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Increase in violent hate crimes against people show a ‘leaner and meaner type of hate crime going on,’ CSUSB professor says
Detroit Free Press
Nov. 20, 2019
Hate crimes in Michigan against people increased last year, while the overall numbers of hate incidents declined, according to FBI statistics released last week.
There were 352 hate crime offenses in Michigan in 2018 against persons, a category that includes assaults, a 17% increase from 2017, when there were 302 hate crimes against people, according to a Free Press analysis of the FBI's new data. Hate crime assaults in Michigan rose 13% last year, from 165 in 2017 to 186 in 2018. … Michigan had the 6th highest number of hate incidents among all 50 states.
The increase in violent hate crimes against people shows that there is a 'leaner and meaner type of hate crime going on,' said Prof. Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino.
The trends in Michigan were echoed across the U.S. as the number of hate crimes against persons increased nationally to a 16-year-high, said a study co-written by Levin.
Hate crimes assaults against Muslims declined 36% last year, while hate crimes against Latinos were up 42%. In August, 22 people, mostly Latinos, were killed at a Walmart store in El Paso by a man with racist views angry at what he called 'the Hispanic invasion of Texas.' It was the deadliest hate crime shooting targeting Latinos in U.S. history.
The type of targets of hate crimes depends on the political and social climate. Anti-Muslim hate crimes reached a peak from 2015 to 2017 when Muslims were more in the public eye and were facing stereotypes associated with terrorism amid a series of attacks from groups like ISIS, Levin said.
Read the complete article at “FBI: Hate crimes against people up in Michigan.”
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