Hate crimes rose dramatically against Black and Asian Americans in the tri-state area last year, according to a
Team 12 analysis of new
FBI data. The analysis, by
Kane In Your Corner, found crimes targeting Black and Asian Americans increased sharply, even as overall hate crimes in the tri-state area declined.
In the space of a few days in March, New York City was rocked by video of two disturbing hate crimes. An Asian-American man was attacked on a New York City Subway, punched repeatedly and choked unconscious, while in Midtown, a 65-year-old Asian American woman was knocked to the ground and stomped.
They weren’t isolated incidents.
FBI Hate Crimes Data, released Monday, shows that along with the coronavirus last year came a surge in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans. In New York, the increase was a staggering 400%. New Jersey saw a 157% increase. While the raw numbers are low – 30 in New York, 18 in New Jersey – those increases dwarfed the 70% increase nationwide.
And last summer, as protesters were taking to the streets to make the case that Black Lives Matter, hate crimes targeting Black Americans were also on the rise. Nationwide, there was a 40% increase in anti-Black hate crimes. In the tri-state area, anti-Black hate crimes rose 4% in New Jersey, climbed 41% in New York, and skyrocketed 86% in Connecticut. Crimes included an incident News 12 covered last summer, in which a homeowner in Chappaqua discovered a noose painted outside her home.
There was some good news to be found in the numbers, including a sharp decline in crimes motivated by antisemitism. Hate crimes against Jewish targets dropped 45% in New York and 62% in New Jersey, the data shows. In Connecticut, they increased by 10%, but raw numbers were exceptionally low to start with. The 10% increase represented an increase of only one incident, from 10 to 11.
Overall, Kane In Your Corner found hate crimes were down about 20% in the tristate area. That’s a lot better than the United States as a whole, which saw a 6% increase. Hate crimes in New York declined 24%, with cases dropping from 612 to 463. New Jersey experienced a 19% decline, with cases decreasing from 482 to 389. Connecticut saw a 33% increase, with total hate crimes increasing from 76 to 101.