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Violent hate crimes in US reach highest levels in 16 years: FBI reports

Wednesday, 13 November 2019 6:02 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 13 November 2019 6:07 AM ]

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (L) and El Paso Mayor Dee Margo (R) pray after a vigil ceremony at Saint Pius X Church, following a deadly mass shooting, in El Paso, Texas, August 3, 2019. (AFP photo)

The number of violent hate crimes and threats in the United States has reached the highest levels in 16 years, according to new FBI data.

The data, which comes from over 16,000 law enforcement agencies, was released in the annual Hate Crime Statistics report on Tuesday.

There was an increase of 21% in attacks against Latinos or Hispanic in 2018, when 671 people were targeted, compared with 552 the year before, the report showed.

Attacks against people with disabilities also rose by 37% to 159 incidents last year, according to the data, which also showed people, instead of property, are being increasingly targeted.

"Homicides were up and crimes against persons were up and that's an important thing to look at," said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

The spikes in incidents have consistently connected to political attacks against specific marginalized groups in recent years, Levin said.

“We’re seeing the swapping of one derided group in the social-political arena for another,” he noted, adding, “Attacks against Muslims peaked around 2016 when terrorism was the concern. Now immigration is the No. 1 issue and Latinos are being targeted.”

“We’re having a democratisation of hate,” Levin said. “There is a reshuffling in who is being targeted.”

Violence committed by white men inspired by an extremist ideology makes up a growing number of domestic terrorism cases, according to another FBI report released earlier this year.

Several Democratic presidential candidates for the 2020 election have accused President Donald Trump of creating racial divisions.

PressTV-Trump’s 2020 Democratic rivals blame him for gun violence

The Democrats think Trump’s racism is the key reason behind the recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, which killed 29 people.

In August, Senator Cory Booker said Trump had fueled racist sentiments by using words like “infestation” and “invasion” in describing crime and illegal immigration, accusing the Republican president of giving license to violent behavior.

Trump has characterized immigrants from Mexico and Central America as criminals, gang members and rapists and described the communities of African American lawmakers on several occasions as "infested" with crime and filth.

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