Hate crimes against African Americans are steadily on the rise in the state of Idaho, the Idaho Statesmen reports.
A hate crime is a class C felony in the state of Idaho. It is “a criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race/national origin, religion, sexual orientation, mental/physical disability or ethnicity.” Also,
The most recent data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, fifty-four hate crimes were reported in the state to law enforcement in 2020.
The study concluded that of the 54 reported hates crimes in 2020, 19 were racially-motivated and 14 of those were against African Americans. Latino people were the victims of nine incidents and 17 incidents were reported regarding the LGBTQ-identifying community.
The Boise Police Department reported that the most hate crimes in 2020, occurred throughout Ada and Canyon County followed by Twin Falls with seven incidents.
Although the number of hate crimes has increased, the number of hate groups is on the decline.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in every state, lists seven groups in Idaho, a decrease by five groups from 2017’s listing that had 12. Of the seven groups currently being tracked by the SPLC, one is an anti-Muslim group located in Meridian and three other groups are spread across the state.
