hate crimes

John Kass: Investigate the Jussie Smollet hate crime hoax and the prosecutor who tried to cover it up.

As Glenelg principal, David Burton believes it’s his calling to make sure everybody feels a sense of belonging at Howard County’s least diverse high school.

By Jess Nocera

May 24, 2019

A gay pride flag outside an LGBTQ-themed shop in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood was burned Saturday in a hate crime, the owner said.

By Colin Campbell

May 8, 2019

Gov. Larry Hogan is scheduled to sign about 200 bills, including measures the General Assembly passed to reform the University of Maryland Medical System board of directors, allow the private Johns Hopkins University to create a police force, and establish a Maryland Freedom of the Press Day.

By Scott Dance

Apr 18, 2019

Among nearly 200 bills Gov. Larry Hogan has signed into law, Maryland will honor journalists with "Freedom of the Press Day" on June 28. That's the anniversary of a shooting at The Capital newspaper in Annapolis that killed five employees. Maryland has 23 other commemorative periods.

By Pamela Wood

Apr 18, 2019

The General Assembly has expanded its definition of hate crimes and is making the state look at its racist past, steps that are necessary amid the proliferation of intolerance since Trump's election.

The final two teens who were charged with hate crimes in the Glenelg High School graffiti incident that included racial epithets and swastikas being scrawled on the school’s grounds were sentenced Thursday to weekends in the Howard County Detention Center.

By Jess Nocera

Apr 4, 2019

Local prosecutors will continue to pursue hate-crime charges in the fatal stabbing of a black Army lieutenant at the University of Maryland at the state level, after the FBI decided not to pursue charges at the federal level.

Seth Taylor, the second of the four former Glenelg High School students found guilty of a hate crime, was sentenced Friday to nine consecutive weekends in jail.

By Jess Nocera

Mar 22, 2019

Joshua Shaffer, a former Glenelg High School student who pleaded guilty to hate crimes, was sentenced Friday to 18 weekends in jail.

By Jess Nocera

Mar 8, 2019

How many page views is it worth for a writer to lose her or his credibility? How many clicks for a news platform to lose its readers’ trust?

By David Zurawik

Feb 21, 2019

A sign at the Maryland Presbyterian Church supporting immigrants, Muslims and LGBTQ people was defaced.

By John-John Williams IV

Feb 17, 2019

Crofton man Conner Prout explains to the Anne Arundel County chapter of the NAACP what he has learned about racism during his community service

By Catherine Rentz

Feb 16, 2019

Witnesses testify in favor of hate crime law expansion to include threats

By Catherine Rentz

Feb 12, 2019

Brandon Troy Higgs was arrested in December after shooting a black construction worker.

By Cody Boteler

Feb 8, 2019

The fourth and final Howard County teen charged with hate crimes after spray-painting racial epithets and swastikas at Glenelg High School last May is being recommended to serve weekends in jail under a plea deal announced Wednesday.

By Jess Nocera

Feb 6, 2019

A white supremacist from Baltimore has pleaded guilty to killing a black man with a sword as part of a racist plot that prosecutors described as a hate crime

While treating crimes as narratives can contribute significantly to our understanding of why some crimes happen, doing so can also lead to false assumptions and unfortunate reactions about the perpetrators.

Police and school officials in Howard County have identified a student involved in drawing a swastika and a phallic symbol in the snow at Howard High School over the weekend, according to Howard County police.

By Catherine Rentz

Jan 16, 2019

Matthew Lipp, 18, of Brookeville pleaded “not guilty, agreed statement of facts,” to a hate crime charge related to targeting a group Monday morning.

By Jess Nocera

Jan 14, 2019

An Army veteran from Baltimore accused of fatally stabbing a black man with a sword in Times Square in 2017 told a Manhattan judge Friday he intends to plead guilty — but not while he’s taking pain medication for his broken foot.

These were the top 10 biggest news stories from the past year.

By Sarah Meehan

Dec 20, 2018

A Howard County Circuit Court judge has denied a request by attorneys for two local teens to drop hate crime-related charges on the basis that racial slurs and swastikas found scrawled on Glenelg High School grounds in May were constitutionally protected free speech.

By Jess Nocera

Dec 18, 2018

Maryland prosecutors have asked a judge to postpone a trial for a white man charged with a hate crime in the fatal stabbing of a black student on the

Attorneys representing two of the former Glenelg High School students who were arrested and charged with hate crimes in May are challenging the top charges on first amendment grounds as a defense strategy.

By Jess Nocera

Dec 7, 2018

An attorney for one of the four former Glenelg High School students arrested and charged with hate crimes has requested more time to present his client’s case after filing a motions to dismiss the top charges.

By Jess Nocera

Dec 6, 2018

An attorney for one of the four former Glenelg High School students charged with hate crimes after racial epithets and swastikas were found scrawled on the school’s grounds in May told a judge Monday he needs more time to study new information.

By Jess Nocera

Nov 19, 2018

At an interfaith event with at a church Sunday, Mayor Catherine Pugh capitalized on the moment to defend her hiring of Joel Fitzgerald to head the Baltimore Police Department before a diverse crowd.

By Hallie Miller

Nov 18, 2018

Lawyers representing the former University of Maryland student charged with fatally stabbing a black student on the College Park campus last year have asked the court to dismiss a hate-crime charge, saying it violates the First Amendment.

By Catherine Rentz

Nov 14, 2018

The FBI says hate crimes reports were up about 17 percent in 2017, marking a rise for the third year in a row.

By Catherine Rentz

Nov 13, 2018

Amid a rash of hate incidents, officials in Anne Arundel County are scrambling to address the problem — with plans to submit legislation, change school curriculum and improve prosecution of hate crimes.

Federal and state officials are launching reviews of hate crime laws and reporting practices after a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and the rise of anti-Jewish incidents here in Maryland. They're searching for what more can be done to stop a surge of anti-Semitism in the United States.

Members of the Baltimore Jewish community gathered Sunday to support each other in the wake of the shooting that left 11 people dead inside a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday.

By Doug Donovan

Oct 28, 2018

Jews across the United States, including in the Baltimore region, have gathered in solidarity to decry acts of anti-Semitism after 11 Jews were killed during a shooting inside a Pittsburgh synagogue. The Baltimore Sun built a database to show how hate crimes have been on the rise.

By Doug Donovan

Oct 28, 2018

Tree of Life shooting was horrific but rise of mass shootings, hate crimes and anti-Semitism made it seem inevitable.

Maryland law enforcement agencies received 398 reports of hate or bias last year, an increase of 35 percent from 2016 — and a pace of more than one report a day. The state’s experience echoes a national increase in reported hate crimes, reversing a long, gradual decline.

By Catherine Rentz

Oct 18, 2018

In Howard County, 43 hate crimes were reported in 2017, up 10 from the 33 reported in 2016, according to a Maryland State Police report.

By Jess Nocera

Oct 12, 2018

Reports of hate-related vandalism in Maryland schools nearly doubled between 2016 and 2017

By Catherine Rentz

Sep 14, 2018

After two of its members were allegedly assaulted by men shouting anti-Semitic slurs, Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi will be the primary organizer for the event TU Combats Hate on Sept. 13 at Towson University.

By Libby Solomon

Sep 11, 2018

One of the four Glenelg High School students charged with hate crimes made an appearance in a Howard County courtroom Friday morning.

By Catherine Rentz

Aug 24, 2018

Someone spray-painted at least 15 vehicles with swastikas and obscenities in the Lochearn area overnight, according to Baltimore County Police.

Joshua Shaffer and Seth Taylor, two of the four Glenelg High School students charged with hate crimes after swastikas and racial epithets were found on the school’s property in late May appeared in Howard County Circuit Court this week.

By Jess Nocera

Aug 2, 2018

Lawyers defending former University of Maryland student of a hate-motivated murder move to separate hate crime charge

By Catherine Rentz

Jul 31, 2018

Anti-Semitic pamphlets have been reported in Laurel neighborhoods, police announced Tuesday.  

The Council on American-Islamic Relations cut the ribbon for a Catonsville office on Jan. 29. The office will be the center of the civil rights group's work in Maryland.

By Libby Solomon

Feb 6, 2018

From Confederate statues to NFL player protests to private schools students dressing up as prisoners, issues of race threaded through the news of 2017.

By Jean Marbella

Dec 29, 2017

Trump tweets, hurricanes, hate crimes and too much violence marked 2017.

By Dan Rodricks

Dec 22, 2017

Loyola Blakefield, a Catholic boys’ school in Towson, was closed Thursday after racist graffiti was discovered in a bathroom stall.

By Alison Knezevich

Dec 14, 2017

Hate crimes increase nationally, but Maryland data point out issues with FBI data

By Catherine Rentz

Nov 17, 2017

Killing of white bartender by black assailants has the look of a hate crime.