Megan Cassidy

The Republic | azcentral.com

Hate crimes committed in Phoenix rose by 26 percent in 2015 over the previous year, outpacing a trend recorded in police agencies throughout the country.

FBI data released this week showed a jump to 231 recorded incidents in 2015 from 183 incidents in 2014. The national average rose, too, but by a comparatively narrower margin. The data shows a national increase to 5,850 recorded incidents from 5,479 in the same category, an increase of 6.8 percent.

The data — a subsection of the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report — comes amid heightened concerns about race relations nationwide. The victory of President-elect Donald Trump has sparked protests across the country, with critics denouncing what they saw as his divisive rhetoric across the campaign trial.

Though FBI statistics are considered the country’s most comprehensive crime barometer, the collection methods are far from perfect.

The data is based on information submitted by individual law-enforcement agencies and is notoriously spotty. There is no requirement for departments to report their data, and many don’t.

FBI Director James Comey addressed the reporting disparities in a 2014 speech, as noted on the FBI’s website.

“We need to do a better job of tracking and reporting hate crime to fully understand what is happening in our communities and how to stop it,” he said.

Some hate crimes can be difficult to pin. Last year, a black transgender woman named Kandis Capri was found shot to death in a west Phoenix apartment complex. It remains unclear whether the murder was based on a gender or race bias, though, because the killer has not yet been identified.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino, said many large cities and states reported suspiciously low numbers to the FBI.

Dallas, a city of 1.3 million residents, reported a total of 11 hate-crime incidents. San Antonio recorded 12 in its city of 1.46 million. And the entire state of Mississippi recorded no hate crimes.

“The data-collection efficiencies are all over the map,” Levin said. “Many states do not do a good job at collecting data, and that’s not a problem that we have in Phoenix. I think this is testament that their law-enforcement is professional and well-trained.”

Levin said the issue boils down to what is causing the increase: better reporting from Phoenix police or an increase in hate crimes?

“I think the answer is both,” he said.

A bias motivation isn’t a crime in and of itself in Arizona, but it can be used to justify a longer sentence for the underlying crime, said Phoenix police Sgt. Jonathan Howard.

“If you get eggs thrown at your house, the bias-crime detective will then further investigate the motive behind the crime,” he said. If evidence shows the suspect was yelling, “ 'I hate Jewish people,' ” he said, “it is part of that evidence that is used in court proceedings for enhanced sentencing.”

Despite the data’s flaws, one national trend was particularly noteworthy. Hate crimes against Muslims surged nationally, up by 67 percent over the previous year. There were 257 reported incidents of anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2015, compared with 154 in 2014.

It was the highest number of hate crimes against Muslims since 2001, the year of the most deadly terrorism attack on U.S. soil.

Phoenix’s rise was partly fueled by religious-based crimes, as well. Religion was cited as the motive for 40 hate crimes in 2015, compared with 19 crimes in 2014.

But in the past decade, no category of hate crimes in Phoenix increased more dramatically than those targeting a certain race or ethnicity. The figures hit a 10-year peak of 137 incidents last year, compared with 32 in 2006.

Critics of Trump’s presidency fear hate crimes will only become more commonplace during his term.

“The outcome of the election of the Trump campaign is going to amplify the continued growth of hate crimes against people of color in general, against women, and in particular against Muslims,” said Rashad Shabazz, an associate professor at Arizona State University’s School of Social Transformation.

The president-elect ran a polarizing campaign in the run-up to the election. He called Mexicans murderers and rapists, called for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., and made various disparaging remarks about women.

Shabazz said it was almost irrelevant whether Trump actually meant what he said. He believed the harm could manifest in hate crimes across the country.

“We have a man who is saying these kinds of things and is able to hold the highest office in the land,” he said. “But what’s the most dangerous about that moment, those actions (hate crimes) are now emboldened by that victory.”

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