Hate crime reports spiked in Maryland by 40 percent between 2015 and 2016, with most reports occurring in the months before and after the Nov. 8, 2016 election, a Maryland State Police report said.
Nearly one-fifth of 2016 hate crime reports occurred in November. Nearly 50 percent happened in September, October, November and December.
Montgomery County police uncovered 73 reported hate crimes, including 14 assaults deemed hate crimes -- the highest in the state (Baltimore County reported 73 hate crimes and 13 bias-related assaults).
Local officials noticed the trend in November, but numbers continued to climb.
During the year, "Trump Nation Whites Only" was written on the sign of a church in Silver Spring. Swastikas were drawn on the walls of a boys' room at a middle school and scratched into the tile at a high school. In Burtonsville, the cars of Trump supporters were vandalized.
Police Chief Tom Manger also linked the hate crimes to the election.
"When the election occurred, I think that some folks saw themselves as winners, some folks saw themselves as losers and they decided to act out on that emotion that they were feeling," he said.
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Anne Arundel County ranked third, with 47 reported hate crimes. Howard county police reported 33 incidents. Prince George’s County residents reported 13 hate crimes.
Frederick, Carroll and Charles counties had 14 reported hate crimes combined.
The number of reported assaults related to hate or bias nearly doubled from the previous year.
Perpetrators brandished weapons were used in 33 reported hate crimes, including firearms, a car, an air-soft-fun, a broken beer bottle and a rock, police said. Two people were reported seriously injured.
Still, over 60 percent of the hate crimes reported were verbal attacks or vandalism-related, state police said.
A hate crime is defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation,” the report said.
Most reported hate crimes targeted people because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry.
African-American and white people are most likely to report being the target of hate or bias, but reports of intimidation toward Hispanic or Latino people more than quadrupled. Three hate crimes against Hispanics or Latinos were reported in 2015. Fourteen cases were reported in 2016.
White people were the target of 96 reported attacks, police said. White men reported more hate crimes than white women.
Black people were targeted in 111 reported attacks. Black women reported more hate crimes than black men.
Jewish and African-American people were reported being targeted the most. Over 50 percent of reported hate incidents were motivated by anti-Black or anti-Jewish sentiment, police said.
According to the report, 30 percent of offenders were white males -- more than any other group.
But many perpetrators of hate are never arrested, even if police have verified the reported crime was indeed rooted in hatred or violence.
Maryland police said they arrested 14.3 percent of perpetrators of verified hate crimes against people because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry. No arrests were made related to 108 verified reported hate crimes toward Marylanders because of the victim’s religious views, gender identity or sexual orientation.
Hate crimes were also responsible for over $33,000 worth of damage across Maryland, mostly to cars ($12,846) and churches of any denomination ($7,820).
Data suggests fewer unfounded reports of bias than verified ones. More than a third of hate crime reports are verified, and about 4.5 percent go unfounded. Nearly two-thirds are inconclusive.
Maryland State Police released a report Friday detailing the trend. Hate crimes increased between 2014 and 2015, the report shows.
Not every report of a hate crime can be considered a criminal offense, police said.
