Middlesex County is “routinely recognized as one of the safest counties in the country,” District Attorney Marian Ryan said during a talk about hate crimes and incidents on Monday night in Lexington.
But that superlative doesn’t paint the full picture.
Hate incidents are very under-reported, the DA explained to the crowd of about 40 attendees at the Lexington Police station, even in a generally safe community like Lexington.
A hate crime is when someone commits a crime motivated by bigotry or bias. A hate incident is an action that is motivated by bigotry or bias, but is not a crime.
Ryan urged attendees to report incidents and lead by example during her talk, which was put on by the Lexington Human Rights Committee.
“There is a big role for the community in how they’re responsive,” Ryan reiterated to the crowd during her talk. “How do we take what has happened and try to build something better?”
Ryan kicked off her talk by explaining hate crimes in more detail:
Everyone in the US has the First Amendment right to free speech. But that doesn’t protect all speech — there is no hate speech exception in the constitution, but some types of hate speech, like harassment or incitement to violence, are not protected.
A hate crime is a criminal act motivated by bigotry or bias. Ryan gave the example of someone burning down a religious building because they disagree with the beliefs of those who practice that religion — burning down the building is a criminal act, and doing so because that person does not agree with those religious beliefs is a form of bigotry.
A hate incident is an action motivated by bigotry or bias, but is not a criminal act. Someone yelling a racial slur, for example, is an action motivated by bigotry, but is not a crime.
“I think we have many, many more of those,” Ryan argued.
There have been multiple reports of hate incidents in Lexington, mostly at the middle schools, over the past few years. In December, antisemitic and anti-Black graffiti was found in a Diamond Middle School bathroom.
Asked how hate incidents are addressed at school by an attendee, Lieutenant Detective Colleen Dunbar said LPD has two School Resource Officers at Lexington Public Schools whose job it is to address issues like hate speech. Those officers address issues with students at school first and make the decision to involve LPD detectives if appropriate. Dunbar said those two officers are some of the busiest at LPD.
To mitigate hate speech among children, Ryan said it’s important for adults to lead by example. She explained how a teen making a bigoted remark is a lot different from a 7-year-old doing the same thing. A teen is likely to copy behavior they see online but a young child is more likely to model their behavior after the adults in their lives, Ryan noted.
“We have to be adults…we need to be reflective,” The DA said. “The community needs to respond in an appropriate way.”
Bigotry does not end once children graduate to high school, however — hate incidents and crimes persist among adults, too, though they often aren’t reported.
“There should be a upstander culture in the workplace, not a bystander one,” Mamata Banerjee, a member of the Lexington Human Rights Committee, told the Observer at the event.
Ryan attributed under-reporting, in part, to people not believing reporting an incident will do anything, not knowing how to report an incident, being scared to report an incident, and coming from places around the world where the police aren’t as welcoming as they are in the States. She encouraged attendees to report both hate incidents and crimes during her talk, arguing that when people don’t report incidents, others don’t feel safe in their community.
“We hear deeply personal stories from community members, the superintendent, and law enforcement about incidents of hate and bias in our community,” LHRC Chair Christina Lin told the Observer. “We were grateful to have Lieutenant Dunbar coordinate and bring District Attorney Marian Ryan to Lexington to discuss the important distinction between hate crimes and hate incidents.”
Ryan’s office created the Anti-Hate Anti-Bias Task Force after hate crimes and incidents increased across Middlesex County following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. The force, which is made up of lawmakers, mayors, faith leaders, teachers, high school students, police, and residents, meets online periodically to discuss how to address hate in communities. Their meetings are open to the public.
Beyond responding to hate crimes and incidents specifically, Ryan argued people need to learn how to have disagreements with reverence.
“Respectful dialogue is huge,” she said. “We want people to be able to engage in conversation and be able to disagree.”
To report a hate crime or hate incident, residents should contact LPD. If the incident is an emergency, call 911. If it is not an emergency, call the department’s non-emergency line at (781) 862-1212. Residents can also fill out the town’s Bias Incident Report Form to get connected to help. Residents should also report hate crimes and incidents to the District Attorney’s office through its online form.
This article has been updated to clarify the section about hate speech and the first amendment.
“Everyone in the US has the First Amendment right to free speech. But that doesn’t protect all speech — hate speech is not protected.”
For better or for worse this is not true. There is no generalized hate speech exception to the first amendment. There are some limited first amendment exceptions that might sometimes apply to hate speech (e.g. true threats, incitement, harassment, defamation) but in general hateful speech is constitutionally protected.