Hate Crimes and Hoaxes:  For several years we have seen reports indicating that hate crimes have been increasing across America.  Some on the left have attributed this to President Trump and his "white nationalist" supporters.  Peter Jamison of the Washington Post reports on a the charge by some conservatives that many incidents that are initially identified in the media as hate crimes turn out to be hoaxes.  Criminologist Brian Levin, a professor at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, estimates that about .5% of reported hate crimes are false.  Professor Wilfred Reilly of Kentucky State University believes that roughly 15% of hate crimes reported to the FBI are fabricated.  Reilly, who is black, notes that the media plays a role that furthers the narrative of increasing hate crimes, by identifying incidents as hate crimes before the facts are known.  He cites news stories speculating that toppled tombstones at a Jewish cemetery outside of Philadelphia was a hate crime when it turned out to be just age and landscaping, or the discovery of a noose at a D.C. construction site that turned out to be just a rope used to move equipment.  The story identifies other widely-reported incidents of hate crimes which were later determined to have been staged by the alleged victim.  "The problem you run into is the perception," said a Mississippi Fire Marshal.  "Once it gets on the news as racially motivated, and then they do a retraction three days later in small print---nobody notices that."