Were hate groups on the rise before Trump?

The FBI keeps a record of hate crime incidents and reported 7,175 hate crimes in 2017, a rise of 17%, the third straight year that incidents of bias motivated attacks have grown. In 2016 there were 6,121 reported incidents.

The increase especially affected black and Jewish Americans. Some of the rise is attributed to an increase in the number of police departments reporting these incidents.

This is from a BBC report based on the FBI’s 2017 Hate Crime Statistics

Following.

No links via phone, sorry. I started feeling racial tension when Obama was in office. I really thought we may have an assasination. Then BLM and violent fringe groups got a lot of media. We werent just seeing black on black violence but white on black, like at Trump rallies.

Seems like the last two years, Muslims, Mexicans got added in via travel bans and border issues. I havent heard much Jew hate though. And really not much Mexican hate as much as safety and self protection concerns.

So to me, it started under Obama when empowerment became what some may call, more aggressive. The Blue Line made people choose sides. Either you are pro police or not usually. It will always behoove us to question authority, but many people got ready to defend LEO’s in my area.

I think so but it’s a symptom. People are more ideological by orders of magnitude than they were in the previous generation. I can pontificate on why but it boils down to a lack of objectivity from those raised by screens and not friends, neighbors, teachers and family. The more ideological someone is the more disconnected with reality they have become. Their world-view is not formed by education and experience it’s done so by social media. I especially am concerned when people will claim that online encounters hold the same weight as actual, face to face time. Believing liberals and conservatives behave in real life as they are represented online is a common theme I’m seeing from those under the age of about 30. It’s disgusting and depressing to witness because I’m not sure there is a path forward to pull them back into reality. We have some here to be honest. The poor quality of information and the lack of experience and education to filter it out make recruiting young people for political and financial gain relatively easy. This is painful to watch as it’s happening on both sides of the spectrum and is brewing hate beyond words.

They were always there, just not vocal until Trump opened his BFM. THEN the chorus was joined!

Using the SPLC for these statistics is problematic. That aside I found the make to be interesting as it seems the concentration is more a matter of population rather than region. Of course the number of groups is less significant than the number of members. A few groups with large memberships would be worse than a large number with few members. @flutherother‘s numbers are also interesting but don’t tell us much either. The number of crimes increased but so did the number of reporting agencies. It would be interesting to see whether the numbers went up or down based on the same agencies that reported last year. Ultimately these statistics are interesting but they don’t tell us whether things are getting better or worse. They are but another way to reinforce our preconceived beliefs depending on how you want to read them. I can’t tell which way the trend is moving.

Hate groups began to surge on 9/11, and substantially increased following Obama’s election. Trump’s candidacy united them under a single, fucked up cause.

@Jaxk Great points for questioning how the stats are being compiled and analyzed.

@flutherother Every so often I look at hate crime stats when I’m in some sort of debate about the topic, but I realized I wasn’t sure if hate was spreading in great numbers, or if the haters are just getting more violent and active.

I think a lot of hateful actions aren’t recorded in some sort of official report.

@JLeslie The FBI figures seem to be the best we’ve got but they depend on crimes being properly recorded by the police and on the victims reporting incidents in the first place. They aren’t perfect but they at least give an indication of trends.

@flutherother My concern is statistics being manipulated in a time when Democrats have finally learned the craft of scaring people to get them motivated. I don’t think the FBI is doing that, but other organizations might be cherry picking and not using apples to apples when comparing previous years to more current years.

And when the president himself has little regard for the facts then you have a problem.

@flutherother I do have a big problem with Trump not having stronger and more consistent words to condemn these hate groups. Years ago he was very forthright with condemning anti-Semitism and hate groups and their leaders. I just can’t believe how he has changed on this to achieve power. It’s very disappointing and disturbing. Although, I do think some things are taken out of context. Like when he said “good people on both sides” regarding the Charlottesville incident. I think it is very possible he was talking about people on both sides of the taking down the statues thing, not about being a neo-Nazi, but I think he was wrong to use those words considering what had transpired. This was not just people gathering to demonstrate, it was WS from many parts of the country with torches and guns and someone was killed. He should have been more careful with his words if he does have a problem with the WS. Those WS do see Trump as a Jewish sympathizer from what I can tell. They don’t worship Trump.

As far as facts, like I said I trust the FBI stats, and I assume if anything they are understated, but I don’t necessarily trust how other stats are put together and analyzed.

The SPLC is not a reliable source for determining who the terrorists and extremists are. The FBI is much more impartial. I would say that based on their statistics that yes, hate groups are on the rise…or at least hate crimes. There are also new groups and definitions that have been created. For example, the term “Black Identity Extremist” was put out by the FBI just a week before the Charlottesville VA debacle. So the increase might be that either we are (a) defining crimes as hate crimes more often than in the past or (b) we are seeing more groups forming that are hate based or carry out hate crimes.