Hate crimes in US hit 12-year high in 2020: FBI report

Data show the number of offences targeting Black people and people of Asian decent rose 6 percent from 2019.

The number of hate crimes in the United States rose last year to the highest level in more than a decade, driven by a rise in assaults targeting Black victims and victims of Asian descent, the FBI reported. The 2020 data submitted to the FBI by more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies across the country, identified 7,759 hate crimes in 2020, a 6 percent increase over 2019 and the highest tally since 2008, according to the report on Monday. The FBI data showed the number of offences targeting Black people rose to 2,755 from 1,930 and incidents against Asians jumped to 274 from 158.