wfn.org | UMW project shows flaws in classifying hate crimes

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 30, 2001   News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71B{499}

NEW YORK (UMNS) - A three-year monitoring project by United Methodist Women
(UMW) has uncovered flaws in the reporting or classifying of hate crimes
around the country.

Lois Dauway, an executive with the Women's Division of the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries, said the project revealed a lack of
documentation of such crimes, particularly in the seven states that do not
have specific hate crime laws.

"I found it surprising that we were able, in some instances, to document
hate crime activities when some state attorney generals could not," she told
United Methodist News Service after the project summary was released in
October.

Completed in August, the Hate Crimes Clipping Project was conducted jointly
by the Women's Division, the administrative body for the 1.1-million member
UMW, and the Center for Democratic Renewal. UMW volunteers collected
newspaper clippings on hate incidents in their home communities and sent
them to the Women's Division for processing. The Center for Democratic
Renewal then translated the clippings into a national hate crime database.

UMW members also became involved in lobbying for hate crime legislation,
according to Dauway. "They were very integral to the passage of the law in
Georgia," she said.

Of the 599 news articles in the hate crimes category from 1998-2001, 287
separate incidents were identified across the United States. Combined with
incidents in the church burning and international sections, the total was
428 hate crimes identified during that period.

Other articles reflected a "climate," such as white supremacist rallies,
that allows hate to exist. Volunteers collected 264 entries for that
category.

Articles also were clipped and sent on racial justice issues, such as police
brutality and racial profiling, immigration cases, prison issues and the
death penalty.
The most widely reported hate crime incidents included the murder of James
Byrd, an African American, in Texas in 1999; the hanging of Raynard Johnson,
also an African American, in Kokomo, Miss., in 2000; the murder of Matthew
Shepherd, a young gay man, in Wyoming in 1998; and the arrest of
self-described satanist Jay Scott Ballinger, a suspect in more than 30
church arsons, in 1999. The largest number of clippings came from volunteers
in California and Florida.

Dauway noted that while the impact of groups inciting hate has diminished,
"hate crime activity is on the rise." An explanation, she said, is the
proliferation of Web sites that encourage individuals to participate in
hate-related acts.

The clipping project will continue, and Dauway said volunteers also are
being encouraged to send in articles on anti-Arab or anti-Muslim
discrimination or harassment. More information on the clipping project and
related programs of the Board of Global Ministries can be found at
http://gbgm-umc.org/programs/antihate on the agency's Web site.

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United Methodist News Service
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