Discussion: Hate Crimes and Extremism--the Montgomery County Model

Tune in to County Cable Montgomery tomorrow at about 11:00 for our discussion called “Hate Crimes and Extremism—the Montgomery County Model.” A panel that will include Police Chief Tom Manger will address County and community efforts to prevent both hate crimes and extremism. Don't worry if you aren't able to watch live; the session will be available on demand about 24 hours later.

In 2016, there were 94 reported bias incidents, which is an increase of 42.4 percent over 2015 (66). Of these, 34 percent were reported in November and December.

In 2016, the primary bias motivation was religious bias (40.4 percent of incidents), followed by racial bias (36.2 percent of incidents). The remaining 22 incidents were motivated by biases against ethnicity (12), sexual orientation (6) and gender (4). Of those motivated by race, most were anti-black bias incidents. Those motivated by religion mostly were anti-Jewish. Schools were the targets of 21 incidents: six in elementary schools, two in middle schools, 11 in high schools and two at Montgomery College.

Since many of the bias incidents occurred in the schools, the panel will discuss what steps Montgomery County Public Schools is taking to help reduce the number of incidents. The involvement of School Resource Officers—police officers based in schools—also will be explored.