The US reported highest number of ‘hate crimes’ in more than
last one decade, and also the highest ever number of ‘hate killings’ in a year
since the FBI began collecting data on it in early 1990s, Associated Press
reported on Tuesday.

There were 51 killings in 2019 which were categorized as
hate crime, including the gunning down of 21 Mexicans in El Paso, Texas, according
to the FBI data.

Patrick Crusius, 21, was arrested
shortly after the incident for the crime and was alleged by Police to have posted a manifesto
with anti-immigrant and white supremacist themes on online message board 8chan.

There were 7,314 hate crimes last year, up from 7,120 the
year before and approaching the 7,783 of 2008.

The FBI’s annual report defines hate crimes as those
motivated by bias based on a person’s race, religion or sexual orientation,
among other categories, AP report read.

The data on hate crimes was collated by the FBI based on
reports filed by police agencies voluntarily from across the country. Since the
nature of the business is based on voluntary reports, the process has found
many critics of the method.

For the 2019 data, only 2172 law enforcement agencies came
forward with reports on hate crimes, out of 15,000 across states.

The report also mentioned that the number of crime agencies
filing these reports is anything but steady, and their number has fallen with
the rise in number of hate crimes.

“The total severity of the impact and damage caused by hate
crimes cannot be fully measured without complete participation in the FBI’s
data collection process, the Anti-Defamation League’s president, Jonathan
Greenblatt, said in a statement, AP wrote.

An Associated Press investigation in 2016 found that more
than 2,700 city police and county sheriff’s departments across the country had
not submitted a single hate crime report for the FBI’s annual crime tally
during the previous six years.