by Jan Wolfe
(Reuters) – The number of hate crimes in the United States rebounded last year to its highest level since 2008, an increase fueled by rising assaults against African and Asian Americans, show data released Monday by the FBI.
According to these figures, compiled by the US Federal Police from data from more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies across the country, 7,759 hate crimes, defined in the United States as physical assault, damage to property or other crimes committed because of the victim’s ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or even political opinions were identified in 2020 in the United States, up 6% compared to 2019.
Of the 7,426 recorded offenses against individuals, and not against property, 53.4% were acts of intimidation, 27.6% concerned simple assaults and 18.1% assaults with bodily harm. Twenty-two murders and 19 rapes have been labeled as hate crimes.
The number of hate crimes targeting African Americans fell from 1,930 to 2,755 and that targeting Asian Americans from 158 to 274.
After the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6, the US Department of Justice warned of the threat posed by white supremacist groups to US security.
At the same time, the number of reported assaults against Asian Americans has increased, fueled according to many observers by ex-President Donald Trump’s attacks on China during the emergence of the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last May, Attorney General Merrick Garland, the US Attorney General, issued new guidelines to get local police to report more hate crimes to the FBI.
(Report Jan Wolfe; French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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