There have been more than 100 hate crimes in Hawaii over the past five years, and statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week reveal that whites were targeted more than any other group.

The FBI recorded 120 hate crimes during that period, including 39 involving whites as victims; 34 against Blacks; 18 against gay males; 12 against Asians; three against Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders; three against the LGBT community as a mixed group; and a smaller number of offenses involving Muslim, Jewish, Hispanic, Arab and other victims.

During that same period, Native Hawaiians were listed as responsible for 49 of those crimes, followed by 26 white offenders, 14 Asian, eight unknown, six multiple race and five Black.

“Hate crimes are not only an attack on the victim, they threaten and intimidate an entire community. Because of their wide-ranging impact, investigating hate crimes is a high priority for the FBI,” said Steven B. Merrill, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Honolulu field office, in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Those who commit hate crimes should be punished, and as the law enforcement protector of civil rights, we will collaborate with state and local law enforcement partners to bring perpetrators to justice and protect all of the citizens of Hawaii.”

In Hawaii, if county police departments believe a suspect acted with hostility toward a victim based on race, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation, they will classify the case as a hate crime, according to the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s office.

A hate crime is not a new or separate offense and any prosecution will be based on standard offenses, such as assault or terroristic threatening, according to Matthew S. Dvonch, special counsel to Prosecuting Attorney Steven S. Alm.

Upon resolution of the case, prosecutors submit an incident report to the state Department of the Attorney General describing what role hate may have played. The AG publishes an annual report, “Hate Crimes in Hawaii.”

“We receive several such cases from HPD per year,” said Dvonch in a statement to the Star-Advertiser. “It’s difficult to say why any one racial or ethnic group is disproportionately represented in hate crime statistics, whether as victims or perpetrators. One of Hawaii’s greatest strengths is undoubtedly our diverse population. Having said that, while we believe that Hawaii has avoided some of the challenges experienced by communities on the mainland, the fact that we have so many racial and ethnic groups means that incidents involving people of different races and ethnicities are bound to occur. Some of these may be hate crimes and others not.”

Hawaii is the most racially diverse state in the nation. Data from the 2020 census showed that 36.5% of the state’s population is Asian, 21.6% is white, 20% is multiracial, 9.5% is Hispanic or Latino, and 1.5% is Black. Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders comprise less than 11% of the population.

Last year a total of four hate crime incidents were reported in Hawaii, three on Oahu and one on Maui, according to the AG’s report. Three of the incidents targeted white people and the fourth was anti-Muslim.

In one of the incidents, on May 25, 2020, a 39-year-old Native Hawaiian male got into an argument with his white neighbor over the latter’s loud music.

The man walked onto his neighbor’s property and “uttered anti-White epithets, and made a thinly-veiled verbal threat against the victim’s life,” according to the AG’s 2020 hate crimes report. The man was arrested and charged with terroristic threatening in the second-­degree and ultimately pleaded no contest to harassment, a petty misdemeanor, and was fined $200.

“The Department appreciates its role in working with law enforcement to understand and act upon identified areas of concern, and is committed to addressing crimes that are motivated by hatred against anyone based on race, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation,” said Hawaii Attorney General Clare E. Connors in a statement to the Star-­Advertiser.

HPD transitioned to the most current version of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System, in 2018. NIBRS requires police-level hate crime reporting, which Hawaii’s county police departments did not previously provide, according to the AG’s report. Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties are also expected to transition.

HPD did not respond to questions about the FBI’s report or the kind of racial, ethnic or cultural animosity and tensions officers encounter in the community.

“The Honolulu Police Department shall protect the constitutional rights of all citizens regardless of race, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation,” reads the opening of the department’s Hate Crimes Policy.

The policy defines a hate crime as “any criminal act in which the perpetrator intentionally selected a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that was the object of a crime because of hostility toward the actual or perceived race, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation of any person.”

Federal hate crime prosecutions are rare in Hawaii. Two men indicted Dec. 16, 2020, for allegedly beating a white man who tried to move into the Kahakuloa community on Maui, one of the oldest predominantly Native Hawaiian enclaves in Hawaii, is the first such prosecution in at least 20 years.

Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki, Jr. are both charged with a violation of the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act for attacking Chris Kunzelman, a white man from the mainland who bought a home his wife found online. Kunzelman’s wife suffers from multiple sclerosis and told him she wanted to live out her days at the remote property, according to an interview he gave to KHON2 in Oct. 2019.

Court documents said that on Feb. 13, 2014, the men punched, kicked and used a shovel to beat Kunzelman, who was knocked unconscious. He suffered a concussion and two broken ribs, according to court documents. In the state case, both men pleaded no contest, apologized to Kunzelman and were sentenced to four years of probation.

The federal indictment alleges Alo-Kaonohi and Aki Jr. “willfully caused bodily injury to C.K., and attempted to cause bodily injury to C.K. through the use of a dangerous weapon (a shovel), because of C.K.’s actual and perceived race and color.”

Kunzelman told KHON2 that Alo-Kaonohi told him, “You have the wrong skin color, no white man is ever going to live here. We’re the law, we’re the police, the police have our backs, we’re the ones who make the laws, we’re the ones who enforce the laws, we’re the judge in Kahakuloa, and we’re the ones who decide if you live or die.”

Attorneys representing the men did not respond to questions for comment.

Nationwide, hate crime reports increased by 6.1% last year, in particular offenses motivated by race, ethnicity and ancestry, and gender identity, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In response to a brutal series of attacks on Asian Americans by people who blamed the Chinese for the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, introduced by U.S. Sen. Mazie K. Hirono of Hawaii and New York Rep. Grace Meng.

“For centuries, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders — diverse and vibrant communities — have helped build this nation only to be often stepped over, forgotten, or ignored. You know, lived here for generations, but still considered, by some, the ‘other’ — the ‘other.’ It’s wrong. It’s simply — to use the phrase — it’s simply un-American,” said Biden, according to a White House transcript of the bill signing. “My message to all of those of you who are hurting is: We see you. And the Congress has said: We see you. And we are committed to stop the hatred and the bias.”

REPORT HATE CRIME

The FBI encourages the community to remain vigilant and to report unlawful activity. If you feel you have witnessed or have been a victim of a hate crime, report it online at tips.fbi.gov or call the FBI Hono- lulu Field Office at 808-566-4300.