At the end of November, the New Hope Church in Wayne, Michigan, was vandalized.
Under the cover of darkness, and not far from the Police Department, vandals last week shattered nearly a dozen windows and kicked in doors at the brick-bordered former Burger King building the church acquired in recent years, Humes said. They also are believed to have damaged a handle and lock on a church vehicle nearby. [...]
Those incidents had particular significance for the church, whose membership has long been predominantly African-American and, participants recently wrote, “feels strongly about the need to uplift a unified voice against racism, hate and terrorism.”
But this is not some isolated incident in Michigan, or around the country for that matter, these days. As USA Today reports, according to the FBI hate crimes in Michigan have jumped this year.
Hate crimes reported to police jumped 29.1% from 309 to 399 last year in Michigan, which had the fourth-highest number among all states in the U.S., according to data released Nov. 13 by the FBI.
The 29.1% increase in Michigan was much greater than the 4.6% increase nationally from 2015 to 2016, from 5,850 reported hate crimes to 6,121,the data showed.
Advocates also point out there are law enforcement agencies that don’t even report hate crimes and so the numbers in Michigan are likely higher. Also reported last year, was a “spike” in the final quarter of the year. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to locate the variable/s that may have helped produce this rise in violence.