"Zero tolerance": DOJ will ramp up federal prosecutions of anti-Semitic hate crimes, Barr says
U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday announced "zero-tolerance" for anti-Semitic hate crimes, saying the Justice Department will ramp up federal prosecutions against those who commit hate crimes targeting the Jewish community. The announcement comes the morning after the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Speaking ahead of a meeting with Jewish community leaders at the Boro Park Jewish Community Council in Brooklyn, Barr said he was "extremely distressed" by the increase in hate crimes targeting the Jewish community around the country.
"It strikes at the very core of what this country is about, and I've always felt it's particularly pernicious because it does target people based not only on their ethnicity but also on their religious practice," Barr said.
Tuesday morning, federal prosecutors in New York unsealed a criminal complaint filed earlier this month that charges New York woman Tiffany Harris with federal hate crimes after she allegedly slapped three Orthodox Jewish women who were walking down the street in Brooklyn.
The three separate attacks happened within blocks of each other during a ten-minute span on December 27, during the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. When Harris was arrested later that morning, she admitted attacking the three women while walking though "the Jewish neighborhood," the complaint said.
"She recalled slapping these women and cursing at them and also saying the words 'F-- you Jews,'" the complaint added.
Barr indicated that this would be the first of many prosecutions brought by the federal government under the new Justice Department directive.
While states remain the primary prosecutors of hate crimes, state hate crime laws vary widely. Some do not include protections for victims targeted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity — and four states have no hate crime statutes at all.
The Department of Justice can act as a backstop to fill the gap where states can't or won't prosecute. For a state like New York, which already has strong hate crime laws, a parallel prosecution by the Department of Justice can mean additional federal penalties for defendants already charged at the local level, such as Harris.
"These are the kinds of cases that maybe in the past would have been treated locally, but I think it's important for the federal government to plant its flag and show zero tolerance," Barr said. "This will not be an isolated case — we will move aggressively when we see this type of activity."
Barr said he's issued a written directive to U.S. attorney's offices nationwide to initiate or enhance outreach with local Jewish communities and create a point of contact for reporting hate crimes.
According to the FBI, hate crime incidents targeting Jews and Jewish institutions in the U.S. spiked about 37% between 2016 and 2017 before dropping slightly in 2018, the most recent year for which federal hate crime data is available.
According to the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) most recent "Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States," there were 1,879 incidents in 2018, including the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that claimed 11 lives. According to the FBI, hate-motivated murders reached a 27-year high in 2018 with 24 people killed, including those slain at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
Police in New York City said anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 26% between 2018 and 2019. The community is still reeling from a deadly attack on a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, New Jersey, that killed four victims, and a stabbing that wounded five during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York.
Speaking with community leaders after the public announcement, Barr said he would look into additional steps to combat violence targeted at houses of worship.
Boro Park Jewish Community Council executive director Rabbi Avi Greenstein called the meeting with Barr "historic" and said it will have an impact on Jewish communities grappling with an increase in hate crimes. Greenstein called for a "proactive, not reactive" approach and a follow-up meeting to assess progress.