FBI Reports Upsurge In Hate Crimes
Hate crime incidents in the United States rose last year by almost 8 percent, the FBI reported Monday, as racial prejudice continued to account for more than half the reported instances.
Police across the nation reported 7,722 criminal incidents in 2006 targeting victims or property as a result of prejudice against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability.
That was up 7.8 percent from the 7,163 incidents reported in 2005.
More than half of the victims were targeted because of their race, said CBS News correspondent Stephanie Lambidakis, and almost 60 percent of all known offenders are white.
Heidi Beirick of the Southern Poverty Law Center says the numbers are probably higher than that.
"It's unfortunate that the numbers went up by almost 8 percent, but the truth is the FBI Hate Crimes statistics severely undercounts the number of hate crimes that we have in the United States every year," she told CBS News.
That's because only 12,600 of the nation's more than 17,000 local, county, state and federal police agencies - roughly three-quarters - participated in the hate crime reporting program in 2006.
Consequently, the FBI figures did not contain highly publicized incidents in late 2006 at Jena, a small town in Louisiana, which involved hanging nooses reminiscent of those used in the lynching of black people in an earlier time and beatings of white students by black youngsters in retaliation, because neither Jena nor LaSalle Parish (the county where the town is) were among the agencies reporting.
The report's release comes just days after thousands of civil rights advocates literally surrounded the Justice Department building, claiming that lax federal prosecution has fuelled an outbreak of noose-hanging incidents around the country.
The Jena case began in August 2006 after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended by the school but not prosecuted. Six black teenagers, however, were charged by LaSalle Parish prosecutor Reed Walters with attempted second-degree murder of a white student who was beaten unconscious in December 2006. The charges have since been reduced to aggravated second-degree assault, but civil rights protesters have complained that no charges were filed against the white students who hung the nooses.
Mukasey is pledging aggressive hate crime investigations, but concedes there are limits in bringing charges in some hate crime cases, reports Lambidakis.
The department said it investigated the Jena incident but decided not to prosecute because the federal government does not typically bring hate crime charges against juveniles.
The FBI report does not break out the number of noose incidents, but the two most frequent hate crimes in 2006 were property damage or vandalism (2,911 offenses), and intimidation (2,046 offenses). There were 860 aggravated assaults and 1,447 simple assaults, three murders, six rapes and 41 incidents of arson. Other offenses included robbery, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.
The 7,722 criminal hate crime incidents involved 9,080 specific criminal offenses, including 5,449 against individuals, 3,593 against property, and 38 classified as against society at large. An incident can involve attacks on both people and property.
As has happened since the FBI began collecting hate crime data in 1991, the most frequent motivation was racial bias, accounting for 51.8 percent of the incidents in 2006. That was down slightly from the 54.7 percent in 2005.
Also in 2006, religious prejudice was blamed for 18.9 percent of the incidents; sexual orientation prejudice for 15.5 percent; and ethnic or national origin for 12.7 percent.
Of the 7,330 offenders identified by police, 58.6 percent were white, 20.6 percent were black, 12.9 percent were of unknown racial background and other races accounted for the remainder.
The greatest percentage of incidents, 31 percent, occurred near residences or homes. Another 18 percent occurred on highways or streets, 12.2 percent at colleges or schools, 6.1 percent in parking lots or garages, 3.9 percent at churches, synagogues or temples. The remainder occurred at other specific locations, multiple locations or unknown locations.
Lack of full participation by the more than 17,000 police agencies around the nation somewhat undermines year-to-year comparisons.
For instance, in 2004, 12,711 agencies reported 7,649 incidents. In 2005, only 12,417 agencies reported and incidents dropped 6 percent to 7,163. But in 2006, agencies reporting rose to 12,620 and incidents climbed 7.8 percent to 7,722.
For more information visit FBI Hate Crime Statistics
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Police across the nation reported 7,722 criminal incidents in 2006 targeting victims or property as a result of prejudice against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability.
That was up 7.8 percent from the 7,163 incidents reported in 2005.
More than half of the victims were targeted because of their race, said CBS News correspondent Stephanie Lambidakis, and almost 60 percent of all known offenders are white.
Heidi Beirick of the Southern Poverty Law Center says the numbers are probably higher than that.
"It's unfortunate that the numbers went up by almost 8 percent, but the truth is the FBI Hate Crimes statistics severely undercounts the number of hate crimes that we have in the United States every year," she told CBS News.
That's because only 12,600 of the nation's more than 17,000 local, county, state and federal police agencies - roughly three-quarters - participated in the hate crime reporting program in 2006.
Consequently, the FBI figures did not contain highly publicized incidents in late 2006 at Jena, a small town in Louisiana, which involved hanging nooses reminiscent of those used in the lynching of black people in an earlier time and beatings of white students by black youngsters in retaliation, because neither Jena nor LaSalle Parish (the county where the town is) were among the agencies reporting.
The report's release comes just days after thousands of civil rights advocates literally surrounded the Justice Department building, claiming that lax federal prosecution has fuelled an outbreak of noose-hanging incidents around the country.
The Jena case began in August 2006 after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended by the school but not prosecuted. Six black teenagers, however, were charged by LaSalle Parish prosecutor Reed Walters with attempted second-degree murder of a white student who was beaten unconscious in December 2006. The charges have since been reduced to aggravated second-degree assault, but civil rights protesters have complained that no charges were filed against the white students who hung the nooses.
"The FBI report confirms what we have been saying for many months about the severe increase in hate crimes," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a leading civil rights leader. "What is not reported, however, is the lack of prosecution and serious investigation by the Justice Department to counter this increase in hate crimes." Sharpton urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights leaders to discuss the matter.
Mukasey is pledging aggressive hate crime investigations, but concedes there are limits in bringing charges in some hate crime cases, reports Lambidakis.
The department said it investigated the Jena incident but decided not to prosecute because the federal government does not typically bring hate crime charges against juveniles.
The FBI report does not break out the number of noose incidents, but the two most frequent hate crimes in 2006 were property damage or vandalism (2,911 offenses), and intimidation (2,046 offenses). There were 860 aggravated assaults and 1,447 simple assaults, three murders, six rapes and 41 incidents of arson. Other offenses included robbery, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.
The 7,722 criminal hate crime incidents involved 9,080 specific criminal offenses, including 5,449 against individuals, 3,593 against property, and 38 classified as against society at large. An incident can involve attacks on both people and property.
As has happened since the FBI began collecting hate crime data in 1991, the most frequent motivation was racial bias, accounting for 51.8 percent of the incidents in 2006. That was down slightly from the 54.7 percent in 2005.
Also in 2006, religious prejudice was blamed for 18.9 percent of the incidents; sexual orientation prejudice for 15.5 percent; and ethnic or national origin for 12.7 percent.
Of the 7,330 offenders identified by police, 58.6 percent were white, 20.6 percent were black, 12.9 percent were of unknown racial background and other races accounted for the remainder.
The greatest percentage of incidents, 31 percent, occurred near residences or homes. Another 18 percent occurred on highways or streets, 12.2 percent at colleges or schools, 6.1 percent in parking lots or garages, 3.9 percent at churches, synagogues or temples. The remainder occurred at other specific locations, multiple locations or unknown locations.
Lack of full participation by the more than 17,000 police agencies around the nation somewhat undermines year-to-year comparisons.
For instance, in 2004, 12,711 agencies reported 7,649 incidents. In 2005, only 12,417 agencies reported and incidents dropped 6 percent to 7,163. But in 2006, agencies reporting rose to 12,620 and incidents climbed 7.8 percent to 7,722.
For more information visit FBI Hate Crime Statistics
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Ron Paul can win the GOP nomination. If he does, I predict a landslide victory in November of 2008. Even the oddsmakers in Vegas aren''t willing to discount his chances. They''re currently giving him 2:1 odds to win against Hitlery if he gets the nomination. Romney, McCain and the globalist, sell-out Giuliani aren''t given anything better than a 45:1 chance of winning if they get the GOP nod. All it takes is for formerly apathetic individuals to get off the couch and nominate him in their local Republican primary or caucus process. Political parties are nothing more than tools. Those who read the manual and use the tools properly will win the nomination for their candidate. For the past 20 years, many good people have stayed at home and accepted whatever candidate they let others select for them. This year, those people are learning how to use their vote to make a difference. In order to do so, you must participate in the Republican primary election or caucus process in your county, precinct or district. Nothing else matters. If we do this, we win. If not, we lose. The GOP has been suffering from declining participation for decades. Fewer than 10% of registered voters have ALL the power because they actually participate. Now the remaining 90% must surge to use their vote as a tool to bring about positive and long overdue political change in this country. The time to act is now. The time for political revolution has come. The time for Ron Paul is NOW!
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul continued his trend of straw poll victories in Springfield, Missouri on October 30. The Texas congressman placed first in the Springfield Metropolitan Republican Club straw poll, in the conservative Ozarks region. He earned more than 77 percent of the vote, polling higher than all his opponents combined. Mike Huckabee placed second with 10 percent. 110 Republican Club members participated in the poll. This is just one in a string of straw poll successes for Congressman Paul. A straw-poll frontrunner, Congressman Paul has the largest number of supporters of any presidential candidate on popular internet social network sites Meetup.com and Youtube.com. "Dr. Paul is bringing the Republican Party together," said Paul campaign chairman Kent Snyder. "Supporters in Missouri and nationwide know that only Dr. Paul can beat Hillary in 2008." The Springfield Metropolitan Republican Club is a Republican grassroots organization in Greene County, Missouri.
Texas congressman Ron Paul won the South Sound Ronald Reagan Republican Club (SSRRRC) 2008 presidential primary straw poll with 38 percent of the vote at their October 26 meeting in Pierce County, Washington. This is his third SSRRRC win; Dr. Paul won their August and September polls with 28 and 48 percent respectively. Fred Thompson placed second in all three polls. This latest one of many straw poll successes nationwide for the GOP presidential candidate and leading war opponent. "Dr. Paul enjoys great grassroots support in Washington and across the nation," said Paul spokesman Jesse Benton. "His numerous straw poll victories show that Americans embrace his message of freedom, peace, and prosperity, and are ready to put a real Republican in the White House." Dr. Paul''s September 14 rally in Seattle, Washington drew over 1,300 supporters.
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is gaining momentum in New Hampshire and Iowa, according to a poll released November 13 by the New York Times. The Texas congressman has garnered an estimated 8 percent in New Hampshire, surpassing former GOP front-runner Fred Thompson, and is now tied with John McCain in Iowa. Polls released over the weekend by the Boston Globe in association with the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, and the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, both confirmed Congressman Paul%u2019s support to be higher than Thompson%u2019s as well. "The polls confirm what we already know: Congressman Paul is catching on in the early primary states," said Paul campaign spokesman Jesse Benton. "His unifying message of freedom, peace, and prosperity is resonating strongly with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, and we%u2019re rapidly gaining support nationwide." The New York Times poll was conducted November 2-12. On November 5, the Ron Paul campaign brought in a record-breaking $4.2 million online, and an additional $1 million to end the week.
Most people can see right through the prejudice CBS News obviously has towards Ron Paul. In the few times they''ve covered him at all, I''m suprised they didn''t have one of their graphics artists Photoshop some devil horns on top of his head in that worst ever photograph they always use of him. CBS obviously thinks that if they pretend Paul isn''t a top-tier GOP candidate, then their readers and viewers will eventually think so too. Whenever they are forced to do a story on Paul, because some other mainstream source is covering him for some reason, the fact that their editors work overtime to slant their stories in such a way as to either marginalize his accomplishment, or present Paul in the most negative light possible, is obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence. "What about their polls?," you ask? As far as the CBS News poll is concerned, they don''t even include Paul on the list of GOP candidates which pollees can choose from, and then afterwards, report to you that Paul doesn''t even rank in their final tally. Ron Paul is getting major grass roots support nationwide. He has over 81,700 meetup group members in 1,218 Groups from 945 cities nationwide, with another 8,189 people more folks just waiting to hear when a new meetup group will start-up near them. He''s won ALL of the viewer phone-in polls in ALL of the GOP debates he''s been in, and has raised more money ($4.2 million) in one day than any other GOP candidate ever. Go Ron Go!
Ron Paul breaks fundraising records, wins phone-in and Internet polls, yet why are his national poll numbers so low? A Zogby pollee recently revealed what happened to him when he took part in their national, 2008 presidential election poll. Upon confirming Ron Paul as his choice for President, the poll then branched out into a myriad of bizarre and intrusive questions which would discourage most people from completing the process, and thereby making their vote for Ron Paul null and void. "The first part of the poll was about which candidate one prefers, with candidates from both parties being available as choices. Great! However, after I finished answering positively for Ron Paul, the poll got very interesting," he writes. "As anyone who is familiar with how polls work is aware, polls are branching in their structure. Answers you give to one section of the poll will determine what questions you will receive in the next section of the poll." The pollee then relates his confusion about the fact that the poll threw up 20 questions about cooking rice before another extensive set of questions regarding personal sexual behavior. "This went on for a number of pages and was rather intrusive," he said. "It dealt with sexual positions, sexual fantasies, sexual preferences and similar intimate subjects. Of course neither rice cooking or sexual behavior have anything to do with presidential elections or politics in general. Or at least it shouldn''t!"
The results of a nationwide telephone poll, announced by Zogby on November 19th, reveals that Americans want to vote for a candidate who protects liberty; who wants to shrink government; and who wants to immediately withdraw our troops from Iraq - positions of Ron Paul. As part of a blind, spread poll, 1009 likely voters [from all parties] were provided with descriptions of four different candidates and asked to choose who they would vote for based on each one''s attributes and political platform. 33% of pollees chose Ron Paul, 19% chose Rudy Giuliani, 15% chose Mitt Romney and 13% chose Fred Thompson. The results clearly illustrate that the country is crying out for Ron Paul, which is why mainstream media has launched a PR offensive to marginalize his accomplishments and suppress the Congressman''s name recognition. In a seperate question, over 49% of pollees said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who would begin an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. In fact, Ron Paul won in every demographic in this poll (religious voters, NASCAR fans, military families, etc.) except amongst 503 preselected Zogby pollees, which identified themselves as "extremely conservative," which Guiliani won when they were only presented with the candidate''s name rather than his biography and platform. In spite of Paul''s resounding win, Zogby "spun" these poll results to make it appear as if Giuliani won, when he actually only won in a small subset of the poll.
Voter disenfranchisement and apathy infects the heart of our Republic. Get off your couch, put your remote control down, and become active in your nation''s political process. The pathetically few people that do vote in this country, a.k.a., "the ruling class", who currently get to decide under what kind of conditions (and Laws) you and your family will live, are certainly involved. I can assure you of that. In fact, the ruling class would be much happier if you would just continue to stay home and watch TV in your pleasantly distracted and brainwashed, stupor. That way they can continue to elect their political ****** to office, and continue to maintain their grip on 100% of the political power they currently own in this country. If you voted (God Forbid), it would cancel-out their vote, and they would lose control. They can''t have that. Now can they? If you don''t vote, my friends, you''re nothing but an unwashed "Pleb" to those that do, and the ruling class should rightfully consider themselves superior to you in every way. They do, after all, have all the power, while you have none. If you''re too apathetic and powerless to do anything for yourself more time-consuming than driving down to Mickey D''s to buy a milk shake in order to sieze control of your life, and your country''s destiny, then perhaps you deserve to be ruled over like the "Pleb" that you then are. The time to act is now. The time for political revolution has come. The time for Ron Paul is NOW!