State: State sees surge in hate crimes

Hate crimes in Florida increased by 24 percent last year, with the surge tied to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the backlash against Middle Eastern immigrants and Muslim places of worship.

Virtually the entire increase was in hate crimes related to ethnicity or religion, such as vandalism to mosques and phone threats to Muslim families or threats spray-painted on their homes, according to a report to be released today by the state Attorney General's Office.

"If it hadn't been for Sept. 11, we would have seen another overall decrease this year," said Attorney General Bob Butterworth. "Generally I'm encouraged by the pattern. . . . But as everyone knows, Sept. 11 changed a lot of things."

Law enforcement around the state had a clear sense last year that Florida was experiencing more ethnic-related hate crimes, but the report offers the first data to quantify the trend.

Florida's experience is part of a larger national trend, which only recently is being quantified.

In Florida, a hate crime is defined as an act that amounts to an expression of hatred against a person, a group or their property because of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability or advanced age.

The Hate Crimes in Florida report shows that:

-- The overall number of hate crimes statewide in the four major categories increased 24.5 percent, from 269 to 335.

-- Race remains the biggest hate crime category, but the numbers of race-related crimes dropped for the second year in a row from 155 in 2000 to 129 in 2001. Race-related hate crimes accounted for 38 percent of the state's total.

-- Hate crimes related to a victim's ethnicity increased more than threefold, from 28 to 95. Hate crimes related to a victim's religion increased 54 percent from 44 to 68. Taken together, those two categories account for close to half the state's 335 reported hate crimes. In the previous decade, ethnicity and religion accounted for fewer than one in four hate crimes.

-- Roughly a third of the hate crimes related to ethnicity were classified as intimidation, and another third were destruction or vandalism of property. Fifteen percent were aggravated assaults.

-- Pinellas County had 33 reported hate crimes, which was the third-highest total in the state. Twenty-two of those hate crimes were related to a victim's ethnicity, the highest number in the state. That is up from six ethnicity hate crimes reported in 2000. That fact might be a result of more aggressive reporting in Pinellas County.

-- Hillsborough County had 29 reported hate crimes, fourth highest in the state, including 10 related to a victim's ethnicity, up from two reported in 2000.

"I could have guessed we'd see that kind of an increase, but we couldn't say empirically," said Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe. "It doesn't jump out at me as being surprisingly high, given what happened last year."

McCabe said he was convinced the hate crime numbers will show a definite decrease, now that the Sept. 11 tensions have eased. But he added, "We might see an increase again next month -- the anniversary. There's going to be a lot of replaying the images over and over again."

Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson said he too suspects hate crime numbers for 2002 will show a decrease. Still, Henderson said he is wary of local and world events that might increase tension.

"It didn't used to be true," Henderson said, "but what happens in New York or in the Middle East affects us and reaches down to local law enforcement."

Law enforcement officials said many threats intended for immigrants from the Middle East were misdirected toward American-born Muslims and, in some cases against Hispanics and people of other ethnic backgrounds.

Large, multi-ethnic counties such as Miami-Dade and Broward, as well as Hillsborough and Pinellas, typically report small numbers of ethnically motivated hate crimes. For some small Florida cities and towns, the first brush with ethnic-related hate crime came in the days after Sept. 11.

The Fort Walton Beach Police Department reported its first hate crime in 2001.

"That was a pretty big deal around here," said Steve Hogue, chief of the Fort Walton Beach Police Department, which reported one hate crime last year.

The only Islamic mosque in Fort Walton Beach received two threatening phone calls, and then a gunshot was fired through its window on Sept. 16. Hogue beefed up security around the mosque and there were no other incidents.

"I was pretty disappointed," Hogue said. "But I guess there's a few idiots in any community. I hope we're done with it."

In Hernando County, just two days after the terrorist attacks, a bullet was fired at the county's only mosque, and ethnic slurs against Arabs and Hispanics were spray-painted on the wall of a business that someone tried to set ablaze.

"It's very rare," said Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent. "But there was a lot of emotion running wild after Sept. 11. I was just pleased to see the county really came out in support of our Muslim community after that."

Though the post-Sept. 11 tensions have eased around the state and nation, the Tampa Bay area has had pointed reminders that some believe could stir passions again.

"Our community has had these incidents that have served to keep the tensions alive," said Roy Kaplan, director of the local chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice.

"Things have calmed down," Kaplan said. "But then you have Dr. Goldstein (the Seminole podiatrist accused this month of plotting to bomb area mosques) and the (Sami) Al-Arian case at USF. It's ongoing."

-- Staff writer Alicia Caldwell and researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

Back to State news

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk