Hate crimes on the rise in Delaware, nationwide. Here are the numbers

The number of hate crimes reported in Delaware has more than doubled since 2020, according to newly released data from the state Department of Justice.

In 2020, the year of COVID-19 and George Floyd, there were 13 hate crime incidents reported to Delaware law enforcement, according to Department of Justice spokesman Mat Marshall. Fifteen hate crimes were reported in 2021, but in 2022, the number jumped to 29. The number was nearly the same in 2023 at 28.

Hate crime incidents are on the rise not just in Delaware but nationwide. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there were 11,613 hate crimes reported in 2022 (the most recently available data), compared with 10,875 in 2021 and 9,944 in 2020.

However, the actual numbers are likely much higher. An estimated average of 250,000 hate crimes were committed annually between 2004 and 2015 in the United States, according to the FBI, the majority of which were not reported to law enforcement agencies.

In addition, there’s no national reporting mandate, according to Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University. Those agencies that do report to the FBI may have different definitions of what constitutes a hate crime, Levin said, while some states, such as South Carolina, don’t even have hate crime laws.

The FBI defines a hate crime as “crimes committed on the basis of the victim’s perceived or actual race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.” Delaware’s hate crime law, updated in 2022, covers all that and then some, expressly including interference with First Amendment rights.

At an early January meeting of the Sussex-based Speak Out Against Hate, Attorney General Kathleen Jennings called Delaware’s hate crime law “probably the strongest hate crime statute in the country.”

“It’s extremely broad and powerful, but only … if it is used,” she said.

Jennings urged anyone who believes they may have been the victim of a hate crime to reach out to police.

“We encourage people to report it,” she said. “Even if doesn’t amount to a hate crime, it is a biased incident, and we need to know about that, too, because we learn from it.”

Hate crimes in Delaware vs. nationwide  

Nationwide, hate crimes reported to police in America’s 10 largest cities last year rose 13%, according to preliminary data collected by Levin. It was a record year, in part due to a record surge of anti-Jewish cases, Levin said.

In Delaware, hate crimes reported over the past few years “overwhelmingly tended to be racial or religious in nature,” Marshall said. He credits, in part, “greater awareness and training around the state’s hate crime laws” for the rise in hate crime numbers, but said “the overall occurrence of hate crimes is also likely increasing.”

Hate crimes reported in Delaware in 2023, by county.

Marshall provided the following list of hate crimes, all reported to Delaware law enforcement in 2023.

• Jan. 28, Wilmington, investigated by Delaware State Police. Anti-Black. Unknown suspect sent anti-Black mail to the victim’s residence. 
• Feb. 7, Newark, investigated by the Newark Police Department. Anti-Black. Suspect with mental health issues called the victim anti-Black slurs. 
• Feb. 13, Dover, investigated by the Dover Police Department. Antisemitic. Juvenile suspects drew a swastika on a neighborhood sidewalk. 
• Feb. 18, Selbyville, investigated by Delaware State Police. Anti-Black. Intoxicated suspect called an employee a slur when they refused to serve them. 
• Feb. 22, Newark, investigated by the Newark Police Department. Antisemitic. Unknown suspect spray-painted numerous antisemitic slogans and symbols on a railroad bridge. 
• March 17, Newark, investigated by Fish and Wildlife Natural Resources Police. Antisemitic. Unknown suspect wrote antisemitic statements in a port-a-potty. 
• March 19, Seaford, investigated by the Seaford Police Department. Anti-Black. Suspect wrote slurs on the victim’s vehicle during a dispute. 
• March 25, Bear, investigated by Delaware State Police. Anti-Black. Unknown suspect spray-painted a slur on the backside of a storage building managed by the victim. 
• April 4, Ellendale, investigated by Delaware State Police. Anti-Black. Juvenile suspect called a juvenile victim a racial slur, threatened to hang him and assaulted him. 
• April 7, Dover, investigated by the Dover Police Department. Anti-Black. Unknown suspect yelled racial slurs at a tow truck driver who was towing a vehicle. 
• April 13, Newark, investigated by the University of Delaware Police Department. Anti-Ethnic. Unknown suspect damaged classroom equipment and left an anti-German note. 
• April 17, Wilmington, investigated by the Wilmington Police Department. Anti-Black. Suspect yelled racial slurs at the victim, overheard by numerous neighbors, in an effort to provoke a fight. 
• April 25, Wilmington, investigated by the Wilmington Police Department. Antisemitic. Juvenile suspects wrote antisemitic slurs and symbols on a paper airplane and sent it to a Jewish classmate. 
• May 8, Newark, investigated by the University of Delaware Police Department. Antisemitic. Unknown suspects defaced an LGBTQ+ -poster, which was hanging on a Jewish professor’s door, with swastikas.  
• June 21, Wilmington, investigated by Delaware State Police. Anti-Black. Suspect called the victim numerous racial slurs and sprayed her with an unknown liquid while threatening bodily harm. 
• July 21, Laurel, investigated by the Laurel Police Department. Suspect drove by the victim and pointed a handgun at the victim while yelling racial slurs. 
• Aug. 9, Claymont, investigated by Delaware State Police. Anti-Black. Unknown suspect spray-painted racial slurs in the parking lot of Ivy Rehab. 
• Aug. 12, Laurel, investigated by the Laurel Police Department. Antisemitic. Suspect carved a swastika into the victim’s car. 
• Aug. 26, Claymont, investigated by DSP. Anti-Black. Suspect called the victim a racial slur and offensively touched her. 
• Aug. 27, Newark, investigated by the University of Delaware Police Department. Anti-Black. Unknown suspect wrote a racial slur on a dormitory bulletin board. 
• Sept. 2, Newark, investigated by the University of Delaware Police Department. Anti-Black. Unknown suspect wrote racial slurs in a public area of a dormitory. 
• Sept. 8, Newark, investigated by the University of Delaware Police Department. Anti-Black. Unknown suspect wrote a racial slur on the victim’s whiteboard outside of her dorm room. 
• Sept. 20, Newark, investigated by the University of Delaware Police Department. Antisemitic. Unknown suspect drew a swastika in a handicap vestibule. 
• Oct. 29, Newark, investigated by the New Castle County Police Department. Anti-Black. Suspect harassed his neighbors and stated to the investigating officer he hates Black people. 
• Nov. 1, Wilmington, investigated by Delaware State Police. Anti-Hispanic. Suspect brandished a knife and threatened the victim while using racial slurs. 
• Nov. 28, Newark, investigated by the Newark Police Department. Antisemitic. Unknown suspect messaged the Mishelanu (Jewish student organization) leader and threatened to kill her. 
• Nov. 28, Newark, investigated by the University of Delaware Police Department. Antisemitic. Unknown suspects joined a Mishelanu WhatsApp group and sent threatening messages to members. 
• Dec. 30, Laurel, investigated by Delaware State Police. Anti-Hispanic. Two suspects threatened to blow up a business and kill employees while yelling racial slurs over an incorrect food order. 

A pledge to Speak Out Against Hate

Speak Out Against Hate is an offshoot of the Southern Delaware Alliance For Racial Justice. Their nonprofit status is pending, according to president Patty Maloney.

Co-founder Peter Schott explained why the group formed last year.

Charlotte King’s lawn, in Wolfe Pointe in Lewes, had “Trump” chemically burned into it Nov. 13.

“There had been a few hate-related incidents and people started talking about how there was a failure to respond to them,” Schott said. “We’ve got to make sure elected and appointed officials respond when they hear these things.”

The hate-related incidents Schott was referring to include when, in 2020, “TRUMP” was burned into alliance founder Charlotte King’s Lewes yard, likely with weed killer. Then there was the incident with Allan and Leslie Slan in Rehoboth, around Christmas 2022, in which someone strewed a newspaper across their lawn and neatly placed the obituary of a Jewish person, marked with the Star of David, next to a sign that said “Happy Hanukkah, Love and Light.”

“We realized: This is happening here,” Maloney said. “We’re trying to make sure hate doesn’t grow here, that people want to come here and feel safe.”

Speak Out Against Hate has five action groups, including faith, businesses, police, youth and schools and elected officials, and the leaders of each group reported on their progress at January’s meeting.

Nancy Clack leads the elected officials’ action group and said their first order of business was to ask all Sussex County legislators and mayors to sign a pledge to speak out against hate.

The pledge states: “There is no place for hate in Sussex County or the State of Delaware. Therefore I (name, office, district or town) pledge to speak out against hate publicly and to support legislation that is designed to hold individuals and other entities who express hate accountable for acts defined as a hate crime.”

After two rounds of attempts to contact Sussex’s 25 mayors, five senators and nine of 10 representatives (Ruth Briggs King had announced her intent to vacate her seat and Valerie Jones Giltner had not yet been elected), only one person, Mayor John Collier of Milton, has signed the pledge.

“In my opinion, there is nothing radical about that statement,” Clack said. “Signing this pledge is not a political opportunity. It’s what’s right to do.”

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on Sussex County and beyond. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hate crimes on the rise in Delaware, nationwide. Here are the numbers