Eastern and the Charleston-Mattoon area have not had any recent hate crime activity, according to FBI investigators, but that doesn’t keep them from taking every investigation seriously.

FBI special agents Mark Ranck and Veronica Robison from the Springfield Division spoke on Friday about hate crimes in Illinois and what the FBI has been doing in the last several years to counteract many different crimes throughout the state. Eastern Director of the Office of Civil Rights Cynthia Nichols invited the agents to come and speak at Eastern.

The Arcola/Tuscola Room was a full house with some audience members standing to listen to the presentation. Representatives from 11 state agencies were present, as well as members of eight other Illinois universities.

The FBI is not an enforcement agency, Ranck said. The organization investigates situations and conflicts and sends back information and evidence to the Department of Justice in Washington D.C.

“We want to get the word out that we care about each of these incidents,” Ranck said. “We’re trying to raise awareness that we do actually investigate these cases.”

In 2005, the FBI received 7,163 reports of hate crime incidents within the United States, Ranck said. Not all incidents were crimes with court cases following them.

Only 168 of those instances were in Illinois, though the FBI remains vigilant. In 2006, Illinois had 235 hate crime cases in court, leading to 61 convictions.

According to Ranck, a 2007 field intelligence group study determined that even among Illinois’ heavily populated areas like Chicago and Springfield, the state does not have a pandemic problem.

“When a hate crime is reported, we aggressively investigate them,” Ranck said.

The FBI is limited both by its jurisdiction and the requirements a hate crime must meet in order to investigate a given situation. Each state has a different definition and policy on hate crimes, and the states get priority over the FBI in response.

In order for the FBI to get the go-ahead on a hate crime, it must determine if the hate crime included a threat or use of force against a protected individual, as well as if the violence interfered with what the FBI calls a “federally protected activity.”

Federally protected activities include voting, performing jury duty, working in a benefits program, seeking employment, applying to a public school, traveling between states or wanting to live in a home.

The FBI can investigate private schools, Ranck said, but must do so on a case-by-case basis.

The presentation included citing investigations concerning known hate crimes in Jasper, Tex. and in Danville, Ill. When the audience was invited to ask questions, the Jena 6 investigation came up as well.

The FBI must allow state authorities to take priority in a hate crime, unless the victims fell under the protected activities. They have investigated a little into Jena 6, Ranck said, but it does not have sole jurisdiction in the case.