Hate crimes in US skyrocketed 46% in 2021: New York City saw 96% spike, LA had 71% increase and Asian Americans experienced 339% rise in the worst numbers for 100 years, California State University reveals
The level of hate crimes in the U.S. shot up in 2021 across a dozen of the nation's biggest cities, and Asian Americans were among those being targeted most often amid the coronavirus pandemic as crimes against them skyrocketed 339 percent.
Data from metropolitan police departments in 14 cities found hate crimes were up by 46 percent in 2021 from 2020.
The disturbing findings come from data that has been collected as part of an as yet unpublished study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.
An analysis of the data shows Washington, D.C., saw the highest level of hate crimes per 100,000 members of the population with 21.6 hate crimes reported, followed by Los Angeles with 15.5 and San Francisco with 12.8.
The level of hate crimes in the U.S. shot up in 2021 across a dozen of the nation's biggest cities. An analysis of the data shows Washington D.C. saw the highest level of hate crimes per 100,000 members of the population with 21.6 hate crimes reported
The nation's second biggest city, Los Angeles, came next with 15.5 crimes per 100,000 of population.
San Francisco clocked in at 12.8 crimes per 100,000 residents followed by the far smaller cities of Columbus, Ohio, at 12.6 hate crimes and San Jose, California, at 11.4 crimes per 100,000.
New York City had 6.1 crimes reported per 100,000 while America's third biggest city, Chicago, reported 2.9 hate crimes per 100,000 people.
Although black Americans were the group targeted in most cities, the level of hate crimes directed toward Asian Americans went up by 339% as people blamed them for the coronavirus pandemic.
Anti-Semitic hate crime also went up in major cities in 2021 after declining for most of 2020.
Virtually all types of crime are up in the Big Apple. In terms of hate crime, New York City had 6.1 crimes reported per 100,000
The nation's second biggest city, Los Angeles, came next with 15.5 crimes per 100,000 people
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University, told Axios that the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 may have had the effect of artificially suppressing hate crimes for a year.
Levin explained how the center tracked a rise in anti-Asian violence after former President Donald Trump started calling COVID-19 the 'China virus' and 'kung flu.'
'New York, L.A. and Chicago hit century highs,' Levin said.
The increase in reported hate crimes is partly because cities have created more streamlined ways to report hate, Levin explained.
'But the bottom line is when you're seeing these kinds of increases across the best reporting agencies, that is a scary proposition,' he said.
Looking at the data across years, Levin believes that 2020 was a significant turning point.
'Stereotypes and bigotry that are directed against various groups, particularly racial groups, really get anchored in 2020,' he said. 'Anti-Asian with respect to COVID-19 and anti-black with respect to the George Floyd lynching and the social justice protests.'
In one of the most shocking hate crimes of 2021, a mass shooting at a series of Atlanta spas saw eight people killed, including six Asian women.
The majority of all U.S. hate crimes are committed by white people, according to available data, and the majority of all hate crimes are motivated by racial or ethnic bias.
In one of the most shocking hate crimes of 2021, a mass shooting at a series of Atlanta spas saw eight people killed, including six Asian women. Pictured, Jami Webb, the daughter of Xiaojie Tan, who was killed in the shooting, is consoled by her father Michael Webb outside Young's Asian Massage following the deadly shootings in Acworth, Georgia
But data also shows that hate crimes reported by state law enforcement to the FBI disproportionately list black Americans as the perpetrators.
According to the report, in at least 13 states, law enforcement-recorded hate crimes listed black offenders at a rate roughly 1.6 to 3.6 times greater than the size of the state's black population.
'These repeated disparities … show that - despite the fact that people of color are far more likely to be the victims of hate violence — the instances of hate violence that are actually documented by police … are disproportionately those alleged to have been committed by black people,' the report states.
As racist attacks on Asian Americans and Asian immigrants gained widespread attention in recent months, so did a false perception that black Americans were the main culprits of such attacks.
'We don't have a true and accurate understanding of what anti-Asian hate during the pandemic has looked like,' said Marita Etcubañez, senior director for strategic initiatives at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC in Washington D.C.
'But we do know that these commonly discussed perceptions that the perpetrators of anti-Asian hate are mainly black or African American are not accurate,' she said.
The U.S. Justice Department has also previously warned that white supremacist groups represent a rising security threat after the deadly January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The was a marked rise in anti-Asian violence after former President Donald Trump started calling COVID-19 the 'China virus' and 'kung flu
A hate crimes bill proposed by President Biden to combat violence against Asian Americans passed the U.S. Senate last May with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The new law expedited Justice Department reviews of hate crimes by putting an official in charge of the effort. Federal grants will be available to help local law enforcement agencies improve their investigation, identification and reporting of bias-driven incidents, which often go unreported.
Last month an Asian American hate crime shook the cores of New Yorkers as Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, was violently pushed to her death onto subway tracks in a Times Squares station.
Police, who are still investigating the attack, said her alleged attacker Simon Martial, 61, was inside the subway for nine minutes before he shoved Go.
Many New Yorkers traveled to Times Square to honor her life, where a photo of her was displayed across a giant billboard, which Mayor Eric Adams - who also started his term in office on New Years, alongside Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg - attended.
Two recent Asian hate crimes have gripped the heartstrings of New Yorkers. Yao Pan Ma, 61, a Chinese immigrant, (left) was recently taken off life support after he was attacked eight months ago while collecting cans in East Harlem. Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, (right) was thrown to her death on subway tracks in a Times Square station January 16
A 65-year-old Asian woman was brutally beaten on her way to church last March
One of the most shocking hate crimes in 2021 occurred in March, where a 65-year-old Asian woman was brutally assaulted in Hell's Kitchen on her way to church.
The victim was pushed to floor and kicked in the head by an unidentified passer-by during the vicious daylight attack. He reportedly told her: 'F*** you, you don't belong here.'
Out of the 436 hate crimes that occurred throughout the first three quarters of last year, only 185 assailants were arrested, according to NYPD data.
The nation's earliest protections against hate-motivated violence were passed after the Civil War, amid a rise in white supremacist violence against formerly enslaved Africans.
Modernization of federal hate crime legislation happened in 1968, and has since expanded to 46 states, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Arkansas, South Carolina and Wyoming are the only states without hate crime statutes.
No comments