U.S. Attorney in Detroit kicks off new hate crime education campaign
Dawn Ison holds hate crime education seminar
The U.S. Attorney was in Detroit Wednesday for a seminar on educating the public about hate crimes. It's part of a partnership with the Urban League of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - As the U.S. Attorney puts it, first they start with a crime. And if the motivation for the crime is hate, it equals a hate crime.
It may seem like simple math, but baked into underbelly of prosecuting and investigating those crimes is a slew of factors that must be considered. For Dawn Ison, educating the public on how to identify and report those instances is vital.
"We have certainly seen a rise in hate crimes and we are going to respond to it at the US Attorneys' Office," she said.
Ison, who heads the Eastern District of Detroit's justice department office, held a seminar Wednesday at a Baptist church to with lessons for the community in hopes they can respond to the dangerous trend.
Part of the conference was giving the public scenarios and interacting with them. It helps support the United Against Hate campaign the DOJ is running.
"We have a lot of people who suffer in silence whether it be in the workplace, or in neighborhood or some businesses that they have visited and racism and hate crimes, are proliferating in our society," said Charles Anderson, CEO of Urban Leage of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan.
The Urban League of Detroit has partnered with the justice department in its mission.
The goal has gained new relevance with multiple hate crime incidents in Michigan in the past few months. That includes a 35-year-old woman who spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti on a Royal Oak synagogue. She was arrested and charged with ethnic intimidation.
And then last month, a 19-year-old man from Upper Peninsula was arrested after plotting to shoot up a synagogue in East Lansing.
While those two incidents are notable, they're far from the only cases that residents say they've experienced.
Leontyne Holmes says she's experienced it before. "(there's) Different forms of victimization," she said.
Organizers say it’s crucial that people who believe they are the victim of a hate crime speak up and report it. They can do so to the civil rights hotline put up by the U.S. Attorney at 313-226-9151.