The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/hate-crimes/)
Kevin McAleenan, acting secretary of homeland security, is trying to project a new vigilance about violent white nationalism, beating back criticism that the agency has spent a decade playing down the issue.
Utah has gone the furthest, with a new law that establishes a whopping 18 categories of what may constitute a hate crime. The state includes age, service in the military, status as an emergency responder. It even counts “matriculation” — legal speak for bad blood between schools.
His Instagram video included sounds of sirens and screaming with the caption: “Police identified the Youngstown Jewish Family Community shooter as local white nationalist.”
An unusual lawsuit seeks to hold the rally organizers accountable for the violence that culminated in the car attack that killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and wounded 30 others. The plaintiffs’ legal team is reaching back — way back — to invoke a law from 1871.
GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson wants lawmakers to approve harsher penalties for crimes targeting people because of their race, ethnicity or religion. Pressure for new legislation is also mounting in Georgia and South Carolina, two other states without hate crimes laws.
Members of the group said they, along with several other friends, were forced to leave a downtown Los Angeles bar after a straight couple yelled slurs and attacked them. Cellphone video of the incident does not show the alleged attack, but the footage captures three people being forcefully removed.
Judge Michael Toomin’s appointment of former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb raises the possibility that the special prosecutor could bring new charges against former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.
Washington, D..C., police made arrests in a record 59 hate-crime cases involving adults last year. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which handles most criminal cases in the capital, prosecuted only three as hate crimes, and one was quickly dropped. U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu defended her record.
James Reardon, 20, said in an online video that he was the shooter at a Jewish community center in the Youngstown area, but no such incident had occurred.
Nearly 2,000 hate crimes have been referred to U.S. attorneys since 2009, but just 15 percent have resulted in prosecutions, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. So far, in 2019, just 17 cases—of 99 referrals under the five hate crime statutes on federal books—have been prosecuted.