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The Issue Of Hate Crime

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Trump as the president-elect has divided the country more than it has brought it’s people together. ‘There has always been hate and divisions,’ some would say. While this is true, this kind of prevalence has not been at the forefront of the political, personal, social, etc. sphere in a long while. Headlines are becoming more trigger inducing and there has been an uproar of hate crimes across the nation. While both sides have contributed to the hatefulness, the way that the hate is manifested is more rampant among supporters of Trump. This is seen through the way that the hate crime rate has gone up since November 8th. In more ways than one Trump’s election into office has given these people that have hate in them a pass, of sorts, to act on that hate and victimize others. Hate cannot be a crime but acting on that hate in an offensive way that is hurtful to others is a crime. Hate Crime:
A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.

CNN reports that “Hate crimes spiked 6%, but the number could be higher because many incidents go

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