It's not a huge change, but we suppose even one less person harmed because of someone else's racial bias or hate is something to celebrate: Law-enforcement agencies are reporting a slight drop in hate crimes last year. The final tally for 2011 was 6,222, compared with 6,628 in 2010 and 6,604 in 2009. Â
Still, the idea that so many (or really, any) Americans are still victims of senseless attacks is horrifying. What kind of New Year's resolution do we need to make as a country to get this figure into the triple digits? From the Huffington Post:
The FBI says the number of hate crimes reported to police in 2011 declined slightly compared to the previous year.
Nearly half of the reported hate crimes in 2011 were motivated by racial bias, and one of every five hate crimes was motivated by a sexual orientation bias or religious bias. One in five was motivated by bias involving national origin or ethnicity.
Nearly 60 percent of the people who allegedly committed hate crimes were white. Some 20 percent were black.
The FBI has been collecting information on hate crimes for more than two decades. The highest-recorded number of hate crimes was in 2001, when 9,730 such crimes were reported.
Read more at the Huffington Post.