In June, a Dallas man named Daniel Jenkins, 22, pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes. Together with others, he had targeted gay men for violent crimes, according to the US Department of Justice.
Jenkins and the others used the Grindr dating app to lure gay men into an empty apartment and other locations in Dallas for robbery, car theft, and hate crimes over the course of about a week in 2017. Hate crime in Texas and across the country has increased significantly since then, according to newly released US Department of Justice data, and Dallas is trying to do something about it.
Last week, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced the formation of a new advisory council to tackle this surge in hate crimes.
“We are now defined not by our departments, but by our idealism and our drive to improve Dallas for all of our residents,” Johnson said in a written statement. “But we are facing some headwinds that threaten to hinder this progress. Because in today’s world it has become too easy to hate. ”
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The Mayor’s Anti-Hate Advisory Board consists of 16 members who will work with the police and the city to fight hate crimes. Members are community, faith, and business leaders. The council will meet regularly to discuss ways to increase tolerance in Dallas. It will also work with the police to find ways to better respond and prevent hate crimes.
Johnson looked at groups across the country like the one in Austin, which launched in 2010, said Mayor’s spokesman Tristan Hallman. The mayor also chose the council because he wanted a permanent body instead of a task force.
Two weeks ago, the Justice Department released new data showing that hate crimes have increased by 42% across the country since 2014.
Dallas was not spared. In 2020, Dallas Police recorded 38 hate crimes. There have been 496 hate crimes in Texas, a significant increase since 2017 when there were 184. The groups most affected in 2020 included blacks, LGBTQ and Jewish people.
More transgender people were killed in the state between 2014 and 2019 than any other group, according to the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. HRC maintains a list of transgender people killed in the United States, and nearly half of all Texas murders occurred in Dallas. This includes two black transgender women: Malaysia Booker and Chynal Lindsey.
Most of the 10,952 incidents were intimidation. Other crimes included destruction and vandalism of property, simple and grievous bodily harm, and a range of other crimes.
“Hate has no home here in Dallas,” said CEO Gary Sanchez at a press conference last Wednesday. “Regardless of race, appearance, belief, or identity, everyone deserves to walk the streets of Dallas with a sense of security and respect.” Sanchez is also the chairman of the North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
“Hate has no home here in Dallas.” – Gary Sanchez, Anti-Hate Advisory Board
tweet that In June, a group was seen hanging a sign reading “White Lives Matter” on an overpass in Dallas and spreading propaganda such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) hatred, extremism, anti-Semitism, and terror card. In addition, recruiting material for the Texan group Patriot Front of White Supremacy appears in Dallas on a regular basis.
Cheryl R. Drazin, vice president of the ADL’s corporate division, noted that Dallas saw a 27% increase between 2019 and 2020 and said, “The need for advice makes a lot of sense.”
However, she believes the increase also suggests that people are more comfortable reporting hate crimes. “We know that hate crimes are very little reported across the country,” she said. “The fact that more and more authorities and cities are reporting the incidents is really beneficial to the communities they serve.”
Drazin knows the Austin Task Force that Johnson used as a role model for his advice.
“They bring different voices together to speak when hate crimes are committed against a community because hate crimes have a unique ability to affect both the victim and the community that the victim represents,” said Drazin. “So it’s really important to be able to offer unified support from a diverse community.”
Drazin said it was important that these councils and task forces work with local law enforcement agencies. “For example, ADL is constantly working with law enforcement agencies to identify and report hate crimes and identify community trends,” she said. “So some task forces can bring this expertise to their community to ensure their law enforcement teams have the best information.”
The members of the new Dallas Council hope they can change something. “We must work diligently to solve and eliminate hate and hate crimes here in our city,” said Sammie Berry, co-chair of the council, on Wednesday. “This advisory board provides an excellent forum for us to work with Mayor Johnson on these critical issues and to build a better Dallas.”
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