Violent crime went down last year in Mass. but anti-Jewish hate crimes spiked, officials say
Advertisement
While the statewide violent crime data's encouraging, the hate crime numbers point to a more concerning trend, even though the overall tally of such offenses decreased last year, the statement said.
Officials said that despite the overall decrease, reports of anti-Semitic hate crimes increased by 20.5 percent last year.
For the first time since tracking began in 1991, officials said, anti-Jewish hate crimes surpassed anti-Black offenses in 2024.
Advertisement
'This new data is encouraging and reflects the important work that law enforcement and community partners do day in and day out to keep the people of Massachusetts safe,' said Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat and former state attorney general, in a statement.
'We know there is always more work to be done, and we remain committed to bringing people together to continue to enhance public safety in communities across the state,' Healey said.
Boston MA- June 16 Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey speaking during a Northeast governors and Canadian premiers to talk trade and tariffs at the State House Library on June 16 2025. Photo by Matthew J Lee/Globe Staff
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
The governor's words were echoed by Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll.
'Partnership between law enforcement and the communities they serve is the cornerstone of effective public safety,' said Driscoll in a statement. 'The continued improvements that we see in 2024 reflect a deeply held shared commitment to collaborative solutions that promote safer communities.'
Lt. Gov. of Massachusetts Kim Driscoll arrives at the JFK Library, Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
According to preliminary state data, Massachusetts logged 466 reported hate crimes last year, down from 560 in 2023. Officials said 130 such complaints last year dealt with anti-Jewish bias, up from 105 in 2023.
'While this 2024 data offers an encouraging snapshot-in-time, it also reinforces the importance of staying focused and coordinated in our efforts to reduce crime,' said state Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy in a statement.
'We are deeply grateful for the tireless efforts of our federal, state, and local law enforcement as well as our many community partners and remain dedicated to our continued efforts to develop cooperative, evidence-based solutions that keep our Massachusetts neighborhoods safe,' Reidy said.
Terrence Reidy.
Lane Turner/Globe Staff
Travis Andersen can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
11 minutes ago
- Washington Post
How Harriet Tubman led Civil War spies — and earned her military honors
Edda L. Fields-Black is the winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History, and the author of 'Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War.' Kate Clifford Larson is the author of 'Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero.' Harriet Tubman never formally enlisted in the U.S. military. She was a war hero nonetheless.
Washington Post
25 minutes ago
- Washington Post
The Supreme Court puts off restoring the Voting Rights Act's shine
Sixty years ago this summer, Congress enacted the nation-transforming Voting Rights Act. Soon, however, Congress and a deferential Supreme Court, by reverse alchemy, turned the gold of the VRA into the lead of today's racial distribution of representation. Last Friday, the Supreme Court delayed, pending reargument next term, deciding a case that could reverse the VRA's tarnishment. On the final day of the 2024-2025 term, the court issued 404 pages of decisions, concurrences and dissents in six cases. Singularly important, however, were the six pages of Justice Clarence Thomas's dissent from the court's decision not to decide the case concerning the patent racial gerrymandering in Louisiana's redistricting map. Thomas cites the 'intractable' conflict between the VRA as the court has construed it as a guarantee of the rights of groups, and the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws for persons. 'Intractable'? No, insoluble. Approximately one-third of Louisianans are Black. After the 2020 Census, the legislature produced a congressional map with only one 'majority-minority' district. In a complex process of litigation, the state, accepting the court-created principle of racial proportionality, created a second Black-majority district. The state simultaneously engaged in political gerrymandering to protect the seats of three senior Republican members of Congress. The result was unlovely. The proposed 6th District resembles a 250-mile-long python uncoiling from northwest to southeast Louisiana to 'scoop up' (Thomas's tart phrase) enough Black voters, and exclude enough White ones, to be slightly more than 50 percent Black. Obviously, race predominated in producing this affront to the VRA's original intent. This is today's judicial morass concerning redistricting: Race-consciousness is mandatory; race as 'predominant' is forbidden. The path to this conundrum is explained in 'Deconstructing the Republic,' the invaluable 2008 book by Anthony A. Peacock of Utah State University: The original VRA was written to guarantee ballot access. But as subsequently construed by the court and amended by Congress, it confers group rights to 'effective' representation. This entitlement to a portion of political power is determined by racial calculations. The court began and Congress joined the process of conferring on a few minorities (Black, Hispanic, Native American) a group right to elect their preferred representatives, with members of the group presumptively choosing to think as a group rather than as individuals. Classical liberalism holds that although individuals are divided by opinions and passions, they can be united by shared interests. The uniting is the business of politics. But, Peacock says, the ideology of multiculturalism changed politics by making race and ethnicity preeminent — and inevitably divisive — legal categories. This deconstructed the nation into an archipelago of racial and ethnic constituencies. This development was congruent with the credo of 20th-century 'behavioral' social science: People do not act freely; they behave predictably because they are conditioned by group membership. By freezing certain racial constituencies into law, the VRA, as (mis)construed and amended, now implicitly endorses a degraded theory of representation: Elected representatives of a government-preferred minority should mechanically serve any desire of the cohesive group. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, enacted to end the cognizance of race in law, has been bent to opposite purposes. The Voting Rights Act, enacted to eliminate acts of invidious discrimination, has been twisted to engineer racial balance in political processes by taking legal cognizance of, and thereby encouraging, racial as opposed to citizenship identities. Judicial decisions have held that illegal 'vote dilution' (a phrase not in the 1965 VRA) exists when government-approved minorities could not elect candidates of their 'choice,' which was presumed to be defined racially. The creation of minority-majority electoral districts, drawn to preserve or create racially homogenous enclaves, supposedly serves electoral fairness, defined as facilitating minority office-holding. The VRA became an instrument for turning race and ethnicity into legally determinative categories for claims to proportional allocations of political power. Doing so, today's VRA encourages a group conflict model of American politics. And the Founders' Constitution for freely thinking individuals becomes a Constitution for thinking-alike victims of a perpetual past. In a 2003 case concerning race-based university admissions, the court affirmed a 'diversity' exception to the laws of equal protection. An 'effective representation' exception has been discovered in the VRA, although nothing in its 1965 text or legislative history authorized or required this. The court has somewhat corrected its 2003 higher-education mistake. Next term, it should jettison most of its misbegotten VRA jurisprudence. By affirming the equal protection clause's supremacy over the court's torturous misconstruing of it, and Congress's pernicious amending of it, the court can restore the VRA's golden gleam.
Politico
26 minutes ago
- Politico
Good will Lander
Presented by the Coalition for a Better Times Square With help from Amira McKee Brad Lander is feeling pretty good for someone who just got trounced in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary. The city comptroller's campaign struggled to gain traction as Zohran Mamdani — younger and less experienced — soared high enough to eventually defeat former New York governor Andrew Cuomo by 12 points, according to unofficial results released Tuesday. But thanks to their unique cross-endorsement, Lander has been celebrating Mamdani's victory as if it was his own. 'People, it turned out, were so hungry for a more hopeful and collaborative form of politics,' Lander told POLITICO. The two progressive Democrats brokered their alliance in the last leg of the chaotic, 11-candidate primary contest, the first true cross-endorsement since the city began ranked-choice voting four years ago. The duo — one a Muslim millennial and democratic socialist, the other a liberal Jewish Gen Xer — campaigned together and even appeared on the same primary night stage. Lander supporters who ranked Mamdani second almost certainly added to the state lawmaker's margin against Cuomo, though the city Board of Election numbers released Tuesday weren't detailed enough to illuminate by exactly how much. Early returns showed Lander finished a distant third. The Brooklyn Democrat isn't ready to say what his next career steps will be, including whether he'll be part of a potential Mamdani administration. He has also been floated as a potential primary challenger to Rep. Dan Goldman. Lander, however, said he's hard at work paving the way for Mamdani to City Hall, serving as a liaison to stakeholders who need reassurances about having a hard-left leader who wants to raise taxes on the wealthy to help pay for services like free buses. 'I'm certainly talking to a lot of folks in the business and investor communities from my work as comptroller,' Lander said. 'In a lot of those conversations, I'm trying to help people see a positive path forward.' Mamdani will face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, in the general election, as well as Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden. Still unknown is whether Cuomo will mount an active campaign, following his embarrassing primary upset. Lander has been widely commended by the city's political left for boosting Mamdani. 'This is the character of a man,' Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said on primary night. 'He said, 'This city is more important than any one person.'' Former City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer said of Lander, 'He genuinely went from that feeling when you realize things aren't going your way to rediscovering purpose.' That's not to say it was easy for Lander, a progressive standard-bearer who watched his dream to run the country's biggest city sputter. Lander acknowledged that he struggled to replicate the 'coalition of progressives and moderates and focus on both affordability and safety' that had helped him win past elections. 'One important element of my campaign was competence and experienced leadership for the city,' he added. 'That is hard to make sexy or compelling.' Read more on Lander's role in the race by POLITICO's Emily Ngo. HAPPY WEDNESDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman. WHERE'S KATHY? In Erie County and Virginia with no public schedule. WHERE'S ERIC? Public schedule not available as of 10 p.m. Tuesday. QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'Ultimately, what we're seeing in President Trump's rhetoric is an attempt to focus on who I am, where I'm from, what I look like, how I sound, as opposed to what I'm actually fighting for.' — Zohran Mamdani told NY1 of Trump's criticism, including questioning the Democrat's citizenship status. ABOVE THE FOLD POOR POLL NUMBERS FOR GOP MEGABILL: A majority of New York state voters do not have a pretty view of President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' with 52 percent saying they believe it' will worsen life for most Americans, according to a Siena College poll released this morning. Just about as many people — 54 percent — say Trump's domestic and foreign affairs agenda will not make America great. The Senate approved the Republican megabill Tuesday in a nailbiter of a vote. Rather than soften its edges, Senate Republicans have taken the sprawling blueprint the House sent them and sharpened it further, making the heart of Trump's legislative agenda more politically explosive, POLITICO reports. New Yorkers are more divided on the proposals within the sprawling legislation, the Siena College poll found. Sixty-one percent support eliminating income taxes on tips, 48 percent back requiring healthy adult Medicaid recipients to work to receive benefits, 24 percent support cutting taxes for corporations and 23 percent back reducing spending on SNAP food assistance. The disapproval of Trump and his top legislative priority aren't surprising in a conventionally blue state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by about two to one, said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. According to the survey, Trump had a dismal 37 percent favorability rating. But Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer didn't fare much better, with a 41 percent favorability rating. The poll was conducted June 23-26 among 800 registered state voters. It had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. — Emily Ngo CITY HALL: THE LATEST ADAMS' SUMMER HOLLIDAY: Real estate mogul Marc Holliday, who's pitching a casino in Times Square with his firm SL Green, is hosting a rooftop fundraiser for Adams' reelection campaign on July 9 at Le Jardin sur Madison overlooking Manhattan's Madison Square Park. Holliday donated $100,000 to pro-Cuomo super PAC Fix the City just days before the primary, so the Wednesday event is a sign that some in the city's monied class are throwing support behind Adams in the general election rather than waiting to see if the former governor will mount a serious campaign against Mamdani. 'You're going to see quite a bit of that,' Adams' political adviser Frank Carone told Playbook. 'The outpouring of support the mayor has received has been overwhelming, humbling and exciting at the same time.' Holliday downplayed the move, saying he's supported Adams since his days in the Legislature 'and would have supported him in the primary as well.' 'Under Mayor Adams' administration, the city has thrived and is far better off than it was three and a half years ago,' he added in a statement. Holliday himself can't donate more to Adams, after giving $400 in April 2022 — the maximum for a registered lobbyist. He's chair and CEO of SL Green, and topped the Commercial Observer's real estate power list this year. Holliday was set to get a $10 million bonus if the firm's bid wins a license from the state and builds a casino, but POLITICO reported in January that deal was likely illegal. Adams has gone back to fundraising for his reelection campaign while awaiting resolution of his lawsuit against the Campaign Finance Board for denying him public matching funds. He reported bringing in $300,000 in just three weeks in the last filing. — Jeff Coltin More from the city: — Adams' charter revision commission is moving forward with a plan to put measures on the November ballot that would curb the City Council's power to reject new housing and shift local elections to even years. (New York Times) — Major crimes are down across the city, except for a troubling years-long spike in rapes, new NYPD stats show. (New York Post) — Mamdani wants to end mayoral control of schools, but he hasn't detailed his plans for an alternative. (Gothamist) NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY ZOHRAN MAKES ALBANY INROADS: Mamdani's mayoral bid on Tuesday was endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins — the latest sign that the establishment is coming around to support his upstart campaign. Institutional backing in Albany will be crucial to fulfilling his agenda if Mamdani is leading City Hall next year. The state Capitol is a place where mayoral priorities go to die and recent history is littered with failed proposals from Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio. That Albany — a small city some 150 miles north of Manhattan — can call the shots for a world capital has long grated on mayoral nerves. Mamdani will need Albany's sign off for his proposed tax hike on rich New Yorkers. Many of his priorities — such as funding free buses and child care services — would also require state support. Some Democrats are skeptical (to say the least) that Mamdani — a three-term backbencher in the state Assembly — will have an easy go of it next year should he win. 'We know he's going to be very limited in what he can do when it comes to his many promises,' said Democratic Assemblymember Chuck Lavine. 'The state of New York has great authority over what the mayor of the city of New York can do. He has the opportunity to grow, but at the same time he's going to have to provide the public with more specificity with what his programs involve.' Gov. Kathy Hochul — who is yet to endorse the 33-year-old democratic socialist — has firmly shot down a tax hike. The Democratic governor, who is running for reelection next year, will have to navigate a treacherous political path if Mamdani is mayor. Republicans are already yoking her to the party's mayoral nominee with the expectation he'll be unpalatable to moderate, suburban swing voters. Lefty Democrats will undoubtedly press her from the other end of the political spectrum to back Mamdani's agenda. Hochul, though, has emphasized potential areas of agreement, like addressing affordability. State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a vocal Mamdani booster in the state Legislature, told Playbook he's confident the Democratic nominee could win over the Capitol. To bolster his case, Rivera pointed to Mamdani's 12-point win over Andrew Cuomo in the third and final round of early voting. 'What these numbers demonstrate and what the next couple of months will demonstrate is his ability to crossover,' Rivera said. 'That means sitting down with anybody and getting to a good place.' — Nick Reisman More from Albany:— Hochul's support for a new nuclear plant has sparked interest — and some early lobbying. (WXXI) — Building a nuke plant will likely be a costly endeavor, experts found. (Spectrum News) — The governor touted the opening of an affordable housing development in her hometown. (Buffalo News) KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION A SALTY LEARNING CURVE: Democrat Beth Davidson appears to be operating on a steep learning curve when it comes to the state and local tax deduction, a top issue in the district where she seeks to unseat GOP Rep. Mike Lawler. The Rockland County legislator told Spectrum News in May she believes the SALT cap should be lifted '25 percent at least.' Then, given the chance to clarify, she said she meant to say it should be lifted to $25,000. That proposal is far lower than the $40,000 limit that blue state House Republicans, including Lawler, have negotiated in grueling intraparty meetings. It's also a very far cry from her fellow Democrats' call for the cap to be scrapped altogether. Davidson — waging a formidable campaign in a crowded Hudson Valley primary, and so far leading the Democrats in fundraising — told Playbook this week that she erred in her previous comments because she wasn't aware the current cap on SALT had an expiration date. 'I didn't actually realize it was expiring completely at that point,' Davidson said before pivoting to attacking Lawler. 'I made a mistake in the number, but he's made the mistake in how he's voted, which I think is more important.' Davidson added that she would have supported allowing the SALT cap to expire if she were serving in Congress. The current $10,000 SALT cap, set by Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, was set to sunset after this year, but is now on track to quadruple. On Tuesday, the Senate approved the GOP megabill with the limit increased to $40,000. Lawler has praised the deal as a win. SALT is a top priority in battleground House districts in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island, where high taxes have hit homeowners hard. 'I'll own that I didn't know that, and now that I do, I'm completely opposed to, certainly, the $40,000 cap,' Davidson said of the expiration date. The county lawmaker, one of at least seven Democrats seeking to unseat Lawler in the 17th Congressional District, has previously attacked the incumbent for voting with Republicans for a bill that didn't completely eliminate SALT. 'First, Beth Davidson didn't know what a 'fiscal year' was, and now she admits not even understanding how the SALT deduction and cap works,' Chris Russell, a Lawler campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. 'This is beyond embarrassing. How is this person running for Congress?' Davidson's spokesperson, Molly Kraus, fired back: 'Mike Lawler is about to vote for a trash bill that guts Medicaid and puts an unacceptably low cap on SALT, so he's trying to distract by punching his most feared opponent Beth Davidson, who's clearly living in his head rent free.'— Jason Beeferman and Emily Ngo More from Congress: — Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson are digging in to pass Republicans' massive tax and spending bill by Friday in time for a July 4 celebration. (POLITICO) — Chuck Schumer forced a name change for Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' moments before the legislative package passed the Senate. (Fox News) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned Democrats would not allow quick passage of the GOP megabill in the House. (POLITICO) NEW YORK STATE OF MIND — A Columbia University cyberattack appears to be politically motivated. (New York Times) — More than 22 miles of car-free streets will be available this summer. (NY1) — Two upstate utilities have proposed a major rate hike. (POLITICO Pro) SOCIAL DATA FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: New York Public Radio is revamping its board of trustees, adding Gary Knell, a senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group and former president and CEO of both National Geographic and NPR; Jenna Weiss-Berman, co-founder of Pineapple Street Studios and head of podcasts at Paper Kite Productions; and Jeremy Kuriloff, managing director and partner at BCG … City government veteran Carl Weisbrod is now a vice chair of the board, along with journalist Anna Quindlen … John Rose, CEO of Spectrum Advisors and a senior advisor at BCG, will chair the board. … MSNBC is adding Vaughn Hillyard as senior White House correspondent, Laura Barrón-López as White House correspondent, David Noriega as a correspondent and Marc Santia as an investigative correspondent. Hillyard, Noriega and Santia previously were at NBC. Barrón-López previously was at PBS NewsHour and POLITICO. MAKING MOVES: Eric S. Goldstein has stepped down as CEO of UJA-Federation of New York. WELCOME TO THE WORLD: Allie Taylor, founder and president of Voters For Animal Rights, and Scott Taylor, a staff engineer at Shopify, welcomed Althea Starlight Taylor on June 29. — Anna Epstein, a director at FGS Global, and Aaron Steeg, an associate at Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver, on June 17 welcomed Alice Madeline Steeg, who is named for two of her late grandmothers. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) … NYC Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. … Andrew Rigie of the New York Hospitality Alliance …Josephine Stratman of the Daily News … Stephen Hanse, president and CEO of the New York State Health Facilities Association … Xavier Mission's Cassandra Agredo … Robert Press … NBC's Tom Llamas … Derek Gianino of Wells Fargo … NBC's Keith Morrison … Katherine Lehr … Jonathan Capehart … Courtney Geduldig … Brooke Oberwetter … Michele Gershberg … (WAS TUESDAY): Myron Scholes Missed Tuesday's New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here.
