Louisiana
Please click the image/link below to download a fact sheet with detailed graphics and information on hate crimes reported to the FBI for Louisiana in 2022.
Fast Facts on Louisiana Hate Crime Incidents*
Bias Motivation Category | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
---|---|---|---|
Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry | 27 | 109 | 49 |
Religion | 5 | 30 | 14 |
Sexual Orientation | 6 | 7 | 11 |
Disability | 1 | 3 | 0 |
Gender | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Gender Identity | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total: | 40 | 150 | 75 |
Crimes Against Persons | 43 | 53.8% |
Crimes Against Property | 23 | 28.8% |
Crimes Against Society | 14 | 17.5% |
Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry | 49 | 65.3% |
Religion | 14 | 18.7% |
Sexual Orientation | 11 | 14.7% |
Disability | 0 | 0.0% |
Gender | 1 | 1.3% |
Gender Identity | 0 | 0.0% |
*2021 was the first year that the annual hate crimes statistics were reported entirely through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). As a result of the shift to NIBRS-only data collection, law enforcement agency participation in submitting all crime statistics, including hate crimes, fell significantly from 2020 to 2021.
Case Examples
A Louisiana man was sentenced to 45 years in prison for kidnapping and attempting to murder a gay man as part of a months-long scheme to kidnap and murder gay men.
According to evidence, the defendant attempted to kidnap one man and successfully kidnapped two other men using Grindr, an online dating application for gay and bisexual men. The defendant attempted to murder one of the men, intending to dismember and keep the victim’s body parts.
Press Release: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/louisiana-man-sentenced-45-years-kidnapping-and-attempting-murder-gay-man-part-hate-crime
Press Release: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/louisiana-man-indicted-attempted-murder-gay-man-and-plot-kidnap-and-murder-other-gay-men
Holden Matthews has pled guilty to intentionally setting fire to three Baptist churches in the area of Opelousas because of the religious character of those buildings. Matthews set the fires over ten days in March and April of 2019, and each of the church buildings was destroyed.
Matthews admitted that he intentionally set fire to the three Baptist churches with predominately African-American congregations.
Matthews further admitted that he wanted to raise his profile as a “Black Metal” musician by copying similar crimes committed in Norway in the 1990s. After setting the third fire, he posted photographs and videos on Facebook showing the first two churches burning. He admitted that he took these photographs and videos in real-time on his cell phone as he watched the churches burn, and that he posted them to Facebook to promote himself in the Black Metal community.
Matthews will be sentenced on May 22, 2020. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 70 years in prison.
Terry Knope and Raylaine Knope have been sentenced to 336 months in federal prison for charges of conspiring to obtain forced labor and a Hate Crime involving a woman with cognitive disabilities. Bridget Knope was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for conspiring with family members to receive forced labor. Jody Lambert was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison in June 2019 for conspiring with family members to violate the federal housing rights of a woman with disabilities.
The family conspired to obtain unpaid household labor from a woman with a disability through force, threats of force, physical restraint, as well as physical, verbal, and psychological abuse. The victim was locked in a backyard cage and forced to perform housework in exchange for food and water. The family also routinely stole the victim’s federal disability benefits.
Terry Knope Sentencing: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edla/pr/louisiana-man-sentenced-violating-civil-rights-woman-disabilities
Raylaine Knope and Bridget Lambert Sentencing: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/louisiana-mother-and-daughter-sentenced-violating-civil-rights-woman-disabilities
Jody Lambert Sentencing: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/louisiana-man-sentenced-conspiring-violate-federal-housing-rights-woman-disabilities
Jody Lambert has been sentenced to 120 months in federal prison for conspiring with family members to violate the federal housing rights of a woman with disabilities.
Lambert, along with Raylaine Knope and Terry Knope II and other members of their family, conspired to obtain uncompensated household labor from a woman with a disability through force, threats of force, and physical restraint, as well as physical, verbal, and psychological abuse. The victim was locked in a backyard cage and forced to perform housework in exchange for food and water. The couple also routinely stole the victim’s monthly federal disability benefits.
Raylaine and Terry Knope pleaded guilty to counts of forced labor, violation of the federal Fair Housing Act, and hate crimes. They will be sentenced on August 22, 2019, and face a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison.
Charges Filed: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/amite-residents-charged-civil-rights-crimes-abusing-family-member-disabilities
A federal judge in Louisiana sentenced a New Orleans man to ten years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. The sentencing follows an October 2018 guilty plea in which the man admitted to shooting three African-American men because of their race as the men tried to get out of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
In 2005, the three African-American men walked through a neighborhood to reach a ferry landing used as an evacuation point. The defendant and his neighbors had constructed a barricade of fallen trees to block their streets, and when the three men crossed the barricade, the defendant shot and wounded them. After the shooting, the defendant warned one of his neighbors that "anything coming up this street darker than a brown paper bag is getting shot."
News
June 22, 2023
January 25, 2023
August 18, 2021
FBI New Orleans Encourages the Public to Report Hate Crimes
July 14, 2021
Aaron Ahlquist Presented with the 2020 FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award
March 18, 2021
Louisiana Man Indicted for Attempted Murder of a Gay Man and Plot to Kidnap and Murder Other Gay Men
November 2, 2020
Louisiana Man Sentenced for Arson of Three African-American Churches
February 10, 2020
Louisiana Man Pleads Guilty to Burning Three Baptist Churches in St. Landry Parish
October 31, 2019
Louisiana Man Sentenced for Violating Civil Rights of Woman with Disabilities
June 13, 2019
June 12, 2019
Louisiana Man Charged with Federal Hate Crimes for Setting Fire to Three St. Landry Parish Churches
May 20, 2019
Louisiana Couple Pleads Guilty to Criminal Civil Rights Charges for Abusing Woman With Disabilities
April 10, 2019
February 14, 2019
October 18, 2018
July 26, 2018
Amite Residents Charged with Civil Rights Crimes for Abusing Family Member with Disabilities
Grant Awardees
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Program
Orleans Parish District Attorney | Orleans Parish District Attorney's (OPDA) Special Victims' Unit (SVU) Transparency and Accountability of Crimes of Hate | FY 2023
DOJ Offices
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New Orleans |
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Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans) Middle District of Louisiana (Baton Rouge) Western District of Louisiana (Lafayette) |
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Southwestern Regional Office |
Southwestern Field Office |