Hate crime panel witnesses demand more resources

Community leaders and local law enforcement officials on Tuesday testified they need more resources to respond to hate crimes amid an uptick in antisemitic rhetoric and threats to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, whose Texas synagogue became the scene of a hostage situation in January, told lawmakers during a Senate hearing on rising hate crimes that more funding was needed to enhance security for synagogues.

“It is horrible that we live in a world where our children, as a part of their normal lives, have lockdown drills. That’s a horrible thing,” Cytron-Walker said. “And yet that’s the reality that we live in, and we have to respond to that reality. And we need everything from, again, especially in smaller congregations like mine, funds for security officers, funds for security cameras that are up to date, that are digital as opposed to analog, that are high-quality.”

Orlando Martinez, a detective and hate crimes coordinator at the Los Angeles Police Department, said the agency did not have enough employees to monitor and identify hate crimes.

“One of the things that law enforcement does not do well is being proactive and having those resources to be proactive and to try to prevent these things before they happen would be a great help,” Martinez said.

“One of the things that we do not have is manpower,” he said later. “In Los Angeles, we partner with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and they are wonderful at patrolling the internet and bringing things to our attention that maybe our analysts miss. The more eyes the better.”

Federal officials say houses of worship and HBCUs are among the institutions that have been targets of bomb threats. The FBI said last month that 57 institutions had been targeted, including 17 HBCUs.

Meanwhile, data from the ADL earlier this month found a 27 percent increase in antisemitic speech in 2021. 

After the hostage crisis situation in Colleyville, Texas, the Department of Homeland Security issued a terrorism advisory bulletin that said the U.S. “remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors,” including calls for violence against faith-based institutions and racial and religious minorities. 

Walter Kimbrough, the president of the historically Black Dillard University, said the number of bomb threats with no devices found forced colleges to make difficult decisions on how to protect their campuses going forward.

“To date, there have been no bombs found, not even any evidence of a plan to actually bomb an institution. Due to the high number of threats, local agencies in some cities have modified their response. This new response now includes the elimination of bomb sweeps due to a lack of resources to conduct sweeps, or based on the high volume of hoaxes against HBCUs nationwide,” Kimbrough testified. 

“Some campuses have not benefited from full sweeps and are left to determine an all clear using their campus police and facilities teams. We are more vulnerable now than at the beginning of the threats,” he said.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said during the hearing he would be introducing legislation to triple federal funding for security grants for nonprofits, such as religious institutions.