WASHINGTON.— In 2019, the United States recorded the highest number of hate crimes in more than a decade and
the highest number of homicides, mostly Latino,
according to an annual report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, for its acronym in English).
Reports of hate crimes against the Latino community increased in 2019. Of the 51 murders that were reported last year, 22 of the victims, nearly half, were killed in the El Paso massacre that occurred on August 3, 2019. The most were Latino people.
The data collected by the FBI, which is supported by reports from 15,588 law enforcement agencies, highlights that
2019 was, in fact, the deadliest year since the agency began producing these types of reports in 1991
.
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In total, there were 7,314 incidents of criminal violence last year, a figure that represents an increase of 113% over 2018.
It was also the third year in a row that
the numbers surpassed the ceiling of 7,100 violent incidents, and the most violent since 2008
, when the FBI reported 7,783 incidents.
But according to the Southern Law Poverty Center, a center that tracks crimes of a racial nature and violence by extremist groups, the figure in any case does not reflect the true history of violence in the country because many victims do not report the crimes, and because the agencies voluntarily submit those figures to the FBI.
Hate crimes, by definition, are directed against people because of their ethnic or racial origin, their religious beliefs, or their sexual orientation.
An analysis of the data indicates that, of the total hate crimes registered in 2019,
57.6% were due to racial prejudice
, followed by 20.1% by the religion of the victims, and 16.7% by their sexual orientation.
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According to the report, African-Americans topped the list for racial hate crimes, with 1,930 incidents, or 48.5% of the total, followed by whites, with 666, or 15.7%, and Hispanics, with 527, or 14.1%.
Meanwhile, Jews made up 60.2% of the victims of 1,521 crimes motivated by religious hatred, followed by Muslims, with 13.2% of cases in that category, and by Catholics and other Christian denominations, with 3.8% each.
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They blame Trump for the toxic environment
According to activists consulted by Noticias Telemundo, it is an "epidemic" encouraged by the inflammatory rhetoric of President Donald Trump and amplified by extremist groups.
Since 2016, when he launched his first presidential race, Trump promoted his version of an economic nationalism that puts “America First” which, according to activists, what it actually did was give wings to nationalist groups white.
The report "is especially alarming, considering that the number of law enforcement agencies that release the figures voluntarily has dropped,
which means that the report only captures a fraction
" of all crimes, said Becky Monroe, director of a program to combat hatred at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
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"
These acts of hatred and violence are horrendous and reflect the damaging rhetoric and policies of the Trump Administration
that are directed against ethnic and religious minorities, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community over the past four years," he added.
According to Monroe, whose group leads efforts against white supremacist violence, the FBI report should serve as an alarm for Congress to pass the bipartisan "No Hates Act" bill, introduced last year to strengthen anti-violence programs. prevention of racial violence.
For his part, Marc Banks, spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said that the government of President-elect Joe Biden has to make clear that
"supremacy White and racism have no place in this country ”.
Biden's administration must respond to the problems faced by African-Americans in some parts of the nation, "through legislation and economic measures to combat racism and correct the damage done by the Trump Administration," said Banks.
“President Trump put himself and his interests first.
In reality, he never realized the ideal of putting 'America first';
he fanned the flames of division and created a volatile environment that pitted one against the other
, thus appealing to the dark side of the country's sordid past, ”Banks warned.
