Statistics from the FBI show a disturbing rise in hate crimes reported in the U.S. last year, including in Mid-Michigan.
The FBI's report shows 12 hate crimes reported in Lansing in 2017, which is up from just two reported in 2016 and five in 2015. Ten of last year's reported hate crimes involved bias based on race or ethnicity and two were based on sexual orientation.
Police in East Lansing took three hate crime reports, while two were reported in Charlotte and one on the campus of Michigan State University.
Twenty-three hate crimes were reported in Blackman Township, which has a population of only 37,000 people. Compare that to Detroit, which had 41 hate crimes last year among 670,000 people. Blackman Township police told FOX 47 on Friday they did not have time to comment.
Nationwide, hate crime reports in 2017 were up 17 percent over 2016.
