The fbi is launching an ad campaign to
increase the reporting of hate crimes
after data released last year found hate
crimes across the country rose to their
highest level in more than a decade and
anti-asian incidents spiked since the
start of the pandemic the department of
justice says still the majority go
unreported now the fbi wants to make it
known that prosecuting those crimes is a
top priority melissa rose cooper reports
just as the united states is the
greatest melting pot in the world
new jersey is one of its most diverse
diverse states but despite all the
cultures you can find here the number of
hate crimes in new jersey is on the rise
civil rights are part of the fabric of
our country
they are legal protections some
stretching back more than half a century
that provide among other things freedom
from discrimination based on a person's
race
religion
gender or gender identity
physical limitation national origin or
sexual orientation the fbi wants to make
sure every resident maintains these
rights so the agency is working with
community groups around the state
launching a new hate crimes awareness
campaign called protecting our
communities together the goal is to get
people to report hate crimes since
officials say the majority of them go
unreported being a
product
of
segregation
as a child
understanding there were places that i
could not go places
that i
shouldn't or at that time they said i
shouldn't be
and and even coming from the corporate
world here in new jersey understanding
that discrimination
is a deep rooted seed here and often in
the african-american communities we've
become so used to the abuse that we
don't report messages like this will be
placed throughout the state including on
buses and trains and on billboards along
the highway letting people know what
they should do they're also being
translated into 17 languages so no one
is left out we just don't have one
language every state in india has a
different language so i think that
that's one thing that's important
according to new jersey state police
over 1400 bias attacks and hate crimes
were reported in 2020 that's a 45 percent
increase from the year before attacks
against people in the black community
went up 84 percent
and 74 percent against those in the asian
community the jewish community was the
second most impacted group with nearly
300 attacks jersey city was
a national horrific event where people
were slaughtered there was a massacre of
many people
when people get beaten up when they get
epithets when they get name-calling at
them when they're made to feel insecure
if they're
having a cup of coffee on a street side
cafe
and it's targeted at them because of who
they are because they are jewish the fbi
says they just really want to get people
to feel comfortable coming to them even
if you suspect something might be a hate
crime report it and let them do the work
and community leaders agree our
community has to say guess what i don't
know if i was discriminated against if
this is a hate crime
however let the fbi figure it out this
is going to make us feel a little safer
especially for black women
and and trans women of color i mean
statistics are showing us that they are
the most you know discriminated and
hated group around here and they don't
know who to turn to messages from the
campaign are already being distributed
digitally more signs are expected to be
on display within the next week the ads
will run through early november
for NJ Spotlight News
I'm Melissa Rose Cooper
major funding for exploring hate has
been provided by the Silvia A. and Simon
B. Poytap rogramming endowment to fight
anti-semitism
the Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz
Cooney fund and patty Askwith Kenner
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