【圣路易时报讯】联邦调查局日前指出，密苏里州仇恨犯罪增长，2020 年至 2021 年间仇恨犯罪案例激增 70%。
12月19日(周一)，圣路易郡检察官 Wesley Bell 针对这项结果提出正面回应，他表示没有人应该容忍这种仇恨仇恨犯罪。
郡检察官 Wesley Bell 说，帮助受害者并将罪犯绳之以法的最好方法是向警方报案，报告仇恨犯罪事件。报案方式可以匿名方式通过拨打 866-371-TIPS 致电 CrimeStoppers。
以下是 Wesley Bell 检察官回应全文:
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell:
It’s alarming if not entirely surprising to learn that the number of hate crime incidents reported to law enforcement in Missouri jumped by almost 70% in 2021 compared to 2020 — and that the most common hate target in Missouri is a person’s race, ethnicity, or ancestry.
Many factors help explain this, including economic insecurity, which often leads to scapegoating, and social media, which give hate and bias an open platform. More importantly, in recent years we have seen an increasingly vocal and violent pushback against America’s hard-won advances in diversity and inclusion. We have seen and are seeing more open, unapologetic racism and xenophobia. Unfortunately, hate and bigotry have a home here, and we all have work to do if we want all people to feel welcome and safe here.
Since the FBI reported these numbers based on reports to law enforcement, the alarming jump in reports may be a mix of more hate crimes and more reporting of hate crimes. If this alarming increase partly reflects more people coming forward to report hate crimes, then that is one trend we want to encourage. No one should tolerate hate crimes.
Missouri criminal law provides limited scope for prosecutors to charge someone for targeting victims because of their “race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or disability.” Anyone who has any evidence of anyone being targeted for a crime in St. Louis County because of their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or disability, please contact our office or law enforcement. We can’t stop hate, but the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office can and will prosecute hate crimes when we have the evidence.
