FBI data shows spike in US hate crimes

Hate crimes in the United States jumped 17 percent in 2017, with a spike in Islamophobic attacks and anti-Semitic incidents, marking the third year in a row that such attacks have increased, according to FBI data released on Tuesday.

In all, last year saw a 58.1 percent spike in anti-Semitic incidents and an 18.6 increase in Islamophobic attacks.

More than half of the 7,175 hate crimes reported to the FBI by law enforcement agencies nationwide last year involved acts against individuals such as assault or intimidation, while 3,000 were attacks against property including vandalism, or robbery. 

In some instances, there was overlap in the two categories.

Trump's rhetoric surging right-wing 

Nearly two-thirds, 59.6 percent of the victims were targeted based on their race, ethnicity or ancestry. 

Roughly 20 percent of victims were targeted because of their religion while about 15 percent were victimised based on their sexual-orientation.

Anti-black bias motivated roughly half of all race-based hate crimes, followed by 17 percent of incidents that were motivated by anti-white bias and 11 percent that were motivated by anti-Latino bias.

Of the 6,370 known offenders in the report, 50.7 percent were white, while 21.3 percent were Black or African-American.

Critics say Trump's rhetoric has fomented a surge in right-wing extremism and may have even helped provoke the hate crimes. 

The Trump administration has rejected any notion that he has encouraged white nationalists and neo-Nazis who have embraced him, insisting the president's true aim is to unify America.

Priority to reduce hate crimes

"This report is a call to action and we will heed that call," Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said in response to the report. 

"The Department of Justice's top priority is to reduce violent crime in America, and hate crimes are violent crimes. They are also despicable violations of our core values as Americans."

Participating in the FBI's data collection programme is not compulsory for law enforcement agencies, and the figures should be treated as nationwide minimums as some department choose not to report their bias incidents to the bureau. 

The FBI does not estimate data for jurisdictions that do not report their data.

But just shy of 1,000 more agencies reported to the bureau for 2017 data than did for the previous year.