By AlaskaWatchman.com

In line with President Joe Biden’s aim to crack down on hate crimes across the nation, the FBI office in Anchorage has joined a national campaign to “build public awareness of hate crimes and to encourage reporting to law enforcement.”

An Oct. 4 notice from Anchorage FBI Public Affairs Officer Chloe Matin says the campaign will include a statewide PR push on television, radio and websites in hopes of increasing hate crime reports.

“All Alaskans should be able to thrive in our communities without fear that their skin color, what they believe, or who they love, makes them a target for violence,” said Antony Jung, special agent in charge of the FBI Anchorage Field Office. “The FBI hopes this campaign will encourage victims and witnesses to come forward, which will strengthen our ability to solve hate crimes, bring criminals to justice, and provide support to victims.”

According to the FBI notice, hate crimes are criminal offenses that are “motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”

With regards to hate crime allegations, critics note the problem of lumping “sexual orientation and gender identity” in with objective and immutable classifications like race, sex and national origin when prosecuting hate crimes. A key concern is that such legislation often uses a person’s religious views about traditional marriage and human sexuality to increase sentences when a crime is committed.

Others note that the focus should be on the crime itself, not religious, political or social views that the government deems unacceptable.

This latest push to increase hate crime reporting comes on the heels of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland directing the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to investigate alleged threats against school board officials by parents who are upset by leftist curriculum, COVID shutdowns and mask mandates in local schools.

Earlier this year, the Dept. of Justice gave the City of Juneau a $34,000 grant to train local police officers on how to identify and fight hate crime. It is part of a nationwide push from the Biden Administration to re-educate law enforcement agencies to eliminate behavior that it considers “rooted in hate.”

According to the FBI’s 2019 statistics, there were only 11 hate crimes reported throughout Alaska in 2019.

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FBI wants to increase hate crimes reporting in Alaska

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


19 Comments

  • Steve Peterson says:

    The hate crime is the FBI persecuting average citizens, like the Huepers, while letting anarchists go free.

  • Richard Corbeil says:

    Hate crimes are funny. Not funny “ha ha” but rather funny in a confusing way. For example, calling a person a racial slur is a hate crime, but murder is not.

  • Common Peasant says:

    I think we may see more FBI agents in the street causing trouble just so they can have a crime to “solve”.

    • Lowly Commoner says:

      Absolutely right. The FBI is now just in charge of instigating crimes to try and make us (the right) look bad.

  • Aaron Blumenthal says:

    What is hate crime? All of you who’s saying Jesus Christ was not a messiah is committing a hate crime. Right? So why is racial slur is a hate crime, but mocking christians is not?

  • Lobo says:

    It just crossed my mind… Will the FBI attempt to use this against citizens voicing dissent at school board, and city council meetings ? Maybe not, but, nothing that the Justice Department does now, surprises me.

  • Andy says:

    After the FBI’s actions the last 4 years? How rich.

  • G Aleution says:

    What you concentrate on you make more of. What do you want?

  • yearight says:

    yawn. there are more fake ‘hate crimes’ now than real ones.

  • Doug glenn says:

    And after James the sleeze bag comey who trusts the FBI. Seriously. Our society works on trust & I do not trust any of these bastards anymore. It’s unfortunate the FBI used to be the shining star in law enforcement.

  • Doug glenn says:

    And after James the sleeze bag comey who trusts the FBI. Seriously. Our society works on trust & I do not trust any of these bastards anymore. It’s unfortunate the FBI used to be the shining star in law enforcement.

  • Proud Alaskan says:

    Big brother watching over us.

  • Mike+Moore says:

    The FBI, has too much time on their hands since the government created homeland Security. Just anther redundancy in our government. So now they want to create more crimes so they can be involved. Make no mistake this is typical federal government over reach. A hate crime is just tagging an existing crime because the person who committed the crime had an opinion that was not popular with society in general. However, when targeting people for having an opinion becomes illegal, we lose free speech, and freedom of choice. As an American you are guaranteed freedom of speech whether people like it or not. An Opinion is part of your freedom. Your choice to like or dislike whom you wish for any reason part of that freedom. Now, if you commit a crime based on that opinion you have committed a crime period, not because of that opinion. Think about it, If I were to dislike liberals and Democrats, will we soon classify that as a hate crime if I punch one in the mouth? I’ve committed a crime based on my opinion, and I will have to deal with the the crime alone and it’s consequences, without regard to whether I liked or dislike the person. We head down a slippery slope when we base the severity of a crime based on opinion or freedom of speech and expression. We have more than enough laws on the books to hold people accountable for committing crimes. The thought that you will have added consequences because of an opinion is not only absurd, but it flies in the face of our basic freedoms of speech and opinion. You can’t legislate morality, nor should you. The FBI tried that during Prohibition, and we all know how well that turned out. It’s time to step back and look at what laws the government continues to manufacture that impose on your basic freedoms.
    It’s time to take hate crimes off the books altogether rather than enhance the chipping away of our freedoms.

  • ML Moore says:

    The FBI, has too much time on their hands since the government created homeland Security. Just anther redundancy in our government. So now they want to create more crimes so they can be involved. Make no mistake this is typical federal government over reach. A hate crime is just tagging an existing crime because the person who committed the crime had an opinion that was not popular with society in general. However, when targeting people for having an opinion becomes illegal, we lose free speech, and freedom of choice. As an American you are guaranteed freedom of speech whether people like it or not. An Opinion is part of your freedom. Your choice to like or dislike whom you wish for any reason part of that freedom. Now, if you commit a crime based on that opinion you have committed a crime period, not because of that opinion. Think about it, If I were to dislike liberals and Democrats, will we soon classify that as a hate crime if I punch one in the mouth? I’ve committed a crime based on my opinion, and I will have to deal with the the crime alone and it’s consequences, without regard to whether I liked or dislike the person. We head down a slippery slope when we base the severity of a crime based on opinion or freedom of speech and expression. We have more than enough laws on the books to hold people accountable for committing crimes. The thought that you will have added consequences because of an opinion is not only absurd, but it flies in the face of our basic freedoms of speech and opinion. You can’t legislate morality, nor should you. The FBI tried that during Prohibition, and we all know how well that turned out. It’s time to step back and look at what laws the government continues to manufacture that impose on your basic freedoms.
    It’s time to take hate crimes off the books altogether rather than enhance the chipping away of our freedoms.

  • Herman Nelson says:

    “FBI” is just another word for “gestapo”.

  • Got Your Number says:

    What about the hate crimes the FBI caused while supporting the Jan 6th things. They orchestrated the whole thing. Now they want to have card blanch to start doing that here.

  • Jon and Ruth Ewig says:

    Obama’s FBI and Justice Department should be ashamed. They have set up more “stings” that we will ever know. We do know they setup President Trump’s peaceful march in DC, , and also another sting to make it seem as though people were bothering Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmore. They also flew up to Fairbanks to cause problems for the late Senator Ted Stevens when he was alive whom they smeared because as head Senae he had the power to block Obamacare. Complicated but we agree that they serve as the Gestapo for the present administration as well as the Obama administration..

  • Ruth Ewig says:

    It is really sad that the media is so deceptive about what is going on, at all levels. There is no such thing as investigative reporting. Investigative reporting would help We the People to know the Truth.