Post Election Hate Crimes Exceed Those After 9-11

Many Trump surrogates and Republicans would have people believe that there is no surge in hate crimes in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory.  According to these folks, its all in our imagination and/or the result of made up stories by hostile media outlets.  Like so much that has come out of the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, these claims are untrue.  Hate crimes have spiked and Trump and company have done too little to demand that these hate-filled knuckle draggers.   A piece in USA Today looks at what is really happening as opposed to the bogus story line of Trump/the GOP.  Here are excerpts:

What may seem like a dramatic rise in the number of hate harassment and hate incidents happening across the country in the wake of Tuesday's general election is not in anyone's imagination, experts say.

There indeed has been a spike in the number of reports of such incidents, say representatives for two organizations that track such occurrences. A representative for one group, in fact, said the rise appears to be even worse that what was took place immediately after the terror attacks in 2001.

"Since the election, we've seen a big uptick in incidents of vandalism, threats, intimidation spurred by the rhetoric surrounding Mr. Trump's election," Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., told USA TODAY. "The white supremacists out there are celebrating his victory and many are feeling their oats," Cohen said.

The incidents, some that bring up memories of the Jim Crow era, continued into Friday. In Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania issued a statement saying it was working to find the source of racist messages sent to black freshmen, and in Syracuse, N.Y., a group of pickup trucks - one draped with the Confederate flag - drove through an anti-Trump rally. In Columbus, Ohio, a man banged on the car window while a Muslim woman was driving, her children and elderly parents with her, and told her, "C--t, you don't belong in this country," according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington.

All those were added to the list of incidents that included black children being told to get to the back of a bus and Latino children being taunted about the wall that Trump promised to build between Mexico and the United States. 

Anti-black and anti-immigrant incidents are generating the highest numbers followed by anti-Muslim incidents, Cohen said. Part of the reason it is happening is that hate group leaders are encouraging members to intimidate people, according to Cohen.

Members of the public who witness or are victimized by hate harassment are advised to contact police, the SPLC, CAIR or other organizations that advocate against hate crimes.