Recent acts of hate in Washington are part of a ‘dangerous’ trend

The arrests of nine people in Snohomish County for alleged hate crimes have brought into sharp focus what some are calling a dangerous trend in this country — the rise in acts of hate against others based on race, religion or sexual orientation.

In all, eight people were arrested early Saturday morning after an alleged attack inside a Lynnwood bar. Two days earlier, a Monroe man was arrested for social media posts threatening to attack a school or synagogue.

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Those who study hate say these incidents are troubling, but not a surprise.

“We get calls and emails really every day from our local community,” said Miri Cypers, the Anti-Defamation League Pacific Northwest director.

She spoke on the second day of court appearances for nine people accused of hate crimes in just five days in Snohomish County.

“I would definitely say we are seeing a climate consistently over the past year,” Cypers said, “where hate incidents and hate crimes are increasing, perhaps even skyrocketing, nationwide.”

She says the Pacific Northwest is no exception.

“Having lived in a lot of different places in the United States,” Cypers said, “seeing how active white supremacist groups are in this area and their long history here is shocking and very disturbing.”

The eight suspects arrested near the Rec Room Bar and Grill allegedly attacked an African-American DJ and the son of the Filipina-American owner on so-called Martyr Day for white supremacists.

That December day in 1984, Robert Jay Mathews, the founder of the Neo-Nazi group, The Order, was gunned down by federal agents outside a home on Whidbey Island.

Jayson Baum said he knew nothing of the group’s history. And he decried what they allegedly did at his family-owned bar.

“For something like this to have happened,” he said, “was incredibly terrifying.”

As it happens, all but two of the suspects inside his family’s bar were from out of state.

But 22-year-old Dakota Reed is from Monroe. His mother looked on as a Snohomish County judge set his bail at $50,000. He was arrested Thursday after police discovered social media posts threatening to attack a synagogue and a school and found weapons at his home.

Cypers can recite from memory the incidents the ADL has been tracking here in just the last couple of weeks.

“A woman’s home in West Seattle vandalized with large red writing ‘Jew’ on her home,” Cypers recalled.

She says they can’t state definitively what is causing the rise in hate crimes. After all, Washington state does have strict hate crime laws on the books.

“But I certainly think more can always be done,” she said, “to better train law enforcement and to better educate elected officials about their responsibilities.”

And, says Cypers, all of us need to join in the effort to stem the tide of hate.

By Deborah Horne, KIRO 7