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At the monthly meeting of the Roselle/Cranford Chapter of Hadassah, attendees learned that civil rights enforcement is the second-highest priority with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after terrorism.

Special Agent K.I. Davis, who investigates civil rights violations out of the FBI's Newark office, spoke at the March 10 meeting on hate crimes and "hate incidences."

The mission of the FBI as a whole, Davis said, "is to support the rights of everyone who lives in the country and that applies to U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens."

Within the FBI's civil rights squad in Newark, hate crimes occupy 20 percent of the case load; "color of law" or civil rights violations that involve government or police abuse of power, 47 percent; human trafficking, 29 percent; and violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, violence against abortion clinics or providers, 1 percent.

A hate crime, Davis explained, is "a criminal offense against a person or property involving threat or use of force" that is partly or wholly motivated by the offender's bias against the victim.

This bias only has to be perceived, she added. If, for example, a man is assaulted because the offender believed the victim was a homosexual, it does not matter whether the man actually is, only whether the crime was motivated by such a bias.

Categories that are recognized by federal hate crime laws include race, religion, ethnicity/national origin, disability, and sexual orientation. The last two were added this past year after the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, named after a gay college student in Wyoming who was tortured and killed in 1998 and a black man who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death, in a small Texas town that same year.

Davis noted the difference between a hate crime and a "hate incident," the latter being a hate act that does not violate the law and is constitutionally-protected free speech such as a neo-Nazi pamphlet.

Davis said, citing Southern Poverty Law Center figures, that there are 926 hate groups operating within the United States, including 40 in New Jersey. Those in New Jersey include neo-Nazis, black separatists, racists, skinheads, Christian identity, and white nationalists, among others.

According to the 2007 Uniform Crime Report, the most recent statistics available, 7,624 hate crimes were reported nationwide that year, with racial bias accounting for 50.8; religious bias, 18.4; sexual orientation bias, 16.6 percent; ethnicity/national origin bias, 13.2 percent; and disability bias, 1 percent.

Among the religious bias figure, ant-Jewish acts account for 69 percent; anti-Islamic, 8 percent; anti-Catholic, 4 percent; anti-protestant, 4 percent; anti-multiple religions, 4 percent; anti-atheism/agnosticism, .4 percent; and other religions, 9 percent.

Davis attributed the disproportionately high percentage of anti-Jewish incidences partly to the fact that these acts are often reported, noting that the statistics only include those that are reported to law enforcement. Davis speculated, for example, that the amount of anti-Islamic bias incidences is probably higher, but that this community is reluctant to report these acts to the authorities due to mistrust of authorities.

Davis said that in addition to investigating allegations of violations of federal hate crimes law, part of her job is to liaise with community groups such as Hadassah so that residents understand the importance of reporting hate incidences to local authorities.

"The more comfortable we are with each other, the more likely you will give me a call and let me know if something is going on," she said, noting that the local police are the first place to go if a hate crime or incident occurs.

Davis also spoke briefly about human trafficking, which she defined as labor through the use of "force, fraud, or coercion."

"Someone who is a victim of human trafficking does not have the ability to quit," she said, adding that alien smuggling does not constitute human trafficking and that U.S. citizens can be, and often are, the victims of this crime.

She also noted that most victims of human trafficking (80 percent) are women and children and that 70 percent of those are "exploited for the commercial sex industry and domestic servitude."

Davis advised the audience to be aware of any signs -- particularly at places like nail salons, laundromats, or restaurants -- of individuals who they suspect to be victims of human trafficking and to collect as much information as they can, and report it to the authorities.