Police agencies across Maryland reported 195 hate crimes in 2005 ? a noticeable decrease from previous years, according to a recent FBI publication.
That number represents a major drop in the number of hate crimes in Maryland since 1995, when the state experienced 353 such incidents. It?s also a drop from 2004, when police reported 245 hate crimes in Maryland.
But Jenkins Odoms, president of the Maryland NAACP, doesn?t see cause to celebrate.
“I don?t see this as any great improvement,” Odoms said. “A hundred and ninety-five hate crimes is still 195 hate crimes. And this year it seems like they?re going on a rampage, trying to make up for last year. They?re more visible.”
Odoms pointed to several high-profile hate crimes in the Baltimore metropolitan area in 2006 as evidence that they remain a major problem in Maryland.
This summer vandals chemically burned white supremacist slogans and symbols into eight Ellicott City lawns.
The Baltimore City branch of the NAACP also received a letter filled with white powder in July. The FBI later analyzed the letter and told branch President Marvin “Doc” Cheatham Sr. that it was filled with racial slurs as well as death threats, Cheatham said.
“We?re encouraged any time hate crimes go down,” Cheatham said of the FBI report. “The question is whether that is a legitimate number. We?re hearing and seeing the opposite.”
Odoms said he also questioned whether all police departments across the state are adequately reporting hate crimes.
“Some departments really don?t want to classify hate crimes as a hate crime,” he said.
Of the hate crimes included nationally in the bureau?s report, 56 percent were fueled by racial bias, 15.7 percent by religious bias, and 14 percent by sexual-orientation bias.
Of the racist crimes, 68 percent were aimed at black people, while 20 percent were aimed at whites. Jewish people were targets of 69 percent of the religiously-based hate crimes, while Muslims were targets 11 percent of the time and Christians 9 percent.
