ProPublica sent public-records requests to more than 50 police departments that reported anti-heterosexual hate crimes to the FBI. None of the reports we could track down actually included evidence of hate crimes against straight people.
by Rachel Glickhouse and Rahima Nasa
by Rachel Glickhouse and Rahima Nasa
Rob heard a loud knock at his door late one night in August 2014. His
landlord had been calling him about maintenance issues in his Columbus,
Ohio, apartment, but that night she came with a male companion and
began to scream at him. According to a police report, the man jumped
into the argument and threatened Rob — who asked that we not use his
full name — with a homophobic slur. Fearing an escalation, he called the
police.
“A thing that I’ve dealt with my entire life as a gay man is extreme
prejudice, from threats to constant harassment,” Rob said, noting that
his landlord had previously told his neighbors that he was a “filthy
queer.”
Columbus police acknowledged Rob’s concern that the incident may have
been motivated by bias, but they got a key detail wrong in their
incident report: They mistakenly marked it as a case of
anti-heterosexual harassment.
Since 2010, Columbus police have reported six incidents that list
bias against heterosexuals as the purported motivation. That’s more than
any other local law enforcement agency in the nation reported during
that period. Columbus Police Department Sgt. Dean Worthington
acknowledges it’s likely that the officers who filed the reports marked
the wrong box.
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Source: ProPublica
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