Politics Opinion

U.S. assaults surge as Trump’s hate escalates

By | | comments |
(Image by Dan Jensen)

With the U.S. Presidential Election six weeks away, Republican leaders continue to foment violence, as Alan Austin reports.

POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED PHYSICAL ATTACKS across the USA which appeared to have subsided through the Biden Administration are now surging as former president Donald Trump and his running mate are ramping up their hate speech.

That violence has rebounded onto Trump himself, with a second assassination attempt in three months.

MAGA movement still preaching hate

According to the New York Times, presidential candidate Trump:

‘...set off a mix of outrage and concern among Jewish leaders on Friday, raising fears that ardent supporters of the former president could be incited against Jews in an era of rising political violence’.

That followed Trump’s claims in a speech last Thursday that in 2020“With all I have done for Israel, I received only 24 per cent of the Jewish vote”.

He then added ominously, regarding the forthcoming election, “In my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss”.

This was just a week after Trump’s nonsensical claims in the debate against Vice President Kamala Harris that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing pets for food.

For several days, Trump fueled racist outrage:

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs...The people that came in, they’re eating the cats... And this is what’s happening in this country". 

Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance repeated this baseless nonsense:

“People have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country”.

The accusations were based on vague rumours, plus one specific report to police by Springfield resident Anna Kilgore that her cat Miss Sassy had been stolen by Haitian neighbours.

While those assertions caused hilarity among most observers, they also gave rise to threats of violence against immigrants, particularly Haitians, across the USA. Bomb threats caused schools and municipal buildings in Springfield to be evacuated.

Hatred interwoven with malicious lying

William Kristol was chief of Staff to Republican Vice President Dan Quayle during the presidency of George H W Bush.

He wrote last week that fomenting racial hatred by concocting destructive falsehoods is a central strategy of Trump’s MAGA movement:

‘Vance’s politics are the politics of hate. Perhaps ... he just watched Trump’s success and internalized its lessons. But in any case, for Vance it’s all about hate. And the assault on the Haitians of Springfield, Ohio, is a kind of culmination of Vance’s — and of course Trump’s — politics of hate.’

It is also a culmination of the MAGA politics of intentional lies.

Vance admitted last Tuesday on CNN that his allegations were concocted: 

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”.

Miss Sassy turned up alive and well shortly after she had been reported stolen and barbecued.

Hate crimes continue to escalate

When this column updated this issue in April last year we were relieved to report White hate crimes having peaked in 2020 and declined in 2021 and 2022. We were wrong.

Or to be accurate, the data the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had provided had been inaccurate. Fortunately, a footnote on our graph alerted readers: ‘Note: The FBI advises that data for 2022 may not be complete.’

The latest figures show the surge in hate crimes by White offenders inspired by Trump’s calls to violence has not slowed. The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer has revised its numbers substantially for 2021 and 2022, and marginally for earlier years.

The data confirms the surge began in 2016, when Fox News started to amplify Trump’s calls for physical assaults nationwide on regular rotation, thus ending the steady decline since 1996. See mauve chart, below.

Crime overall gradually declining

The FBI, Gun Violence Archive and other sources confirm that all categories of violent crime escalated while Trump was campaigning for and serving as president. Most categories have declined since he left office, but levels remain much higher than before.

Mass shootings, for example, increased in 2016, then surged during Trump’s presidency and in the transition year 2021. The decline since then has been disappointing, with levels still at historic highs. The 2024 number to last Saturday was 398, which is on track for an annual tally of 550. See blue chart, below.

Signs of hope

Vice-president Kamala Harris who is the Democratic candidate for President has proposed several initiatives to minimise gun deaths, beyond the steps she and President Biden have already taken.

In an unexpected development in April this year, the parents of a 15-year-old boy who shot and killed four classmates and wounded seven others were sentenced to prison for manslaughter.

Jennifer and James Crumbley in Pontiac, Michigan, were the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a school shooting committed by their child.

In handing down the gaol sentences, Judge Cheryl Matthews said the father was responsible for his son’s “unfettered access” to the murder weapon and that the mother “glorified guns”. Prosecutors claimed the parents were criminally negligent for giving their child a semi-automatic pistol for Christmas and ignoring his deteriorating mental state.

Chance to fix things in November

Americans go to the polls on 5 November to elect senators, representatives, governors, state legislators, judges and prosecutors as well as a president — all of whom can influence legislation.

If gun reform candidates win, the USA could soon have sensible gun laws, and get preventable gun deaths down to zero most years, as in Australia and most other advanced democracies.

Opinion polling shows most Americans want this. Let’s hope they give it their best shot.

 
 
Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001.
 

Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.

 
 

 
Recent articles by Alan Austin
The cost of living crisis is over — so why aren’t we all celebrating?

Data shows an economic boom — mainstream media cries doom and gloom  
Economic outcomes destroy pro-Coalition media falsehoods — one by one

Official data destroys false narratives advanced by mainstream media.  
U.S. assaults surge as Trump’s hate escalates

Donald Trump continues to preach hate as politically-motivated physical attacks ...  
Join the conversation
comments powered by Disqus

Support Fearless Journalism

If you got something from this article, please consider making a one-off donation to support fearless journalism.

Single Donation

$

Support IAIndependent Australia

Subscribe to IA and investigate Australia today.

Close Subscribe Donate