FBI report: Hate crimes up 42 percent in Washington state
Hate crimes in Seattle and throughout Washington were drastically up in 2017 -- even when compared with the rest of the country.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its 2017 hate crime statistics Tuesday, showing a 17 percent increase in hate crimes across the country last year compared to 2016, with law enforcement agencies reporting a total of 7,175 hate crimes in 2017 and 6,121 in 2016.
Some Washington cities, and the state as a whole, saw an even greater increase than that.
Washington state reported 443 hate crimes total in 2017, up 42 percent from the 311 crimes reported in 2016. It should also be noted that three more Washington agencies contributed hate crime data to the FBI in 2017 compared to 2016.
Seattle nearly doubled the number of reported crimes, with 234 in 2017 and 118 in 2016. Seattle tops the list for number of hate crimes reported, which should be expected as it has by far the largest population.
Spokane, the state's second-most populous city, saw reported hate crimes increase three-fold, with eight crimes reported in 2016 and 28 in 2017, making it the city with the second highest number of reported hate crimes in the state.
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/crime/article/Hate-crime-Seattle-Washington-42-percent-FBI-13388661.php