This piece was originally published in Cleveland Scene and appears here with permission.
Ohio House Bill 157 could establish a Bureau of Hate Crimes in the Attorney General’s Office dedicated to both solving and deterring hate crimes.
“Ultimately, this comes out of concern and overall concern about a rise in hate crimes, and particularly in Ohio, and fears and concerns that I’ve heard from many different communities,” said Representative Casey Weinstein, one of the bill’s sponsors.
The bureau would make crimes motivated by actual or perceived race, ethnicity, color, nation of origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity fall under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General.
An entity dedicated specifically to hate crimes could be impactful in the state, advocates say. Ohio has in recent years seen a surge in anti-semitic incidents and white supremicist groups, according to the ADL, and Cleveland has seen an alarming rise in violence against transgender people. Most recently, an Ohio man was charged with a federal hate crime for fire-bombing the Chesterland church that was set to host a drag queen story hour this spring.
“There are a lot of different communities that are feeling vulnerable right now,” Weinstein said, “And I want to make sure they know we have resources that are going to be proactively reaching out to them to assist and prevent [hate crimes].”
Although hate crime statistics in Ohio are lacking, with only 597 of 862 law enforcement agencies (less than 70%) reporting hate crime data, experts say the picture is even less clear because many hate crimes are never reported to begin with.
According to the Northeastern Institute on Race and Justice, fear of persecution or reprisal, low conviction rates and difficulty proving bias-motivation all contribute to underreporting of hate crimes.
From the 597 Ohio law enforcement agencies that did provide hate crime data, more than 500 hate crimes were reported in Ohio in both 2020 and 2021. For comparison, in 2019 less than 400 hate crimes were reported, although numbers are likely higher.
“We should be leading and providing more resources and making it clear that hate has no home in Ohio and instead there’s just a complete lack of leadership from the Attorney General’s Office on this,” Weinstein said.
Weinstein says that, in addition to raising awareness and deterrence, he believes creating the bureau would help encourage reporting through outreach.
The bill’s been introduced in the House Committee on State and Local Government and has garnered support from 14 representatives in addition to Weinstein, but it’s unclear if the bill will advance.
“It should be a no-brainer, but there’s a lot of common sense legislation that doesn’t move, unfortunately, in the house,” said Weinstein. “We started early. We’re in committee. I’m hopeful that we’ll get a hearing soon and build some momentum from there.” 🔥
Know an LGBTQ+ Ohio story we should cover? TELL US!
Submit a story!
