The total number of hate crimes logged by the Dallas Police Department has decreased by three since last month, leaving six reported incidents on the books for 2023 as of Tuesday evening.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard, the six hate crimes — which include two aggravated assaults, three assaults by intimidation, and one property crime — represent just 0.03% of the 23,601 reported crimes in Dallas.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, City data last month showed that there had been nine incidents that qualified as hate crimes: three aggravated assaults, three simple assaults, one assault by intimidation, and two property crimes.
It is currently unclear whether some of these offenses were downgraded or victims or witnesses retracted statements that bolstered the case for them being hate crimes.
The Dallas Express reached out to DPD and asked whether the disappearance of the reported hate crimes from the dashboard meant that investigators determined that the reports were unfounded, either being fabrications or lacking the necessary legal elements to be designated a hate crime.
A public information officer responded via email and seemed to suggest that was the case.
“Any offense deemed a hate crime will be investigated by the unit with primary investigative responsibility, and the hate crimes detective will assist with the investigation. Hate crimes require proof of motivation for successful application of the hate crime statutes and we work closely with our federal partners on any offenses classified as hate crimes,” stated Senior Corporal Brian Martinez.
City data indicate that three of the currently existing hate crime reports were “Anti-Homosexual.” One was “Anti-Hispanic.” Another was “Anti-Jewish,” and the last was “Anti Other Ethnicity/National Origin.”
The Dallas Express could not immediately confirm which offenses correspond to which specific hate crime target group.
Still, even as hate crimes seem to be on the decline, the City’s murder rate has skyrocketed in recent months, registering an increase of 32.73% year-to-date as of Monday, according to a DPD report.
This focus on the percentages of crimes that can be called hate crimes and also haggling over what constitutes a hate crime is misguided and discredits the editorial staff of the Dallas Express.
Hate crimes are directed crimes meant to intimidate that is to terrorize. Or they are crimes committed hating a group that serve collectively to intimidate.
To lump them in with all crime and publish percentages is a product of flawed thinking. Also, to pose them in opposition against fighting crime is flawed. Both need to be dealt with.
It is like publishing a statistic that a very small percentage of cells in the human body are a bacterial pathogen or a small percentage of the RNA and DNA in the body is a virus.
This tactic has a historical antecedent which might lead the editorial staff to do some reflection.
Online you can download the entire publication of what is known often as the White Citizens Council from 1955 to 1961. I provide it as a resource for teachers and scholars. (They named themselves both White Citizens Council and Citizen Councils.)..
http://www.citizenscouncils.com/
In Vol. 1. No. 2, Nov. 1955, page 2, you will see “Life Magazine Can Quote Scripture For Own Purpose,” by Nicholas Stanford. It is about the murder of Emmett Till. I quote a part of it.
[Start Quote]
Very true. It was unfortunate that the murder occurred. It was unfortunate that young Till didn’t keep his hands to himself. It was unfortunate that the case happened
in Mississippi, favorite whipping-boy of the “liberals”
who write the big-circulation newsmagazines, rather than in New York City where any crime, however violent, is forgotten in three days.
[End Quote]
At the Dallas Historical Society, in going through the Hatton W. Sumners’ papers, you can see his focus on numbers to oppose anti-lynching legislation. I photographed a chart of his on my last visit. Sumners is the person most responsible for anti-lynching legislation not being passed in the 20th century. By showing that lynching was declining he argued that anti-lynching legislation wasn’t needed. However, anti-lynching legislation is a declaration of the position of the government and has a moral force against lynching. It communicates to potential lynchers that the government is hostile to lynching, and is a practical deterrent.
Finally, there is William Buckley, of the “National Review,” trying to minimize violence against civil rights workers in the South. When Unitarian minister and civil rights worker James Reeb was stabbed to death, there was a call to raise funds for his widow. William Buckley mocked the effort by calling for fund raising for a victim of a crime in New York City. I don’t remember the details, and I can’t provide a reference. HOWEVER, I did purchase bound volumes of about 10+ years of the “National Review,” to let people know that Buckley wasn’t the person he was represented as and I don’t like history drawn with pastels.
Hate crimes dislocate minorities from the body politic of society.
The maintainance of society which isn’t subject to a politics disordered by anger depends on people feeling that they have rights as citizens, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” If they feel they don’t have a right to life they are alienated as they should be.
It would do well for the editors of this publication to drop the statistic of the percentage of hate crimes as if focusing on hate crimes is a distraction from crime itself.
Crime is a real problem in this city. My house might be the most heavily fortified house in Oak Cliff. However, trying to disparge focusing on hate crimes doesn’t make me or anyone else safer.
Finally, the City of Dallas with all their rhetoric isn’t that concerned with minorities. There is actually no real focus on hate crimes and there is no human rights commission, even though Fort Worth has had one since 1967. They can be powerful instruments to maintaining peace in society and proactively prevent problems.
Investigations should be down by an independent group of civic leaders. How can a person that has been victimized by a hate crime trust the DPD an organization that uses robots and drones to assassinate Dallas citizens.
How about detailing the race of the victims and the perpetrators as a statistic? My guess is that we would see that only certain races can commit race crimes as other races would never be considered the perpetrator by law enforcement, regardless of what the said and did.