A hate crime is defined as a violent crime committed against another person because of their race, color or religion.
During the pandemic, Michigan State Police began tracking what it calls “hate bias incidents” against police officers.
Krystal Nurse is a diversity and inclusion reporter at the Lansing State Journal who recently wrotea story on this development. WKAR's Megan Schellong spoke with Nurse now to discuss her findings.
Interview Highlights
On Michigan State Police's justification for tracking "hate bias incidents" against law enforcement
They had told me that the reason why they were tracking these sorts of incidents as “anti-police hate crimes” was because they wanted to learn a bit more about the purpose behind crimes, why people commit some crimes and also how to address these sorts of crimes properly. And they started doing that in late 2020, as you said earlier. With that, because they started so late in 2020, they only recorded 10 incidents. However, when they recorded a full year in 2021, they tracked 148 instances across the state of Michigan, where someone was told in a police report that they had committed a crime with an “anti-police bias.”
On the most surprising finding she found during her reporting
There's a whole slew of other crimes that the state police has said had an “anti-police bias.” And so those crimes go between non-aggravated assault, damage to property, intimidation/ stalking, weapons offense concealed, larceny, embezzlement and so many others where you're trying to think, how is this a crime against police to where this constitutes as an anti-police bias?
On what critics are saying about this type of tracking
One critic I spoke to was Chris Williams, he's a University of Chicago sociology doctoral student. For Chris, he said that it's jarring because the fact that when you go home, you can remove yourself as a police officer, but you can't remove yourself from your race, you can't remove yourself from your religion or any other protected class.
Interview Transcript
Megan Schellong: On the show today, we’re talking about hate crimes.
A hate crime is defined as a violent crime committed against another person because of their race, color and religion.
It can also include crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation and gender.
During the pandemic, Michigan State Police began tracking what it calls “hate bias incidents” against police officers.
Krystal Nurse is a diversity and inclusion reporter at the Lansing State Journal and brought us this report.
She joins us now to discuss her findings.
Krystal, thanks for your time today.
Krystal Nurse: Thank you for having me.
Schellong: So, tell us a little backstory. What was the impetus for MSP to start tracking what it calls these “hate bias incidents” against police?
[The Michigan State Police] wanted to learn a bit more about the purpose behind crimes, why people commit some crimes and also how to address these sorts of crimes properly.
Nurse: Yeah, so they had told me that the reason why they were tracking these sorts of incidents as “anti-police hate crimes” was because they wanted to learn a bit more about the purpose behind crimes, why people commit some crimes and also how to address these sorts of crimes properly. And they started doing that in late 2020, as you said earlier.
With that, because they started so late in 2020, they only recorded 10 incidents. However, when they recorded a full year in 2021, they tracked 148 instances across the state of Michigan, where someone was told in a police report that they had committed a crime with an “anti-police bias.”
Schellong: Okay, so this report comes at a time of ongoing scrutiny of police across the nation, as we're looking at incidents of police brutality. So, what is Michigan State Police’s argument for tracking these incidents?
The difference in that Michigan is doing this compared to other states is that no one can be tried in court for a “hate crime against police” because of the fact that Michigan does not have any sort of criminal code against this.
Nurse: So, like I said before, they're trying to do is to better understand crime and how crime basically happens in the state of Michigan. And the difference in that Michigan is doing this compared to other states is that no one can be tried in court for a “hate crime against police” because of the fact that Michigan does not have any sort of criminal code against this.
Michigan so far in my research is the only one to have done this without any sort of legislation. Legislators in Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas have all ... passed bills, and those governors have signed those bills into law, making it a hate crime to target someone because of their vocation, as a law enforcement officer, EMT or firefighter Michigan had that sort of bill come through the legislature before. However, it failed.
Schellong: Gotcha. So, I want to ask what was the most surprising finding or figure in your reporting?
Nurse: So, what's so surprising in this is that there's a whole slew of other crimes that the state police has said had an “anti-police bias.” And so those crimes go between non-aggravated assault, damage to property, intimidation/ stalking, weapons offense concealed, larceny, embezzlement and so many others where you're trying to think, how is this a crime against police to where this constitutes as an anti-police bias?
I had asked that question to Michigan State Police, and their justification is that they don't specifically say that those crimes are anti-police. They collect that data from other reporting agencies across the state of Michigan.
And it's as simple as if there is believed to be at least 50% of bias in a crime that's committed, they can tag it and say, okay, there was bias. And that's from 50% to wholly committed by bias. And then after that, they can select from a drop-down list of, of a bias whether it's race, gender, sexuality, religion and disability and all these other sorts of stuff.
Schellong: Skeptics question whether the MSP statistics are being used to harm people of color and people who are protected by the Elliot Larson Civil Rights Act. What else have you been hearing from critics?
Nurse: Yeah, so one critic I spoke to was Chris Williams, he's a University of Chicago sociology doctoral student.
For Chris, he said that it's jarring because the fact that when you go home, you can remove yourself as a police officer, but you can't remove yourself from your race, you can't remove yourself from your religion or any other protected class.
For Chris, he said that it's jarring because the fact that when you go home, you can remove yourself as a police officer, but you can't remove yourself from your race, you can't remove yourself from your religion or any other protected class.
And so, he said that part of what this does is that it dilutes the power of hate crimes, and it makes it so that anyone can be a part of a hate crime statute which really diminishes the whole purpose of why we have these hate crimes.
Schellong: Exactly, and as you were alluding to these four other states, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, they all have expressed intent on sharing their data with the FBI, based on the experts you spoke with, how likely is it that Michigan is going to be sharing its data with the federal government and FBI and what are the implications of that?
Nurse: Yeah. So to clarify, when Michigan does send over their crime reporting to the FBI, these crimes are not sent over with the “anti-law enforcement bias.”
However, the Michigan State Police has told me that the FBI could be looking into tracking this sort of data and to collect it in the near future, which is pretty troubling because of the fact that we already have laws in place where you can't attack a police officer, you can't obstruct justice, those laws are already in place.
But when you start to track the sorts of things under hate crimes, it starts to create this gray area as to like what is a hate crime? And it starts to confuse people as like okay, "Is it considered hate crime now to be like, you're at a protest and you say an expletive against police, can you be charged with a hate crime?" Short answer is no. But for the future that answer could be yes.
Schellong: Krystal Nurse is a diversity and inclusion reporter at the Lansing State Journal. She brought us this report of Michigan State Police tracking what it calls “hate bias incidents” against law enforcement. Krystal, thanks for your time.
Nurse: Thank you for having me.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.