Weekend Read: The FBI is massively undercounting hate crimes
Mulugeta Seraw was standing on a corner in Portland, Oregon, when they spotted him.
It was 1988, and he was a college student from Ethiopia. His friends had dropped him off in front of his apartment, and he was standing next to their car, talking, when a group of racist skinheads affiliated with a neo-Nazi group descended.
As one attacker smashed the car鈥檚 taillight and a window with a baseball bat, another punched Seraw. When his friends tried to intervene, the skinheads attacked them too, beating the black men with their fists, baseball bats and steel-toed boots.
Seraw, who was just 28, died. He left behind a son in Ethiopia.
We , suing the skinheads who killed Seraw because of the color of his skin, as well as , the notorious neo-Nazi who headed a group called White Aryan Resistance (WAR). The skinheads had been recruited and trained by WAR. After the murder, Metzger praised them for doing their 鈥渃ivic duty.鈥� We won a $12.5 million jury verdict that聽.
But hate is alive and well in Portland today, as was noted by a 聽30 years after his death on Nov. 13, 1988.
鈥淚n the years since Mulugeta鈥檚 death, there have been horrific acts of racially charged violence in Oregon,鈥� U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon stated in the . 鈥淚n May of 2017, a self-proclaimed White nationalist verbally attacked two women who were riding Portland鈥檚 MAX light rail. One of these two women was wearing a hijab. The perpetrator stabbed three men who defended the women against the racist and Islamophobic rant, killing two of them.鈥�
This week, the FBI released its . It tallied a sobering 7,175 crimes based on bias in 2017. That鈥檚 a from the five-year high counted in 2016.
However, the attack on Portland鈥檚 MAX light rail that Wyden referenced 鈥� the one on May 26, 2017, that cost their lives 鈥� wasn鈥檛 included in the FBI鈥檚 tally.
Nor did it include the death of , who was fatally shot in a bar in Kansas on Feb. 22, 2017.
The FBI also didn鈥檛 count 鈥檚 death in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the deadly 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally on Aug. 12, 2017.
Why not?
The fact is, the vast majority of hate crimes don鈥檛 get counted. The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates there are about . There are several reasons for the vast discrepancy. First, studies show that only about half of all hate crimes get reported to the police. Second, the FBI relies on some 18,000 local enforcement agencies to forward their data to the federal government. Since the system is voluntary, many don鈥檛 do it. And many that do provide the data simply don鈥檛 properly identify hate crimes in the first place. In addition, the definition of a hate crime varies from state to state.
This week our partners from the , the and the were unanimous in lamenting discrepancies between the FBI鈥檚 final tally and incidents that we know to have happened in the last year 鈥斅燼s well as the clear underreporting of hate crimes that the FBI鈥檚 latest count yet again displays.
Hate crime is a serious 鈥� and growing 鈥� problem, as is white supremacist terrorism like what we saw in Pittsburgh and Kentucky.
In his eloquent proclamation honoring Seraw on the 30th anniversary of his brutal death, Wyden called on all of us to speak out against hate, noting recent 鈥渉orrific racist acts throughout the nation.鈥�
鈥淚t has no place in our country, including in our White House,鈥� Wyden wrote.
We need more leaders to and to denounce hate crimes vigorously and loudly, as Trump鈥檚 predecessors have done 鈥斅燽ut which he has .
The lives of people like Mulugeta Seraw depend on it.
The Editors
P.S. Here are some other pieces that we think are valuable this week:
- by Ben Conarck for The Florida Times-Union
- 聽by Sarah Baird for BuzzFeed News
- by Anna Silman for The Cut
- by Janet Reitman for The New York Times Magazine
人兽性交's Weekend Reads are a weekly summary of the most important reporting and commentary from around the country on civil rights, economic and racial inequity, and hate and extremism.聽Sign up to receive Weekend Reads every Saturday morning.
