Hate crimes jump in Florida

[Thom Little]

The number of hate crimes reported by local police rose 21.5 percent statewide from 2003 to 2004, according to a report issued Wednesday by state Attorney General Charlie Crist.

The data don't offer specific reasons for last year's jump from 275 to 334 reported incidents -- after two years of decline -- but better investigating and reporting by law enforcement could account for the shift.

.......

Art Teitelbaum, southern area director for the Anti-Defamation League, acknowledged that the consistency of hate crime reporting by the public and law enforcement can vary dramatically from place to place. But, he said, even imperfect statistics serve as an early warning system of sorts, showing potential hot spots as they surface and highlighting the need for continued vigilance.

''We know from experience that where hate goes unchallenged, like a cancer, it grows, it metastasizes,'' he said, adding that whether a particular community reports a few more or fewer crimes in a given year is less important than that the crimes occur at all.

``By their nature, the perpetrators of such crimes deny the very possibility of us living harmoniously in ethnically diverse communities.''


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13504027.htm

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Bushco encourages hate

with their intemperate speech ("anyone who isn't for us is a terrorist" and the like), so hatemongers feel empowered.

[goforit]

2. Way to go JEBBY

[Divine Discontent]

3. believe U me!

I lived in Miami Beach, Orlando, and Melbourne, and there is NOT a lot of diversified minds when it comes to differences in people. Speaking for the gay side of things, I felt threatened by the narrow minded behavior of your everyday Floridian.

Jeb and his clan are all about intolerance, it shows all up and down Florida's lawbooks about rights. Or lack there of.

[Selteri]

4. THose who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

But they'll argue that they're doing it right when they encourage hate.

Look at Toledo where the Nazi's have decided they want to be able to make speaches and march.

[Imagine My Surprise]

5. And didn't they just pass some psychotic gun law that lets you...

shoot anyone who thinks they're giving them a funny look?

[AspenRose]

6. Well, surprise surprise

Another legacy of the current mis-administration. Push the country back another 60 years or so.

I feel so much safer now, don't you? I mean in Florida, a state where people can SHOOT YOU if you look at them funny.

This bodes REALLY well for those of us blessed with an abundance of melanin. :sarcasm: