DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Federal law defines a hate crime as a threat or attack based on a person’s race, religion, disability, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, genre or gender identity.
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“Evidence has to be collected, and the public needs to help us with that,” Supervisory Special Agent Keith Kabrhel told Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco.
Kabrhel said if you receive a hate letter or written threat, put on rubber gloves when touching it. He said that can preserve fingerprint evidence.
“Take a picture of it with your phone,” said Kabrhel. “That preserves a lot of information, preserves what it looked like when you originally received it, and preserves date and time.”
If someone texts a hateful threat, Kabrhel said save a screenshot of it and save the original text.
“Don’t delete it. Don’t send it to anybody else,” said Kabrhel.
He said if someone calls you with a threat, record it.
“A lot of time what we see people do is take another phone and record the conversation,” said Kabrhel.
If you receive a threat in your e-mail, don’t delete it.
“We want to take a picture of it to preserve that evidence as well as the original e-mail itself,” said Kabrhel.
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If a threat happens in person physically or verbally, Kabrhel said to get to a safe place and record it on your phone.
“If you can help out your neighbor, another person in a parking lot or a store when something bad happens to them, that can be good evidence,” said Kabrhel.
Right now, the FBI Atlanta is investigating several racist text messages that invoked slavery after the presidential election.
Now, the vile trend has expanded. The FBI said senders are not just targeting people based on race, they’re sending texts to people based on ethnic origin and sexual orientation.
Metro-Atlanta’s Latin American Association said a 15-year-old DeKalb County student is one of the latest to receive a text saying she has been selected for deportation.
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The FBI said some texts are telling some in the LGBTQIA+ community to report to re-education camps. The FBI is still investigating to confirm who sent the texts and if any crime was committed.
FBI Atlanta said it had already planned to release the hate crime response guide before the recent rash of racist texts.
FBI Atlanta's just released Hate Crime Response Guide. pic.twitter.com/a50XjoUWkl
— FBI Atlanta (@FBIAtlanta) November 21, 2024
You can report suspected hate crimes to tips.fbi.gov or call 770-216-3000.
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