Nearly 900 Hate Crimes Were Committed Immediately Following Election
867 hate incidents were confirmed by the Southern Poverty Law Center in the ten days immediately following Donald Trump’s election. In 40 percent of those instances, Trump’s name or campaign slogan was directly used.
Incidents have targeted people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, immigrants, Muslims, Jews and many more groups that Donald Trump targeted along his campaign, according to the Huffington Post.
“Both the harassment since the election and the energy on the radical right are the predictable results of the campaign that Trump waged for the presidency — a campaign marked by incendiary racial statements, the stoking of white racial resentment, and attacks on so-called ‘political correctness,’” states the report, titled “Ten Days After.”
The SPLC didn’t record this kind of date before the election, so no direct comparisons can be made to show if this is an increase in hateful incidents. But it’s safe to say that the election season is directly linked to the number.
The data was compiled through media reports and submissions on their website. While the organization didn’t count any incidents authorities discredited after investigations, it also feels that their findings “almost certainly represent a small fraction of the actual number of election-related hate incidents that have occurred since November 8.”
280 of the listed incidents targeted immigrants, while 187 targeted black people. 100 targeted Jews and 95 targeted members of the LGBTQ community.
Results also revealed that 320 of the incidents occurred on school campuses, which the SPLC didn’t find surprising “given how prevalent bullying is in our nation’s schools and the characteristics of young people.”
These findings were released at a time where a string of hate-inspired incidents have been recorded across the United States, including both northern and southern states, as well as red and blue states, showing a perceived rise in racism, misogyny, homophobia and general bigotry.
Photo Credit: Southern Poverty Law Center