SALT LAKE CITY — Leaders from Salt Lake County gathered Tuesday to raise awareness about hate crimes in the community, just ahead of United Against Hate Week.
“My greatest hope is that we wouldn't need to be here," said Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, "it would be amazing to live in a community where our love and acceptance overrode fear, intimidation."
Wilson encouraged political leaders to make a statement taking a stand against hate in their own communities. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in this political climate, hate crimes are on the rise.
“When there is an attack in Wisconsin against the Sikh temple, the Sikh community here is terrified. When there is an attack in Pittsburgh on a synagogue. The Jewish community here is terrified," Gill said, "let's not kid ourselves that this is something that happens somewhere else.”
The FBI Crime Data Explorer shows there were 15 reported hate crime incidents in Utah in 2025, the most since 1995.
In July of this year, a man was accused of stabbing someone at Valley Fair Mall because the victim was Muslim. Over the last few weeks, Jewish places of worship in both Park City and Utah County have been vandalized. Last week, a group of students at the University of Utah said they were harassed and assaulted by a group of teens yelling anti-Asian slurs.
“You're not only worried about the trauma or the harm that they've endured, but the chill that is sensed within your own family, and chill that is sensed to the members of that community that are there," Gill said.
Over at the Utah Islamic Center, Imam Shuaib Din's congregation has felt that chill.
“I've told members of my congregation. If someone comes up to you and says, "What is your faith? Now is not the time to say, 'I'm a Muslim," he said, "the sisters who wear hijab, they feel very, very vulnerable.”
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera believes safety starts with one thing.
“Many times people just don't want to report because they feel like maybe it was just a one-off. But if they don't report, we don't know about it. And for us to do something about it, to be able to prevent these from happening, we need to have somebody give us a call," she said.
According to Rivera, crimes often go unreported due to fear of retaliation, which is why they are working to build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
“People of goodwill, we need to do something," Din said. "Otherwise, we are seeing the consequences, the repercussions of that hate."