The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/hate-crimes/)
A protest face-off in Portland between the right-wing Patriot Prayer and left-wing antifascists resulted in little violence. A few injuries were reported when police used flash-bang grenades to disperse a crowd.
The alt-right hopes to hold rallies in Charlottesville, Va., and Washington, D.C., on the anniversary of last year’s shocking demonstrations. But the key organizer says fear of violence and internal bickering likely will tamp down attendance.
The number of hate crimes reported in the 10 largest U.S. cities jumped in 2017, marking four straight years for an uptick in such incidents. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University finds a decline this year so far.
Experts blamed the increase after seven years of decline on President Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric toward minorities and the resurgence of hate groups in the state.
James Alex Fields, accused of killing a woman and injuring dozens of others last summer by plowing his car into a crowd protesting white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., was indicted on federal hate crime charges. The case was closely watched by civil rights activists who were unsure if Attorney General Jeff Sessions would pursue it.
The FBI has a category of crime called anti-heterosexual hate crime. The FBI counted 142 of them over seven years reported by local police departments, but on closer examination, none of them seem to have been provoked by anti-heterosexual bias.
Black nationalist groups expanded to 233 chapters in 2017, from 193 the previous year, reports the Southern Poverty Law Center. Even with the growth, black nationalist groups lagged far behind the more than 600 hate groups that adhere to some form of white supremacist ideology, and they have virtually no supporters or influence in mainstream politics.
A lawsuit testing First Amendment issues contends that the alt-right movement is responsible for injuries and a death at the Virginia rally. Defendants say the case is aimed at silencing them and destroying them financially.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says Elliot Rodger, who killed six students in 2014, was the first of a series of 13 “alt-right killers” who have murdered 43 and injured 60 in the last four years. The perpetrators were all men, mostly under 30.
The state joins California in banning the use of a rare criminal defense that uses a victim’s sexual orientation as justification for a violent crime. Similar legislative measures will be introduced in other states in 2018.