FBI Report: 8 Hate Crimes in Dearborn in 2010

There were eight reported hate crimes in Dearborn last year, according to a report issued Monday by the FBI.

Hate Crime Statistics, 2010 found that nationally, there were 6,628 criminal incidents involving 7,699 offenses reported in 2010 as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability.

In Dearborn, four incidents had to do with race, while two were based on religion and two on ethnicity. No hate crimes based on disability or sexual orientation were reported.

Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Up

Although the number of reported hate crimes is not unusually high for Dearborn, the report does show that anti-Muslim hate crimes nationwide were up 50 percent from 2009–from 107 to 160.

Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, reported on The Huffington Post that an increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the past–such as after 9/11–has been linked to hateful rhetoric by public figures:

"It's not provable precisely how hateful rhetoric from public figures drives criminal violence. But anecdotal evidence suggests the link is a tight one. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, anti-Muslim hate violence skyrocketed some 1,600%. But then-President Bush gave several speeches that fall emphasizing that Muslims and Arabs were not our enemies — only Al Qaeda was. Almost certainly thanks to that, anti-Muslim violence declined the following year by almost two thirds."

Nadia Tonova, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities, a program of ACCESS, added that the NNAAC hopes to help reverse anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment in southeast Michigan and beyond.

“The National Network for Arab American Communities works across broad coalitions to diminish these attitudes and biases, which too often are reinforced by the misguided rhetoric of some of our leaders," Tonova said in a statement.

Tonova added that the NNAAC hopes to see efforts from political leaders to combat those biases.

"This year, as we move into a national election cycle, we call upon all those in leadership positions to be especially mindful of the way their words influence others," she said. "True leaders recognize and acknowledge that the strength of our nation comes from its diversity. Hate divides us at a time when our nation can ill afford further division.”

Nationally, the report found that:

• Of the 6,624 single bias incidents, 47.3 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20 percent were motivated by a religious bias, 19.3 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, and 12.8 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 0.6 percent of single-bias incidents.
• There were 4,824 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons. Intimidation accounted for 46.2 percent of these crimes, simple assaults for 34.8 percent, and aggravated assaults for 18.4 percent. In addition, seven murders were reported as hate crimes.
• There were 2,861 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property; most of these (81.1 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. The remaining 18.9 percent of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses.
• Of the 6,008 known offenders, 58.6 percent were white and 18.4 percent were black. For 12 percent, the race was unknown, and the remaining known offenders were of other races.
• The largest percentage (31.4 percent) of hate crime incidents occurred in or near homes. Another 17 percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 10.9 percent happened at schools or colleges; 5.8 percent in parking lots or garages; and 3.7 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The location was considered other or unknown for 14.3 percent of hate crime incidents. The remaining 16.9 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified locations or multiple locations.