Nearly 10,000 hate crimes committed in US

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22789261-23109,00.html

November 20, 2007

SOME 9642 people in the United States were victims last year of hate crimes targeting them because of their skin colour, religious belief, sexual orientation or ethnic origins, the FBI reported overnight.

Sixty per cent of hate crimes targeted individuals or a collective of people, such as businesses or institutions, the statistics showed, while 39 per cent were directed at property.

Thirteen per cent of the attacks on people involved serious aggressions, including three murders and six rapes.

More than half the victims - 5020 - were attacked because of their race, and two-thirds of race crime victims were black, the statistics showed.