Hate crimes, most notably attacks against Jews and Muslims, have risen sharply in several Major American cities in 2016, starting with the presidential campaign and continuing since, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Previously unpublished data by the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism show double-digit increases in hate crimes in New York City, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Columbus, Ohio last year.
There were 1,037 incidents, a 23.3% increase from 2015, in the nine areas the report examined: New York; Washington; Chicago; Philadelphia; Montgomery County, Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle; Long Beach, California; and Cincinnati. Here are a few striking notes:
New York City saw a rise of 24% in hate crimes, the highest in more than a decade.
New York state had an increase of 20% in hate crimes.
Chicago had a rise of 24% in hate crimes, highest since 2010.
Cincinnati, Ohio, had a phenomenal jump in hate crimes by 38%.
Columbus, Ohio, saw an increase of close to 10%.
Montgomery County, Maryland, bordering Washington, DC, had a frightening increase of more than 42%.
Seattle, Washington, saw an increase of 6% in “malicious harassment.”
The FBI’s most recent hate crime report, issued November, 2016, showed an increase in hate crimes of “only” 7% in 2015, but included in this data is a jump of 67% in hate crimes against Muslims.
The new hate crime report was conducted under the supervision of Criminologist and attorney Brian Levin, who is a professor of criminal justice and Director of the nonpartisan Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino where he specializes in the analysis of hate crime, domestic and international terrorism and related legal issues.
Levin wrote in The Huffington Post in late February that “Jews remain the most targeted faith community, both numerically and proportionally, accounting for 11.4% of all hate crime and 53% of all religious hate crime.”
Levin pointed out, however, that “in 2009, by contrast, Jews fared worse, constituting 14.1% of all hate crime incidents and 71.45% of religious hate crimes. Even with the declines of preceding years, Jews in 2015 were represented almost six times as much as a percentage of hate crime targets as they were as a percentage of the American population.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported last month that the number of hate groups in the US rose from 892 in 2015 to 917 in 2016. The number of anti-Muslim hate groups soared from 34 in 2015 to 101 in 2016.
