As more anecdotal and confirmed reports of hate crimes and hate speech arise in the local media and on your Facebook feeds in the wake of last week's election the assumption being that individuals with various prejudices are suddenly emboldened by the election of Donald Trump, much as they were in the wake of September 11th, 2001 the FBI has just released its latest national report on hate crime statistics. And as the Examiner reports, hate crimes were on the rise through 2015, particularly in California as a whole, however such incidents remained infrequent in San Francisco itself, comparatively.
28 hate crimes were reported in SF last year, compared to 837 across the state and 5,818 nationwide, which was a 6.5 percent uptick over 2014. By far the group most targeted in these incidents, according to the report, were African Americans.
Data for these statistics was collected via 14,997 law enforcement agencies, and in San Francisco last year, a total of 10 crimes were reported that were linked to ethnicity, with nine that were linked to sexual orientation, and three related to gender identity. Also, six hate crimes were reported here related to religion.
As CBS 5 notes, while hate attacks on Muslim Americans peaked in 2001, they spiked again nationwide in 2015, rising 67 percent over the previous year.
Meanwhile, in the last week alone, multiple reports have come in about bizarre confrontations, graffiti, and displays around the Bay Area, including several men waving Confederate flags at a Veterans' Day parade in Petaluma over the weekend.
Last Wednesday, a young woman wearing a hijab was reportedly attacked at San Jose State University.
A racially motivated verbal attack took place aboard a Puerto Vallarta-bound United flight from SFO on Friday, prompting a dramatic plea from the captain captured on video.
Racist graffiti also appeared over the weekend on the sides of an elementary school in Alameda.
In Pittsburg, California, people have been alarmed by a seemingly racist message that went up on the side of a home. As KRON 4 reported, however, this man's sign was unrelated to the election (he is, in fact, himself African American), and reflects his frustration with the court system.*
There has also been a rumor about a hate attack on a gay man in or near the Castro, allegedly by a group of threatening males, over the weekend. That attack, and the timing and location of it, has yet to be confirmed.
Update: Hoodline spoke to a police captain who said there has been no confirmation about any group of men threatening anyone in the neighborhood, however police spoke to one individual wearing a ski mask and camo pants who was "pushing his way through a group of people in a not-very-polite way" on the 400 block of Castro Sunday evening. A separate report about a man who was severely beaten on his way home from work actually occurred in Oakland, though the man does work in the Castro. Details about that incident remain scarce.
Related: Video: Captain On SFO-Departing Flight Addresses Passengers Following Racist Incident
* This post has been corrected to show that this sign in Pittsburg appears not to be one of racial hate.
