It has been less than two weeks since Donald Trump was elected to be the next president of the United States, and already, more than 700 “hateful harassment” attacks have been reported.
Most of the attacks were targeted against minority groups such as Muslims, African-Americans, women, members of the LGBT community, and so on. Only about a dozen were reported as “anti-Trump” attacks.
“They’ve been everywhere — in schools, in places of business like Walmart, on the street,” Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said of the report issued by the center on Friday.
While the law center expressed concern over the hateful acts, they did also point to a “steady drop-off” in harassment, noting that 65% of the incidents had taken place in the three days after Election Day when the results were still fresh in everyone’s minds.
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206 of the reported attacks were anti-immigrant in nature, topping the list, while at the bottom of the list were anti-Trump attacks, at 27. Anti-woman attacks were second lowest, at 36. Black people were targeted in 151 attacks, Muslims in 51, and LGBT people in 80. In 60 cases, swastikas were involved.
The same day the report came out, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch released a video statement on rising hate crime statistics.
“I know that many Americans are concerned,” Lynch said. “We need you to continue to report these incidents to local law enforcement as well as the justice department so that our career investigators and prosecutors can take action to defend your rights.”