It’s no surprise that hate crimes are increasing at alarming rates across the country. Reports throughout the year have consistently noted increases in faith-, race-, and identity-based crimes nationwide. According to data compiled by the FBI, the highest level of hate crimes in over 12 years was reported in 2020. Hate crimes are defined by the agency as crimes “motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.” While the overall increase in hate crimes in the U.S. rose by 6%, the data found that individual rates of increases in crimes were significantly higher, with some communities seeing over a 50% increase in hate crimes. This data is followed by an even more terrifying report. The New York Police Department (NYPD) shared Tuesday that there has been a 100% increase in overall reported hate crimes. Anti-Asian, anti-LGBTQ, and antisemitic incidents were the ones that were reported to have the biggest increases. With the number of crimes that go unreported each day, the actual numbers of these incidents are expected to be higher. Read more