Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 6, 2017

The group says its been a long time since it has seen this number of hate incidents so close together in the Houston area.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says its working with law enforcement to respond to recent hate-related incidents in the greater Houston area.

The group is tracking what it calls a disturbing uptick in displays of hate speech after four incidents in the past week in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties. Swastikas were found painted on fences, racist flyers appeared at a home and at Rice University, and a group of high school students in Cypress gave an apparent Nazi salute during a class photo.

The ADLs Southwest Regional Director Dayan Gross says he hopethis isnt part of a growing trend, but says its been a long time since his groups seen this number of hate incidents so close together.

Within the first two months of 2017, weve already had 25 incidents, he says.

The ADL says it typically deals with about 30-40 such incidents over an entire year.

Gross says its hard to attribute the increase to any one factor, but the ADL believes its at least partlytied to the recent election.

Since the election of President Donald Trump, extremists in this country have felt emboldened, Gross says.

The group is encouraging people to report these kind of acts, while the school district in Cypress says it will discipline some of the students involved in that incident. The Harris County Sheriffs Office says it hasnt seen any trend of local hate incidents, though some have been reported to deputies. Each incident is investigated to determine if there is evidence of a crime, the sheriffs office says.

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Anti-Defamation League Tracking Disturbing Uptick In Houston ... - Houston Public Media

Category: Anti-Defamation League
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