NEW YORK (Yahoo News) - An April report by a coalition of human rights organizations is warning that the 2024 presidential election is once again poised to give rise to an increase in hate crimes.
“From the mainstreaming of hate and the failure of social media platforms to adequately address disinformation, the current climate is rife with opportunities for the trend of increased hate to continue into the 2024 election — unless action is taken,” the report by the Leadership Conference Education Fund, the research arm of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, states.
The report, which draws on findings from 230 national human rights organizations, charts “an unmistakable pattern that has emerged during the last four presidential campaign cycles” showing “reported hate crimes increase during elections.”
As the U.S. heads into what experts believe will be another deeply polarizing election cycle, the report warns of what is to come, based on FBI data that captures upticks of hate crimes from past presidential cycles, beginning with the 2008 election of the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama.
The number of reported hate crimes increased by about 5% in the election year of 2012 from the year before. According to the report, FBI data shows that hate crimes have increased by more than 80% since 2015. From 2014 to 2015, reported hate crimes against U.S. Muslims rose by 70%. In November 2016, the month Donald Trump was elected president, the FBI reported the highest number of hate crimes recorded in over a decade. From 2019 to 2020, the numbers in reported hate crimes leaped by more than 13% amid violence surrounding the year’s racial justice demonstrations.