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A.C. Thompson

Reporter A.C. Thompson covers hate crimes and racial extremism for ProPublica.

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A.C. Thompson is a staff reporter with ProPublica. His stories, which often examine the criminal justice system, have helped lead to the exoneration of two innocent San Francisco men sentenced to life in prison and the prosecution of seven New Orleans police officers. In addition to working as a print and web journalist, Thompson has reported extensively for television, serving as a producer and correspondent for the PBS documentary series Frontline. His life was fictionalized on the HBO show “Treme.”

Will Texas Massacre Finally Get Military to Improve its Criminal Reporting System?

The Air Force’s apparent failure to send the criminal records of the airman behind Sunday’s mass killings to civilian authorities allowed him to obtain guns. Such reporting failings are widespread and longstanding.

White Supremacists Share Bomb-Making Materials in Online Chats

Chat logs made available to ProPublica show talk of mass killings and the recipes that could be used to carry them out.

Documenting Hate

A White Hate Group’s Campaign of Menace

They train to fight. They post their beatings online. And so far, they have little reason to fear the authorities.

Documenting Hate

A New Generation of White Supremacists Emerges in Charlottesville

A group that included many people who were college-educated or ex-military displayed effective planning. “White people are pretty good at getting organized,” said one.

Documenting Hate

Police Stood By As Mayhem Mounted in Charlottesville

State police and National Guardsmen watched passively for hours as self-proclaimed Nazis engaged in street battles with counter-protesters. ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson was on the scene and reports that the authorities turned the streets of the city over to groups of militiamen armed with assault rifles.

Documenting Hate

Sikhs in America

Demonized as immigrants. Mistaken for Muslims. For more than a century, Sikhs in the U.S. have faced suspicion and violence.

Documenting Hate

More Than 100 Federal Agencies Fail to Report Hate Crimes to the FBI’s National Database

The gaps in data damage efforts to understand the nature and scope of violence driven by racial and religious hatred.

Documenting Hate

A Few Things Got Left Out of The Daily Caller’s Report on Confederate Monument Rally

A reporter for the conservative news site neglected to mention he’d given a speech in front of protesters in support of white nationalism.

Documenting Hate

California Hate Crime Against Sikh Man Yields Prison Terms for Assailants

Prosecutors were pleased that the two white assailants pleaded guilty to hate crime charges.

In an Angry and Fearful Nation, an Outbreak of Anti-Semitism

ProPublica’s Documenting Hate project recorded more than 330 reports of anti-Semitic incidents during a three-month span, from early November to early February.