-Defamation League provides a deep look at the range of laws and responses from state to state. Hate crimes are generally defined as attacks against a person or persons because of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, gender, or gender identity. It is discouraging that in only the following 20 states are there laws that protect people in all categories. They are:
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
California
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Hawaii
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
The rest run the gamut, from Arkansas, Indiana, South Carolina, and Wyoming which have no laws against hate crimes, to many states that protect against attacks because of race, religion, or ethnicity, but do not recognize attacks because of gender, gender identity, disability, or LGBTQ as hate crimes.
The takeaways
So let’s review what all this means.
Most states do not have laws that deem it a hate crime to attack people because of gender, gender identity, disability or LGBTQ issues.
The requirement to report hate crimes is not enforced, so the statistics we have from various states and municipalities are not always accurate.
A state like Massachusetts is among the top 5 in the country for the number of hate crimes reported, even though the state is 16th most populous.
Yet, Massachusetts is one of the states that considers all five categories – race, religion, ethnicity; gender; gender identity; disability; and LGBTQ – as legitimate hate crimes, so maybe that’s why we are in the top 5.
That means about 30% would not even be considered crimes in a majority of states, and might not be reported in some states where they were crimes.
In the 2023 Massachusetts state hate crime report, 45.1% of hate crimes were anti-race/ethnicity; 24.6% were anti-religious; 19.7% were anti-sexual orientation; 3.0% were anti-disability; and .9% were anti-gender; and 6.6% were anti-gender identity.
This is all a lot to digest. The conclusions we can reach are that hate crimes are alive and well, even in blue states and “liberal” communities. Moreover, the statistics coming out of government sources are incomplete and, thus, misleading.
What we can do
The next four years may well see a surge in hate crimes and intolerance around issues of ethnicity, race, religion, sexual identity, gender, and LGBTQ concerns. We need to be aware of it, speak about it, confront it, and work to dismantle it.
In the past, people were encouraged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI to report hate crimes, but we don’t know how the FBI will be functioning in the new administration or what its stance will be on White supremacist groups and their activities. It is still advisable to contact our local police chiefs and find out his or her policy for reporting local hate crimes to the FBI database. We should encourage the police to make reporting to the FBI their policy so we can have an accurate assessment of the problems.
Locally and in our states, we can also contact our legislators to include categories beyond race, ethnicity, and religion among hate crimes, if we do not live in the 20 states that are all-inclusive.
If you are looking for other ways to help bring an end to hate crimes, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide has some helpful suggestions for combating hateful behavior in our towns and cities, too. The Anti-Defamation League and the Human Rights Campaign also do great work.
We can fight hate, but we have to know the truth about where it is and what it looks like.
All the best,
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team