Police agencies statewide reported 212 hate crimes in 2006 ? an increase from 195 incidents in 2005, the FBI said Monday.
“It?s going on all around the nation,” Maryland NAACP President Jenkins Odoms said of the rise in hate crimes.
“When the Justice Department fails to intervene, they continue to rise. When you leave identifying hate crimes up to the state, they don?t enforce the laws and don?t identify the hate crimes.”
In the Baltimore metropolitan area, Baltimore and Howard counties reported a significant number of hate crimes. Baltimore County reported 56 hate crimes in 2006 and Howard County 35.
All other local jurisdictions, including Baltimore City, which has a population of more than 630,000, reported fewer than eight hate crimes last year.
Baltimore City police reported seven incidents, and only two based on race.
“Baltimore City is outrageous,” Odoms said.
“It shows you how bad and how unprofessional that police department is.”
Baltimore City police spokesman Sterling Clifford said he hadn?t seen the FBI?s report, but assured that city officers “take all crimes seriously, especially crimes rooted in people?s race, religion or ethnicity.”
Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the city?s branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he found the city?s low number of hate crimes to be “almost impossible.”
“There has to be a problem with the reporting,” he said.
Cheatham, however, said he?s observed that “when you have a large enough percentage of African-Americans, then hate crimes go down.”
Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey said his county doesn?t have more hate crimes than other areas, just more investigation.
“Baltimore County does a great deal of follow-up and outreach to look into hate crimes,” Toohey said.
The metropolitan region had several high-profile hate crimes in 2006.
During the summer, vandals chemically burned white supremacist slogans and symbols into eight Ellicott City lawns.
Baltimore City?s NAACP branch received a letter filled with white powder in July. The FBI later analyzed the letter and told Cheatham it was filled with racial slurs and death threats, Cheatham said. Between 2005 and 2006, hate-crime incidents increased nationally by 7.8 percent, according to the FBI.
BY THE NUMBERS
Hate-crime incidents in 2006
Anne Arundel: 4
Baltimore City: 7
Baltimore County: 56
Carroll: 6
Harford: 6
Howard: 35
Source: FBI
