“There were more than 1,500 hate crimes reported in the United States in 2017, according to the FBI, and anti-Semitic crimes like Saturday’s synagogue shooting in Poway made up nearly two-thirds of that total — more than any other religion-based hate crime,” as the San Diego-Union Tribune is reporting.
“The FBI was charged with tracking such crime statistics in 1990 when Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act, which requires the attorney general to collect data about “crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.”
“FBI data show the number of anti-Semitic crimes has increased by nearly 40 percent since 2012, when there were 674 incidents reported in the U.S. That sum represented the same portion — about 60 percent — of the total incidents reported that year.
“The number of victims and offenders are on the rise as well. In 2012, there were 836 victims of anti-Jewish crimes. Five years later, anti-Jewish crimes involved more than 1,000 victims. Data show the number of offenders has more than doubled, from 232 in 2012 to more than 500 in 2017, the most recent year available in FBI records.
“’The community is devastated at this horrific act of hate, and it is a shame that someone can’t go to worship, at any house of worship, and feel safe,’ said Tammi Gillies, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in San Diego. “It’s not just here, it’s everywhere, and something has to change.”
The rest of the article is here.
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