New report finds violent crimes by white supremacists hit decade-high under Trump

Violent right-wing hate crimes are on the rise during Trump’s presidency, a new report released on Monday revealed.

“Report to the Nation: 2019 Factbook on Hate & Extremism” was released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

“Hate crimes in thirty of America’s largest cities rose nine percent in 2018 to a decade high of 2,009,” the study revealed. The data shows hate crimes increasing from 1,730 incidents in 2016.

The increase has happened while overall crime in America has declined.

“White nationalism/far right extremism continue to be most ascendant” brand of hate crime, the study noted. The study’s authors noted that the “overwhelming majority” of ideological murders in 2018 “were by white nationalist/far right sole assailants who attacked around the mid-term elections.”

The study found that homicides motivated by white supremacy have gone up by 466%, from three killings in 2016 to 13 in 2017, and 17 in 2018.

“The most common victims for hate crime reported to police in major cities in 2018 were African Americans, Jews, and Gays,” the study noted. “Jews were the direct target of half of the bias/extremist homicides in 2018, in the worst year ever for anti-Semitic killings in the United States.”

Eleven people were shot and murdered at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 by a shooter yelling anti-Semitic slurs.

Despite the data in the study and other reports that echo its conclusions, Trump and his fellow Republicans have focused their rhetoric on groups like Antifa.

“Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror,” Trump wrote on Saturday.

The study noted, “While there were crimes and assaults committed by Antifa or hard-left adherents, there were no fatalities by their adherents in 2018 or 2017.”

While pushing anti-Antifa rhetoric, Trump shut down a program within the Department of Homeland Security tasked with monitoring and investigating domestic terror threats.

Trump has consistently insisted right-wing terrorism is not a problem. In March he said they were a “small group of people that have very, very serious problems.”

His fellow Republicans have adopted much of the same posture and refused to hold hearings on the right-wing terror threat when they had control of the House.

Right-wing extremism has a growing body count behind it and Republicans are ignoring the deadly threat to millions of vulnerable Americans.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.