Concern over hate crimes grows in Michigan after New Zealand attacks
The attack on two mosques in New Zealand this month by a white supremacist, and the FBI's most recent statistics showing an increase in hate crimes, have renewed concern in Michigan about racial violence.
Civil rights advocates are asking local and federal authorities to take a more proactive stance on fighting hate crimes and investigating white nationalist groups that they say pose a growing threat. Some groups have raised concern that federal investigators are not taking seriously the threat of bigoted violence.
"They need to send a strong message that the law will protect all people regardless of religion, race, or creed," said Nabih Ayad, a Detroit civil rights attorney and founder of the Arab American Civil Rights League in Dearborn. "We need to keep an eye out on these hate groups. ... It's unacceptable."
Before the New Zealand attacks, the State of Michigan announced two new programs to combat hate crimes. State Attorney General Dana Nessel said earlier this month she has launched a new hate crimes unit within her office's criminal division to prosecute crimes motivated by bias. And the state Department of Civil Rights Director, Agustin Arbulu, said last month his department plans to start documenting hate and bias incidents that don't rise to the level of a crime or civil infraction.
Speaking inside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn two days after the New Zealand attack that killed 50 Muslim worshippers, Nessel said that she created a hate crimes unit to deal with what she called the "dark cloud" of growing bigotry causing "fear here in America and here in Michigan."...
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