Waking up to news that hate crimes are at an all-time high does not exactly shout TGIF. But here we are, America.
The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University recently reported full and partial statistics showing that hate crimes spiked almost 50 percent in 2021.
By the numbers: An analysis of 14 major metropolitan areas with fully and partly reported data found that hate crimes surged 46% from the previous year.
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- New York City reported a 96% increase as Jewish Americans remained the most targeted group.
- Los Angeles experienced a 71% spike as it recorded the largest number of hate crimes in any U.S. city this century.
- The total number of reported hate crimes in those U.S. cities jumped to 2,019 from 1,380.
- Phoenix and Sacramento haven’t reported their total numbers yet.
The intrigue: Though Black Americans remained the most targeted group in most cities, anti-Asian American hate crimes increased 339% in 2021, the preliminary report found.
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- Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City broke records with the number of hate crimes against Asian Americans, while Georgia saw the largest number of fatal events with six Asian women murdered in two attacks.
- In New York City, the number of anti-Asian American hate crimes jumped from 30 in 2020 to 133 last year.
The spike reflects an 11 percent increase in “suspected hate crimes reported to police across a dozen of America’s largest cities,” NBC News reported.
Tell it to D’Monterrio Gibson, 24, a Black FedEx driver in Brookhaven, Mississippi. The FBI is investigating an attack on him as a hate crime.
Gibson was delivering packages around 7 p.m. in late January when a white pickup truck from the neighborhood began blowing its horn and chasing his rental truck (CNN):
The van Gibson was driving was a Hertz rental van that had two large Hertz stickers on the back, Gibson said. Gibson’s attorney, Carlos E. Moore, told CNN that Gibson was wearing a FedEx jacket, shirt and pants but the vehicle had no FedEx markings.
Gibson said he thought he was in the truck’s way and so he tried to leave, but the truck swerved around him and tried to cut him off.
“At that point my instincts kick in, and I swerve around him as he (is) trying to cut me off to avoid getting stuck in the neighborhood,” he said.
Gibson said he drove down the street about two or three houses when a man in the middle of the road pointed a gun at his vehicle and was mouthing and waving at Gibson to stop. Gibson said he shook his head “no” to indicate he wasn’t going to stop and then hid behind his steering wheel while he swerved around him.
That’s when Gibson heard “at least five shots and heard the bullets hitting the van,” according to an incident report filed January 25 by the Brookhaven Police Department after officers met with Gibson and his boss.
Even with bullet holes in his van, police were not taking Gibson seriously. They asked, “Did you do anything to make them think you were suspicious?” To Gibson, that was ” a slap in the face.”
Brandon Case was charged with feloniously attempting to cause bodily injury with a firearm and a deadly weapon by shooting at an occupied vehicle with Gibson inside, according to an affidavit provided to CNN by the Brookhaven Municipal Court, signed January 31.
Gregory Case was charged with unlawfully and feloniously conspiring with Brandon Case to commit aggravated assault by attempting to cause bodily injury to Gibson, the affidavit, signed February 1, states.
His attackers, both White men, father and son, were not arrested for eight days.
Gibson’s attorney observed that had the roles been reversed, his client would have been immediately arrested and charged with attempted murder.
That’s how much impresssion the father-son murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia made in Mississippi.
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