Pittsburgh Police Report 11 Ethnic Intimidation Incidents In The First 6 Months Of 2021
By: KDKA-TV News Staff
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- There is new data on ethnic intimidation incidents in the City of Pittsburgh, provided by Pittsburgh Police.
The data covers a six-month range from Jan. 1, 2021 through June 30, 2021.
Police say a majority of the 11 total incidents, 73%, were centered around race and ethnicity.
In response to the reported incidents, police made five arrests.
"Of those 11 incidents, seven were racial slurs made toward Black individuals, one was directed toward a White individual, two related incidents were cases of vandalism toward individuals targeting their Jewish faith, and one referenced the victim's sexual orientation," police wrote in the report.
Seven of the incidents involved threats of violence, harassment or vandalism, and four involved actual violence.
All zones in the city, except for Zone 3, reported an incident.
According to Commander Eric Holmes, many of these cases are going un-reported. Sharing these encounters with police can help seek charges, trace patterns and provide further resources.
"We want the community to work with us. To partner with us. This is the city of bridges and we want to continue to build those bridges and connect with the community to help reduce crimes of ethnic intimidation as well as all the other crimes," said Holmes.
Police have data surrounding ethnic intimidation incidents dating back to 2010. Yearly totals of these incidents have consistently hovered around 20 incidents, but 8 total incidents were reported in 2020.
