The number of hate crimes almost doubled in Pennsylvania last year from 2019 and were up nationwide to the highest level since 2008. That’s according to the latest report from the FBI. There were 81 hate crimes investigated in Pennsylvania in 2020.
The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”
African-Americans were most often targeted in hate crimes last year but so were Jewish people and properties and Asian-Americans.
Thursday’s Smart Talk investigates why there are more hate crimes and what can be done to stop them.
Appearing on the program are Shira Goodman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, Philadelphia, and Kenneth Huston, President of the Pennsylvania NAACP State Conference.
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