Some state as well as local officials have contended, during the past couple of years, that racism is no longer a concern in the commonwealth. We have been encouraged to put any racial concerns in the rearview mirror and just move on.

Our state Department of Education, which seems to promote that view, should examine the latest annual report of another state agency, the Department of State Police. Each year, the State Police compiles its annual “Crime in Virginia” statistical report of criminal incidents in the state’s cities and counties. It’s a valuable statistical tool that helps law enforcement make decisions as to where limited resources should be focused.

The 2023 report, just recently completed, shows a dramatic and troubling increase in the number of hate crimes reported in the state. A total of 275 such reports were filed last year, a 46% increase from the 189 reported the previous year.

Hate crimes are reported by type of incident — simple assault, property damage, intimidation, aggravated assault and a catchall “other.”

Back in 2019, the majority of incidents involved “intimidation,” followed closely by simple assault. In what may be a disturbing trend, in 2023 the number of reports of assault doubled, as did the reports of property damage. 

One thing that didn’t change was that the preponderance of reports involved hatred aimed at race or ethnicity. That doesn’t diminish the seriousness of incidents involving anti-Hispanic, “anti-other” race and anti-whites. The reports of those doubled during the period.

Nor was Virginia immune from the current wave of discrimination against sexual orientation. Reports of sexual orientation bias climbed by nearly half.

Isle of Wight and Surry County, let it be noted, reported no incidents of hate crimes, which are defined as emanating from a specific bias against the victim. 

We Southsiders can also take considerable comfort in the fact that the vast majority of hate crime reports came from three localities in Northern Virginia. What we often think of as a stronghold of liberalism, it seems, is also a cauldron of intolerance. The county of Fairfax alone accounted for two-thirds of all hate-based crime reported during the year, and together with Arlington and Loudon, that region produced more than three-quarters of the reports.

Hampton Roads wasn’t immune from intolerance. Our local cities, plus the counties of Gloucester and York, accounted for 50 such reports, most of them involving racial bias.

The Richmond area had a significantly lower share of the troubling incidents.

Statistics are a valuable tool, but in the case of hate crimes, they should be viewed with a degree of skepticism. 

The “Crime in Virginia” report says that hate crimes “are not separate, distinct offenses, but rather reported crimes motivated by the offender’s bias.” That bias is reported “only if the investigation reveals sufficient information to lead a reasonable and prudent person to conclude that the offender’s actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by bias against race, religion, disability, ethnicity or sexual orientation.”

Now, there’s a mouthful to chew on.

Are we to assume from this that Northern Virginia is indeed filled with hateful people throwing out racial slurs and nasty comments about gender? Or are the police departments of those urban counties possibly more sensitive and thus more likely to recognize hate when they see it?

Are Virginia’s Southside counties, as the report would indicate, almost devoid of incidents sparked by race or other bias? One would certainly hope that we are. But is it also possible that, to some degree, we are culturally conditioned to require a higher level of proof before checking off the “Hate Crime” column in incident reports? 

I suspect that the rise in hate crime is quite real, given the level of anger we see across the country, particularly among fringe groups that are openly racist or biased for other reasons. I would also suspect, though, that the reporting of such crime is becoming more prevalent as citizens as well as law enforcement become more sensitive to the biases that are infecting our society. Until that sensitivity increases further, hate crimes may well be underreported, rather than overreported. 

Whatever the cause of the increase in hate crime reports — and it is likely a combination of both real increases and sensitivity to them — this much should be clear to every one of us. We need to call out racist and other hate-based comments and actions whenever and wherever we see them. 

While we are not yet able to put bias in that rearview mirror, it is past time for us to work toward the day when we can.

 

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.