CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2017, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2017, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“TRUMP AND HATE CRIMES: BIG RISE LIKELY
ONLY THE START”
Hate
crimes are on the rise in California and there are strong hints the increase
stems in part from President Trump’s habit of using racial slurs like the
“Pocahontas” tag he likes to apply to Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth
Warren and the travel bans he’s imposed on citizens of several Muslim countries.
There
were also Trump’s call for a wall separating this country from Mexico and his
claim that vast numbers of Latino illegal immigrants are criminals and rapists.
The
latest FBI hate crime statistics cover only 2016, not even including an apparent
rise in white supremacist activity that’s been reported less formally since
Trump refused to outright condemn the neo-Nazi-tinged rally that turned fatal
last summer in Charlottesville, VA.
Even
the FBI’s numbers are far from complete, as they are based on reporting only
from cities and counties that volunteer information. Many don’t bother
reporting.
There
is also no proof that Trump’s rhetoric and tweets caused the hate crime spike,
but there is a definite correlation of the increases with his remarks.
Most
striking in the California numbers stemming from 733 police and sheriff’s
departments in all parts of the state is the rise of almost 100 hate crimes, or
11.7 percent, over the previous year, 2015. Perhaps even more important to
anyone looking for a trend was a rise of 9 percent in the month of November
2016, the month of Trump’s election victory.
The
numbers show increases in both race-based crimes and in those targeting gender.
The biggest increases were in anti-Latino, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT
crimes.
If
there’s any parallel here to previous California hate crime spikes, it’s to the
period just before and after Proposition 187 passed in 1994, seeking to deprive
undocumented immigrants of all government services, from public schooling to
emergency room care. The hot political rhetoric of that time also saw an
upswing in crimes targeting Latinos, regardless of either their immigration
status or of how long their families had been in California.
Most
hate crimes, as usual, occurred in or near large cities, with most hate crimes
in San Francisco against gays, while in Los Angeles a wave of incidents
targeted Jews, Muslims and African-Americans.
Reported
hate crimes linked to white supremacists in Los Angeles County jumped from 63
in 2015 to 105 last year, about two-thirds more than the previous year’s
number. They have been most common in poorer communities like Cudahy, according
to an annual survey by that county’s Human Relations commission.
That
commission also found African Americans the most frequently targeted group in
Southern California, often the victims of white supremacists. But the danger to
transgender individuals also increased sharply, with 39 reported crimes hitting
them compared with 22 the year before, a 77 percent increase.
The
increases were just as sharp in Northern California, where hate crimes almost
tripled in Santa Clara County, from 14 to 39, with San Jose hit the most. Of
that city’s 24 reported hate crimes, 15 were based on race and ethnicity, seven
were religious and two involved sexual orientation. San Jose’s total was triple
its 2015 number.
The
increases in crimes based on race and ethnicity, from swastikas on synagogues
and mosques to physical attacks on gays, are too striking and too ubiquitous in
California’s population centers to have been spurred by anything other than the
not-quite-hateful, but still race-suggestive rhetoric that suffused television
and the Internet at the times when these crimes increased the most.
It
would be the height of naiveté to gloss over this reality. California learned
in 1994 and 1995 that hateful political advertising coincided with a sharp rise
in hate and hate crimes against the same or similar groups to those referenced
in the ads.
The
2016 numbers – more dramatically increased than in any one year since the 1990s
– appear to demonstrate that this type of politics is no more benign today than
20 years ago.
And
until the numbers for 2017 come in sometime near the end of next year, no one will
know the exact effect the Trump presidency has had on them. But it’s a safe bet
we will see even more dramatic increases than last year’s.
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, go to www.californiafocus.net
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