Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Students Boo Betsy DeVos’ Commencement Speech

Yesterday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was met by booing and chanting students when she gave a commencement speech at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida. At times the jeering was so loud it drowned out her words, and several students stood up and turned their backs on her. The speech was supposed to last for more than an hour, but she wrapped it up after 20 minutes. The school’s president, Edison Jackson, warned the students that unless they stopped their behavior, their degrees would be mailed to them, and at least one student was escorted out.

Many in Bethune Cookman University graduating class turning their #BackstoBetsy Davos during commencement speech @NBCBLK pic.twitter.com/tUQTvW7ZxH

— Mariana_Atencio (@marianaatencio) May 10, 2017

Students criticized their school for giving them such short notice on who their commencement speaker was going to be, and on Tuesday, a group of students delivered a petition with what they claimed were 60,000 signatures to stop DeVos from speaking. But university officials said only 6,000 signatures were properly filled out. Now a lot of people are upset with the school for inviting DeVos in the first place, and also for giving her an honorary doctorate.

@FecklessBube @mollyhc @BuzzFeedNews The insult to those students has been foisted upon them by their tone deaf leadership. DeVos should never have been invited.

— Mike Prater (@emsprater1) May 10, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post RantCrush Top 5: May 11, 2017 appeared first on Law Street.

A shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada on Sunday evening left six people dead, and over a dozen people injured; at least five are in critical condition. Witnesses said two gunmen, both dressed in black, entered the mosque and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd of worshippers. Early Monday morning, police said they took two men into custody, but a few hours later, said one of the suspects was a witness, and the other is now considered the sole gunman. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident a “terrorist attack on Muslims” in a statement on Monday. “It is heart-wrenching to see such senseless violence. Diversity is our strength, and religious tolerance is a value that we, as Canadians, hold dear,” he said. “Muslim-Canadians are an important part of our national fabric, and these senseless acts have no place in our communities, cities and country.”

Tonight, Canadians grieve for those killed in a cowardly attack on a mosque in Quebec City. My thoughts are with victims & their families.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 30, 2017

Soon after the two alleged attackers were arrested on Monday morning, their identities were released: Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed Khadir. According to a witness, the two men entered the mosque at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Center, and yelled “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, as bullets whizzed over the heads of worshippers. But by the afternoon, police confirmed that only one of the men is being considered a perpetrater of the attack; the other was a witness. The identity of the attacker has not been officially revealed by the police.

“Please wait for the preliminary result before spreading rumors. The situation is very critical, but inshallah, we’re ready to endure it,” said a statement on the mosque’s Facebook page. “All our thoughts are with the children, whom we must tell about the death of their fathers,” another message said. “May Allah give them patience and endurance.”

This is not the first time this mosque was targeted. Last summer, a bloody pig’s head wrapped in cellophane was left at the front door of the mosque, along with a note that said “Bonne appétit.” In Islam, the consumption of pork is forbidden. South of the Canadian border, in America, protests raged in cities like New York, Washington D.C., and Boston over President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees from seven predominately Muslim countries.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the police department will bolster security at the city’s mosques. “Our prayers tonight are with the people of Quebec City as they deal with a terrible attack on a mosque,” he said in a tweet. In another, he wrote: “To my fellow New Yorkers who are Muslim: New York City will protect you. The NYPD will protect you. We will fight all hatred and bias.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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During a speech on Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed a ban on full-face veils, eliciting raucous cheers from the audience. “Here we say, ‘Show your face,'” she said during her 80-minute speech. “So full veiling is not appropriate here. It should be prohibited wherever legally possible.” Her shift in tone on what her country would accept amid a rising tide of anti-immigration sentiment in Germany and elsewhere in Europe could be an appeal to far-right voters before the federal elections next year.

The speech was made to acknowledge her acceptance of the nomination of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, the party she has led since 2000. Though the party suffered an embarrassing loss to a far-right party in a local election in September, Merkel was nominated to head the CDU with convincing support: she won 89.5 percent of votes from 994 delegates. A few weeks ago, Merkel announced she will be running for a fourth term.

During her speech, which ended with a 12-minute standing ovation, Merkel hinted at the rising tides of populism, and the recent challenges to liberal democratic ideals. “A good quarter century after the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the two blocs, many people have the feeling that the world has gone off the rails,” she said.

And while she managed to avoid naming President-elect Donald Trump explicitly, she did nod in his direction. “We are dealing with a world situation — and that is especially true after the American elections — in which the world must first sort itself out,” she said. “Especially when looking at important things like NATO and the relationship to Russia.” Trump questioned the U.S.-NATO alliance during his campaign.

Since Merkel allowed nearly one million migrants from the Middle East, many from Syria, into Germany last year, she has had to deal with rising criticism at home and abroad. Germany will weigh in on her leadership during next year’s elections, and many see Tuesday’s speech as a way to placate the fears that are fanning far-right, nationalist movements, and assure those voters that she will be staunch to defend German values. In addition to supporting a full-face veil ban, Merkel said Shariah Law could never supplant German justice.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Amid growing fear of terrorism and divisive rhetoric on the campaign trail, researchers have identified a startling upward trend in hate crimes against Muslims. According to a recent study, these crimes have reached their highest levels since the period directly after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Brian Levin and Kevin Grisham, researchers at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, identified a slight rise in hate crimes overall but found a significant increase in those targeting Muslims. Using data from law enforcement officials in 20 states, they found 196 anti-Muslim hate crimes in the 2015 calendar year–a 78 percent increase from the previous year. Based on that sample, they estimate that there were approximately 260 hate crimes against Muslims across the country in 2015.

While most categories of hate crime saw either declines or slight increases, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab crimes spiked significantly, increasing by 78 and 209 percent respectively. They also found a 40 percent increase in anti-gender/transgender hate crimes. The 196 anti-Muslim hate crimes identified by the researchers in the 20 states surveyed amounted to a 29 percent increase relative to what the FBI found nationwide in 2014. The evidence for the increase in hate crimes with an Arab and gender bias came from smaller 10 and 9 state samples, respectively.

It’s important to note that these numbers almost certainly undercount the actual number of hate crimes in the United States. Incidents of hate crimes are notoriously difficult to measure–many victims may be reluctant to report these crimes and police departments may not identify hate crimes as such. And as the report notes (and I’ve previously written about), there is a significant gap between the number of reported hate crimes and the results of victimization surveys, which indicate that they occur much more frequently than these statistics suggest.

Last December, the researchers conducted a study of unofficial reports of hate crimes–largely by identifying incidents in news reports–and found evidence of a spike in the wake of the Paris shootings. With this study, they were able to build on their past findings using official data from police departments to identify an overall increase last year. “The newly available official data corroborates the December/November spike found in our earlier study,” they write. “The increase was real and material across the entire year as well.”

Trying to explain what is driving the recent increase is also particularly difficult, as causal connections are difficult to identify. But the authors note that recent rhetoric directed at Muslims is likely a factor. They point to a surge in anti-Muslim hate crimes that occurred after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. That spike dropped significantly–although it didn’t go away altogether–after September 17 when President Bush gave a speech at an Islamic center to distinguish terrorism from Islam and called for respect for American Muslims.

In contrast, they note that in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings last year, Donald Trump publicly called for a ban on Muslims entering the country. They note that after that point hate crimes against Muslims increased by 87.5 percent. Overall, the researchers identified a multi-year trend even predating the rise of Donald Trump in American politics.

The authors also note that the causes of hate crimes are extremely complicated. While hostile rhetoric may contribute to an increase in these events, there are many other factors at play. Many factors can contribute to prejudice toward a certain group and an even more complicated set of factors can explain whether a prejudice leads to violence. Ultimately, these statistics cannot provide a full picture of hate crimes in the United States, but they identify a trend that is troubling and difficult to refute.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

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