Today in Trump's Campaign of Stochastic Terrorism

[Content Note: Hate crimes; stochastic terrorism.]

Since the day he announced his candidacy for president, Donald Trump has been waging a campaign of stochastic terrorism, rhetorically putting targets on the backs of marginalized people and hoping that shamelessly violent wrecks among his cultists will do the rest.

Well, the results are in. And his campaign is working.

Devlin Barrett at the Washington Post: Hate Crimes Rose 17 Percent Last Year, According to New FBI Data.

Hate crimes in America rose 17 percent last year, the third consecutive year that such crimes increased, according to newly released FBI data that showed an even larger increase in anti-Semitic attacks.

That is, not coincidentally, the same three-year period in which Donald Trump has been a national candidate and then president, during which time he has repeatedly engaged in anti-Semitism.

Law enforcement agencies reported 7,175 hate crimes occurred in 2017, up from 6,121 in 2016. That increase was fueled in part by more police departments reporting hate crime data to the FBI, but overall there is still a large number of departments that report no hate crimes to the federal database.

The sharp increase in hate crimes in 2017 came even as overall violent crime in America fell slightly, by 0.2 percent, after increases in 2015 and 2016.

Note that Trump routinely asserts that violent crime is rising, as part of his campaign of stochastic terrorism. He lies about the prevalence of violent crime and scapegoats marginalized people — overtly accusing undocumented immigrants of being criminals and typically using dogwhistles about gun violence in Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. to accuse Black people of being criminals.

More than half of hate crimes, about 3 out of every 5, targeted a person's race or ethnicity, while about 1 out of 5 targeted their religion.

Of the more than 7,000 incidents reported last year, 2,013 targeted black Americans, while 938 targeted Jewish Americans. Incidents targeting people for their sexual orientation accounted for 1,130 hate crimes, according to the FBI.

It's important to note here that many undocumented immigrants do not report hate crimes, for fear of being deported. That fear has undoubtedly increased significantly since Trump has instituted his obscene nativist agenda.

It's also important to note that misogynist violence, including sexual assault, is rarely counted in hate crimes statistics — even though calls to the National Sexual Assault Hotline increased by 201% on the day of Christine Blasey Ford's testimony against Brett Kavanaugh alone.

Of the more than 7,000 hate crime incidents in 2017, more than 4,000 were crimes against people, ranging from threats and intimidation to assault, to murder. More than 3,000 were crimes against property, ranging from vandalism to robbery to arson.

As I have said many, many times now: Donald Trump didn't invent hatred and bigotry, but he has certainly done every goddamn thing he can to more deeply entrench them and empower their vile purveyors.