Major increase in hate crimes after Trump victory: NGO

Hate crimes in the United States have risen sharply following the election of Donald Trump as the country’s future president, says an American nonprofit legal advocacy organization.

In a report released on Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented 867 hate and bias incidents across the country in the course of 10 days after the November 8 vote, during which the reality TV star and billionaire managed to gain electoral victory, Reuters reported.

The figure displays a major increase from what is considered a normal rate, according to the group's president, Richard Cohen.

Ranging from assaults to threatening graffiti, the incidents involved immigrants being menaced by deportation and vandalism as well as derision of African Americans with reference to Trump's victory.

Cohen said the president-elect must apologize over his offensive remarks against certain communities in the US, most notably Muslims, Hispanics and blacks.

"Our commitment is to hold Mr. Trump to the first commitment he made when it was clear that he was the president-elect, and that was to bind the wounds of division in our country. It has to be done with more than words it has to be a pledge that he takes seriously, that he works to repair that with his actions, that he apologizes to the communities that he has injured and that his policies reflect that commitment," he said.

Charities Program Director Brenda Abdelall, also speaking at the event in Washington, DC, referred to appointments Trump has been busy making with some controversial ones involving establishment figures or people with ties to white supremacy.

Trump’s claims and tweets in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election “connect” with his current appointments, Abdelall said, referring to hate language against Muslims and racial comments about a Hispanic judge on the campaign trail.

"As a candidate we saw Donald Trump using divisive and really hateful rhetoric that singled out a number of different communities across the board. And I think what's most concerning right now is his appointments and I think the appointments themselves are a signal that those policies that he tweeted that he said on the campaign trail everything from a registry for Muslim immigrants everything from concerns about a judge's ethnicity and being able to… properly adjudicate cases as well as mass surveillance of mosques. All of that campaign rhetoric, when you look at the campaign rhetoric and you look at the appointments, they connect.”

She further asserted that now was the time to push the future president to “change course” through his appointments.

“So our greatest concern there is really that to take a stand right now against the bigotry and campaign rhetoric would call for Donald. President-elect Trump, to also change course when it comes to his appointments as well."

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