hate crimes

Since 9/11, hate crimes have been almost steadily rising in America, as well as elsewhere in the world. There were a couple of years when the rise leveled off, but last year the increase continued apace. In 2006 there were more than 7,700 hate crimes in the US, a rise of more than 7%, according to the FBI.

I consider this to be part and parcel with the dominance of a political party, the Republican Party, that puts hatred and intolerance near the top of their agenda. This political agenda, cynically used to get votes and power and broadcast daily by the Fox Hate Channel, leads to real violence. The vilification of diversity by the Republican Party and their Fox mouthpieces encourages violence in America.

Here are some deatails about this rise in hate crimes, from BBC news:

More than half of the victims were attacked because of their race, while 19% were targeted because of their religion, the annual report said.

However, there were wide discrepancies, with northern states reporting far more hate crimes than the southern states, despite the South's racial history.

This is an interesting discrepancy. Some are claiming that this is misleading, since the reporting of these statistics is voluntary and each state has its own way of defining and reporting hate crime statistics, comparisons between states may be meaningless. Some argue that the reporting is more accurate and realistic in the Northern states, giving a false impression of more hate crimes. Needless to say, this is controversial and deserves further investigation, I would think. If the South really does have fewer hate crimes, it would be well worth knowing why. And if in reality it does not and the Northern states are merely more honest in their reporting of hate crimes, that also would be worth knowing.