Friend,

The FBI’s 2023 Hate Crime Statistics Act report shows the number of hate crimes reaching an all-time high, up by 60% in the last five years. The report, which documented 11,862 hate crimes, included significant increases in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim crimes. Disturbingly, hate crimes increased last year following 2022’s record-breaking report.

The FBI defines hate crime as a criminal offense motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity. Most of the hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2023 were intimidation, destruction of property or assault. All inflict pain and terror onto our communities, causing irreparable harm to victims and those around them.

Unfortunately, the FBI’s report cannot accurately tell these victims’ stories.

Hate crime reporting came from 16,009 participating law enforcement agencies (out of more than 18,800 federal state, local and tribal agencies nationwide), a five-year trend of declining police participation. While the report shows a welcome uptick in the number of law enforcement agencies that are participating in the FBI’s data collection, the picture is still incomplete.

Far too many agencies, including many in the Deep South that serve large populations, do not report credible data, thereby erasing the grave harms of these crimes — especially on Black, Latinx, Asian, Jewish, LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities. That’s why urging Congress to make hate crime reporting mandatory for law enforcement agencies across the country is such an important pillar of Hate Crimes Awareness Month (HCAM).

The SPLC is at the forefront of the push for credible hate crime reporting to the FBI and meaningful hate crime prevention, outreach and awareness. Friend, will you make a special gift before the end of HCAM to support this critical work?

This Hate Crimes Awareness Month, please join us in calling on Congress to:

• Make Hate Crime Reporting Mandatory. We’re leading the advocacy for an important new bipartisan bill — the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act (HR 7648) — that would condition federal funding for law enforcement agencies serving populations over 100,000 people on credible reporting of hate crimes.

• Fund Prevention Initiatives. Federal agencies should establish and fund programs to build community resiliency against hate, to inoculate against extremism and to empower adults to help steer young people away from violent extremism.

• Increase Interagency Coordination Against Hate. Congress should enact legislation to institutionalize President Biden’s United We Stand Summit commitment to establish an interagency initiative on hate crimes.

• Address White Supremacy in Federal Law Enforcement. Congress should pass legislation to combat the hiring and retention of law enforcement officials who actively promote white supremacist beliefs.

At the end of the day, the law is a blunt instrument against hate.

Hate crimes aren’t a malady, they are a symptom of a sickness in our society. And they will not be solved — they cannot be solved — without curing that sickness. And that’s what makes our comprehensive work against hate so vital.

We’re hopeful that you agree, and will send a special gift of $15, $25, $75, or whatever amount is right for you, in observance of HCAM.

Thank you for embracing our diversity as our greatest strength. People like you who share an extraordinary commitment to justice and human rights make this work possible.

Sincerely,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center