NYPD reveals that hate crimes against Asians surged 361% in 2021

The NYPD divulged that hate crimes in the city have surged 100% in the last year, with an especially high 361% increase against the Asian community.

The numbers: Police executives gave updates on the NYPD Hate Crime Review Panel’s findings and investigations in a conference on Tuesday.

“We put these statistics out, it can often alarm the public, nothing is more important to us than these cases, that’s why they have higher penalties,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said. “Because it’s not just about one person, it’s meant to attack an entire group or class.”
There were 503 recorded hate crimes in total for 2021 thus far, compared to the 252 in 2020.
“On the flip side of that, which shows the great work our hate crimes task force is doing, our arrests are up 106%. So on that 503 incidents, we’ve made 249 arrests on that,” Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
The overall spike in hate crimes was mainly due to the drastic rise in attacks against Asians, according to CBS. So far there have been 129 anti-Asian incidents reported in 2021 compared to just 28 in 2020.
A rise in antisemitic hate crimes was also of concern, growing from 121 cases last year to 183 this year.
Crimes targeting sexual orientation minorities almost tripled from 29 to 85 over the past year.
Police say that many of these crimes were committed not only by prejudiced people but also suspects deemed mentally ill. The review panel looked over 100 crimes and also saw anti-gay, anti-Muslim and anti-Black incidents.
“We have to shine a very bright light on this … and then [make] sure that everyone knows that when you do something like this, number one, you’ll be held accountable,” Shea said. “Number two, it’s not acceptable, not only in this city but anywhere.”

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This data comes on the heels of the FBI’s 2020 hate crime statistics report that was released in October. It documented a 73% nationwide rise in hate crimes against Asians last year.

Featured Image via @NYPDnews (left), Robinson Greig (right)

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