[lbo-talk] Hate crimes

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Tue Nov 23 15:50:21 PST 2004


On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 a news release was posted saying:


> ALARMING RATES OF HATE CRIMES REPORTED BY FBI

<snip>


> [I]n 2003...Six murders were reported based on sexual orientation -
> the highest category followed closely by four murders based on race bias.

There were 6 murders based on gay hatred and 4 based on race hatred? In the entire country -- with a population of 300 million?

To tell you the truth, that strikes me as a stunningly small amount -- about as close to zero as we'll ever get in the real world.

BTW, if you look at the actual new release at www.fbi.gov, you'll see that this version twists just about every number in that report to make it sound more alarming than it is.

Michael



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