Tag Archives: Hate Crimes

US hate crime continues to ‘surge’ after Trump win.

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A prominent US civil rights group says it has identified almost 900 incidents of harassment following Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) is calling on Trump to “act strongly to squelch harassment”.

They also urge Trump to “reach out to the communities he’s injured”.

The comments come as the group releases two reports into the aftermath of the businessman’s win.

Along with representatives of teachers’ unions and other civil rights groups, the SPLC outlines how they say Trump’s rhetoric and actions have affected US society.

The SPLC has been monitoring social media and news reports, and an online form that they have created for Americans to self-report hateful incidents.

“Mr Trump should take responsibility for what’s occurring, forcefully reject hate and bigotry,” the organisation said.

In their report, Ten Days After, they report finding hundreds of cases of attacks against minorities – including instances of violence and intimidation – some of which they directly link to the surprise Trump victory on 8 November.

“An awful lot of these crimes are directly linked to the Trump campaign in the sense that graffiti was left or words were shouted that directly invoked Trump,” Senior SPLC fellow Mark Potok told the BBC.

Meanwhile, President-elect Trump is expected to pick former Goldman Sachs executive Steve Mnuchin to be treasury secretary, US media suggest.

Mnuchin, who was Trump’s campaign finance chairman and has no government experience, could be named on Wednesday, according to reports.

On Tuesday, Trump picked Tom Price as health secretary and Elaine Chao as transportation secretary.

He is still weighing his options in filling the posts of state and defence.

Mnuchin amassed a fortune over 17 years at Goldman Sachs investment bank, before founding a movie production company that was behind such box office hits as the X-Men franchise and American Sniper.

Amid fears of heightened racism & hate crimes, New Yorkers are volunteering to escort fearful commuters

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After President-elect Donald Trump’s election win, and amid fears of heightened bigotry and hate crimes, a Brooklyn woman has set up an online form where citizens can volunteer to accompany vulnerable commuters who are worried about being harassed on their way to school or work.

Kayla Santosuosso, the deputy director of the Arab American Association of New York, created the online signup sheet on Thursday evening, after being contacted about a Muslim woman in Harlem who, in the two days since the election, had twice been harassed and threatened on her train journey to college.
“I got a direct message from someone in my network asking me if I knew somebody who could help accompany her,” Santosuosso said.
“She had notified the police but she was still facing the prospect of having to go to school in the morning on her own and she was scared.”
Santosuosso immediately wrote a public Facebook post to see if anyone was available to help.
“We ended up finding someone within five minutes to accompany her,” she said.
But the offers of assistance kept flooding in.
“I had 25 people, mostly who I know, emailing me or direct messaging me on Facebook and being like, oh hey, if her ride falls through then please put me on the list as a backup,” she said.
To keep track of them all, Santosuosso, 26, decided to create a public Google doc for potential volunteers.
“This is for New Yorkers who are willing to accompany their neighbors on their commute in light of recent harassment and threats toward people of color, LGBTQ folks and Muslims,” reads the form, before asking users to fill in simple details about their neighborhood and commute start and end point.
“I created it, posted it on Facebook, closed my computer and went to sleep,” Santosuosso said.
“I woke up the following morning and it had gotten up to 50 people. And I was like, oh, a little bigger than I thought. I head into work, where I sat in a meeting dealing with a lot of these questions related to Trump’s proposed policies, especially around things like immigration or Muslim registries. Then, at 12:30 p.m., I sat at my desk, opened up the form and it had already gone up to 1,200 responses. And it kept growing.”
At the time this story was written, 5,600 people had volunteered to accompany vulnerable commuters. And word was spreading across state lines.
“I’ve had about 200 emails at this point from California, Washington state, Oregon, Boston, D.C., New Orleans, you name it. People have been reaching out to me from all throughout the country,” said Santosuosso, a registered Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton.
The overwhelming interest speaks, she theorized, to the extent to which “people are feeling personally responsible for the results of this election.”
“This is clearly an illustration that there is a massive amount of energy and motivation, post the election. Folks are ready to show up for their neighbor in ways that are potentially harmful to themselves. They may be putting their bodies on the line by offering to accompany somebody who may be harassed,” Santosuosso said.
“The feedback has been overwhelming in the sense that it’s been many people saying thank you. Thank you for helping me do something. Thank you for the opportunity,” she added.