‘Not as safe as we thought.’ Here are the groups most targeted in hate crimes in Tacoma
The number of suspected hate crimes in Tacoma has increased over the past decade, reaching its highest point last year in large part due to a dramatic rise in offenses tied to anti-gay and -lesbian sentiment, according to an analysis of city and police data by The News Tribune.
In 2014, the earliest year tracked by the data, there were 10 recorded offenses in the city that indicated a “hate bias” toward members of a specific group on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation, the data shows. Last year, the overall figure was 60.
Forty-two, or more than two-thirds of those crimes from 2023, targeted members of the LGBTQ+ community, representing a significant increase from years prior, including the nine recorded in 2022, the analysis showed. The previous high for such offenses was 14 in 2016, according to the data.
“It’s disturbing and unfortunately not surprising,” Matthew Wilson, executive director of Oasis Youth Center, an LGBTQ+ youth advocacy organization in Tacoma, told The News Tribune.
The increasing number of offenses perpetrated against members of the LGBTQ+ community last year came as Tacoma police investigated a rash of Pride flag thefts in the city. There were at least nine thefts reported over one weekend in June. Police Department data showed that 35 offenses last year determined to have anti-LGBTQ+ bias were related to property destruction or theft.
TPD spokesperson detective William Muse told The News Tribune on March 7 that, to the best of his knowledge, the department hadn’t identified any suspect(s) in the thefts.
“I think that after we gained marriage equality, and there was a lot more acceptance in the community, I think we felt a sense of safety that was maybe a little false or superficial or not as safe as we thought,” Tacoma-based Rainbow Center interim director Jayla Watje said in an interview.
As overall numbers of suspected hate crimes rise, Muse and LGBTQ+ advocates noted their beliefs that last year’s uptick was an extension of a divisive political climate across the country. There was a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced in the United States in 2023, according to media reports.
Still, the figures maintained by the city likely don’t tell the whole story.
“I think a lot of times that these are under-reported crimes,” Muse said.
Muse, in part, attributed increases seen in the data to raised public awareness, including media attention, saying that people were more likely to report such offenses when the crimes get publicized. He said it is important that offenses get disclosed because police take them seriously and want to stop them.
There remains a level of trepidation and historic mistrust among LGBTQ+ community members when it comes to interacting with law enforcement. Watje said members often don’t feel comfortable going to the police to report incidents. Wilson said his organization works with victims who either distrust police or quit halfway through the process because it can be an ordeal.
Tacoma police launched a Safe Place initiative in January 2023 to address hate crimes, joining nearly 300 other law enforcement agencies. The initiative essentially formalized TPD’s commitment to investigating all hate crimes and enabled participating schools, businesses and organizations to put up window decals that reflected their own vows to fight hate in the community.
Senate Bill 5427, which passed the Washington state Legislature last month, would create a statewide hate crimes hotline. The bill was awaiting Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature as of March 8. The hotline, which would be implemented by the state Attorney General’s Office by 2027, would be tested in at least three counties. Office spokesman Dan Jackson told The News Tribune that the pilot counties have yet to be determined.
“We must stand up to the hate crimes targeting Washington communities,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a press release in late February.
Groups harassed, property damaged
In the past decade, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Black sentiment has been most prevalent in fueling bias-related offenses in Tacoma, according to The News Tribune’s analysis of 227 suspected hate crimes recorded in the city between 2014 and 2023.
There were 83 offenses that indicated anti-LGBTQ+ bias and 63 that indicated anti-Black bias, the data showed. Anti-white (21), anti-American Indian or Alaskan Native (15) and anti-Hispanic (10) were among other sentiments most frequently connected to crimes.
Most often, suspected hate crimes were related to malicious harassment — essentially threatening someone because of bias — and property damage or vandalism, the analysis showed.
There were 68 offenses tied to malicious harassment, 64 to property destruction, 29 to simple assault, 16 to theft and 12 to assault with a gun or other weapon, according to the data.
The data maintained by the city represented offenses that indicated a “hate bias,” which Muse confirmed was synonymous to the colloquial term, “hate crime.” The data did not reflect the number of incidents, meaning that multiple crimes could appear on a single police report, according to the data’s summary page.
Muse said determining whether an offense satisfied the elements of a hate crime could sometimes be tricky and, like all other crimes, required investigation. He provided an example of someone spray-painting a swastika on a wall. Police have to uncover evidence that such an action, which otherwise could be covered by freedom of speech, was meant to target or intimidate a victim.
“It can be so difficult to prove,” he said of hate crimes.
In conducting its analysis, The News Tribune pulled hate-bias figures from the city’s open data portal that covered 2014 through July and combined that with hate bias data from TPD’s online crime dashboard to ascertain figures from July to current day.
The News Tribune also classified “anti-LGBTQ+” as any of a handful of individual data categories logged by the city and police: anti-gay and-lesbian, anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-gender non-conforming and anti-transgender.
Muse, who is Black and a nearly 30-year veteran of the department, said that whether it was race, gender or sexual preference being targeted, “nobody likes being victimized.”
“Nobody likes being marginalized and singled out,” he said.
According to Muse, TPD has done everything within its power to partner with people to ensure they feel represented and heard. While he acknowledged there still is work to do, he said people should feel comfortable in collaborating with the department to combat hate crimes.
It will take time for trust to be built, Wilson said, and seeing hate crimes addressed and a hotline established can help but, too often, the burden falls on the victim to right a wrong. He said he hoped revealing figures on hate crimes might galvanize broader community action, including expanding the discussion about what could be done to make people feel more welcomed.
“The best for people in our community to do is to just continue to be an ally where they can,” Watje said. “And what that means, really, is to actively engage in supporting, and creating, and having safe spaces for queer people and, even more intensely, queer youth.”
While Watje’s organization, like Wilson’s, is working to support an often marginalized community, “there’s only so much we can do in our small sphere of control,” she said.
This story was originally published March 11, 2024 at 5:15 AM.
