Despite FBI Report, Birmingham Police Say City Had No Hate Crimes in 2010

will re-evaluate how they report hate crimes after a report released Monday by the FBI stated there were four reported hate crimes in Birmingham last year.

However, Birmingham Police Cmdr. Terry Kiernan said none of the four hate crimes from Birmingham should have been classified as such, and officers will be re-educated on properly classifying certain crimes in the department's records system.

Overall, Hate Crime Statistics, 2010 found that nationally, there were 6,628 criminal incidents involving 7,699 offenses reported in 2010 as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability.

Of the four reported hate crimes in Birmingham, the FBI report states two were motivated by race, one by religion and one by sexual orientation.

Kiernan said one of the cases involved a racial slur spoken during a fight at late last year. However, the fight was not motivated by race, Kiernan said, and using a racial slur is not considered a hate crime.

He said the other three cases involved graffiti that wasn't targeted against specific individuals. None of the cases should have been classified as hate crimes, but Kiernan said officers accidentally checked the "hate crime" box when inputting them into the computer.

"We don't really see a lot of (hate crimes)," said Kiernan, who said there's nothing the department can do to change the 2010 reports now, though all officers will be reminded of filing procedures. "I've seen it a handful of times here, maybe."

Without the four hate crimes from the FBI report, Birmingham now falls squarely among its neighbors when it comes to hate crime statistics. No hate crimes were reported in Beverly Hills and Bloomfield Hills in 2010. Bloomfield Township had two reported hate crimes motivated by race, while Clawson and Troy reported only one each.

However, while 2010 was a quiet year for Birmingham, Kiernan said the 2011 report will reflect last spring's racial incidents at . Former Seaholm student Courtney Thomas — a slur that targeted five students. He pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace in Oakland County Circuit Court and is .

Kiernan said he expects to see two to three hate crimes reflected in the FBI report from that series of incidents alone.

Nationally, the report found that:

• Of the 6,624 single-bias incidents, 47.3 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20 percent were motivated by a religious bias, 19.3 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, and 12.8 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 0.6 percent of single-bias incidents.
• There were 4,824 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons. Intimidation accounted for 46.2 percent of these crimes, simple assaults for 34.8 percent and aggravated assaults for 18.4 percent. In addition, seven murders were reported as hate crimes.
• There were 2,861 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property; most of these (81.1 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. The remaining 18.9 percent of crimes against property comprised robbery, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, arson and other offenses.
• Of the 6,008 known offenders, 58.6 percent were white, and 18.4 percent were black. For 12 percent, the race was unknown, and the remaining known offenders were of other races.
• The largest percentage (31.4 percent) of hate crime incidents occurred in or near homes. Another 17 percent took place on highways, roads, alleys or streets; 10.9 percent happened at schools or colleges; 5.8 percent in parking lots or garages; and 3.7 percent in churches, synagogues or temples.