HRC Back Story

Today the FBI released its 2006 hate crimes statistics.  An AP analysis of the data shows that FBI reported hate crimes incidents rose by 8% in 2006. 

In 2006, 2,105 law enforcement agencies reported 7,722 hate crime incidents involving 9,080 offenses.  This is an increase from the 2005 report in which 2,037 law enforcement agencies reported 7,163 incidents involving 8,380 offenses.

Still, civil rights and religious leaders held a Washington march on Friday against the Department of Justice to bring additional attention to and urge an immediate judicial response to the recent national surge in racial and ethnically motivated bias crimes, including the rise of nooses, swastikas and other symbols of hate being displayed across the country in the wake of the Jena Six case. In that case, the Human Rights Campaign joined with a broad coalition of national civil rights organizations in calling for fair treatment in the case of six black teenagers who had fallen victim to severe racial bias at the hands of judicial authorities in Jena, Louisiana. Donna Payne, our associate director of diversity, attended Friday's DOJ march and sent us updates that we posted on Back Story.

Hate crimes based on sexual orientation remain the third most common type of hate crime behind race and religion. 

Hate crimes based on sexual orientation totaled 15.5% of incidents reported (1,195 incidents).  This is an increase from the 2005 report where hate crimes based on sexual orientation totaled 14.2% of incidents reported (1,017).

The FBI's press release is here (.pdf):  http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2006/downloadablepdfs/hcpressrelease.pdf 

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UPDATE: Joe Solmonese responds to the FBI hate crimes report:

"This FBI report confirms what the Human Rights Campaign has known for over a decade—that hate crimes protections for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community are long overdue.  We urge Congress to send this legislation immediately to the President’s desk, and for the President to sign it into law."