Hate Crimes Spike Citywide, New NYPD Data Reveals
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New data from the NYPD has revealed a disturbing trend. Hate crimes have skyrocketed across the city.
CBS2's Dick Brennan has more on what police are doing to end the attacks.
"That's really alarming, I mean obviously, that I could be a target," one woman said.
New Yorkers say they worry about alarming new numbers about hate crimes.
"Walking down the street has definitely been a little more scary lately," student Armondo Flores said.
"It's sad where people just need to get along and do their best to live," added Brandon Allen of Harlem.
Overall, there have been 503 hate and bias crimes to date, up from 252 in 2020. That's a 100% increase.
Police say it has been driven by crimes against the Asian community, where there's been a 361% increase -- 129 incidents this year versus 28 last year.
"The data is really shocking. It reminds me just to be more careful and take care of myself because things could happen," student Shihao Ent said.
Anti-Semitic crimes are up to 183 in 2021, from 121 in 2020, and there were 85 crimes this year over sexual orientation, up from 29 last year.
"On the flip side of that, which shows the great work our task force is doing, our arrests are up 106%. So of the 503 incidents, we've made 249 arrests on that," NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
This year, the NYPD formed a civilian bias crime panel to review the police process and give advice.
"Since we are a diverse group, we each learned about each other's respective community," the panel's Devorah Halberstam said.
So what has triggered the rash of crimes? The NYPD say many are done by the hateful, and mentally ill.
"We have to shine a very bright light on this and then making sure that when you do something like this, number one, you will be held accountable. Number two, it's not acceptable, not only in this city, but anywhere," NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said.
Shea added he believes the spike in hate crimes is driven by lower incarceration rates, and the police can always use the public's help if anyone has seen anything.
