Las Vegas Review Journal, March 2021
Reported hate crimes against Black residents in Las Vegas more than doubled in 2020, which activists attribute to a rise in racism nationally and more knowledge among victims about their rights to report.
Of the 49 victims of hate crimes reported last year to Las Vegas police, 34 were targeted based on race, and 21 of those victims were Black, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Roxann McCoy, president of the NAACP’s Las Vegas chapter, said there has been an all-around rise in racism, in part because of the rhetoric of former President Donald Trump and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. She recalled threats of violence the NAACP office received prior to the November election and said people told her that Black residents “should just be put in our place.”
“I can say personally, yes, I say that racism has raised its head, but made it a little bolder than before,” she said.
Nationally, 48 percent of all 4,930 hate crime victims reported to the FBI in 2019 were Black, making up the largest classification of victims. The data was provided by nearly 16,000 police departments, including North Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Henderson and Clark County school police. FBI hate crime data from 2020 is not yet available.
