We know that a lot of crimes go underreported. “People aren’t as open to talk about those things a lot of times, and I think people are starting to step up and really be more vocal about their experiences. “I think these things have been happening all along,” Johnson said. An individual being denied service at a bar based on race, national origin or sexuality, for example, is a civil rights violation but not a hate crime, said Carol Johnson, Austin’s Civil Rights Officer. Hate crime statistics do not include rates of hate bias, discrimination or other civil rights violations. If a prosecutor can determine violence taken against a person or property is motivated by hatred or bias based on a characteristic of the victim, offenders face a harsher sentence. The Texas Hate Crimes Act defines a hate crime as any crime motivated by prejudice, hatred, or advocacy of violence. The City of Austin reported a total of 28 hate crimes in 2021, an increase from 24 in 2020 and 12 in 2019, reflecting a portion of the increase in bias and discrimination against marginalized communities.
