ADL official questions hate crimes report
HANK NEYER
Contributing Editor
The Arizona regional director of the Anti-Defamation League said hate-crime statistics released in November by the FBI are laden with inconsistencies.
According to Bill Straus, there is "inconsistency in reporting - not only among the cities reporting, but also among the agencies."
Phoenix, he said, ranks fifth in the nation in the number of hate crimes reported - trailing only New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston.
The FBI report said 100 hate crimes had been reported in the city of Phoenix during 2003. Straus said he finds it hard to believe that "twice as many hate crimes were reported in Phoenix than in Chicago."
He also observed that while Oakland, Calif., is a "very nice city," it's "hard to believe" that not a single hate crime was reported there during all of 2003.
The ADL official also questioned the fact that not a single hate crime apparently was reported in Scottsdale last year. The FBI report said 45 hate crimes had been reported in Mesa, while Tucson reported 28 such crimes.
Straus explained that what appears to one police agency to be "at the very least a potential hate crime may not even pose a consideration of that possibility to another police department."
Straus also theorized that people may hesitate to report a hate crime for fear that it will "breathe more life" into the act.
|