Hate crimes up in Pennsylvania and U.S.

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

 Jacqueline Larma / AP Photo

FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2017 file photo, headstones toppled and damaged by vandals lie on the ground at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia. The Anti-Defamation League is reporting a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. in 2017, the highest tally that the Jewish civil rights group has counted in more than two decades, according to data it released on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018.

The number of hate crimes almost doubled in Pennsylvania last year from 2019 and were up nationwide to the highest level since 2008. That’s according to the latest report from the FBI. There were 81 hate crimes investigated in Pennsylvania in 2020.

The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”

African-Americans were most often targeted in hate crimes last year but so were Jewish people and properties and Asian-Americans.

Thursday’s Smart Talk investigates why there are more hate crimes and what can be done to stop them.

Appearing on the program are Shira Goodman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, Philadelphia, and Kenneth Huston, President of the Pennsylvania NAACP State Conference.