From racial motivated to religious bias crimes, what constitutes a hate crime and what motivates

terrorism?

In 2014, out of the 15,494 law enforcement agencies that participated in the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistic Program, 1,666 reported 5,479 hate crime incidents involving 6,418 offenses.

There were 5,462 single-bias incidents with 6, 681 victims and 5,176 offenders.

The other 17 incidents were due to multiple bias involving 33 offenses, 46 victims and 16 offenders.

In California, there were 759 hate crime incidents per bias motivation were reported in 2014. A total of 305 incidents were racial motivated, 128 incidents were targeted because of the offender’ religious bias, 187 of these incidents were due to offenders’ sexual-orientation bias, 111 incidents stemmed from ethnicity bias, 4 incidents were prompted by disability bias, 2 incidents resulted from gender bias, and 22 incidents were motivated by gender-identity bias.

Out of 34 cities in Orange County, 15 cities submitted a hate crime statistic report.

In North Orange County, Brea reported one incident involving race bias in the third quarter of 2014.

Buena Park reported two incidents in the second quarter of the year involving sexual orientation bias and ethnicity bias.

Fullerton had one incident due to sexual orientation bias, and two in Garden Grove.

Huntington Beach reported three hate crime incidents involving race, religion and ethnicity bias.

Orange reported two incidents involving religion and race bias.

Placentia also reported one incident involving race bias, and Yorba Linda reported one incident regarding religion bias.

Santa Ana submitted seven hate crime incidents in the year 2014. Four was reported due to race bias and one incident on religion, sexual orientation and ethnicity bias.

Despite the sum of the hate crime incidents in north Orange County, hate crime in OC has decreased year after year based on the FBI’s uniform crime report on hate crime.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity” is a form of a hate crime.

If race, religion and ethnicity bias against a person or property is a form of hate crime, at what point does it become a terroristic threat?

The FBI defines terrorism as violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law that occur either within or outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

The Domestic Terrorism Post 9/11 article by the FBI describes “Today’s domestic terror threats run the gamut, from hate-filled white supremacists…to highly destructive eco-terrorists…to violence-prone anti-government extremists…to radical separatist groups.”

As mentioned in Domestic Threat story by the FBI, white supremacy extremists like the KKK, “specifically targets racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; the federal government, and in some instances, even each other.”

The KKK rally stabbing in February was a result of a heated confrontation between Klan members and counter protestors due to the threat the group pose in our diverse society.

Hate crime comes in different kinds and forms, and terrorism is closer to home than the society portrays.