Despite this increase and the fact that sexual orientation bias was the motivation for 15.5 percent of the crimes (i.e., 1,197 separate incidents), the Christianists continue to work to blog the addition of sexual orientation to the federal hate crimes law. Naturally, at the same time the Christianists enjoy protection against crimes motivated by religious bias. More of the same old double standard: protect us, but to Hell with anyone we do not like. Not very Christian in my book. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot (:http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HATE_CRIMES?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=HOME):
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hate crime incidents in the United States rose last year by nearly 8 percent, the FBI reported Monday, as racial prejudice continued to account for more than half the reported instances. Police across the nation reported 7,722 criminal incidents in 2006 targeting victims or property as a result of bias against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability. That was up 7.8 percent from the 7,163 incidents reported in 2005.
The 7,722 criminal hate crime incidents involved 9,080 specific criminal offenses, include 5,449 against individuals, 3,593 against property and 38 classified as against society at large. An incident can involve attacks on both people and property.
As has been the case since the FBI began collecting hate crime data in 1991, the most frequent motivation was racial bias, accounting for 51.8 percent of the incidents in 2006. That was down slightly from the 54.7 percent in 2005. Also in 2006, religious bias was blamed for 18.9 percent of the incidents; sexual orientation bias for 15.5 percent, and ethnic or national origin for 12.7 percent.
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