A sharp increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Florida last year, according to a new Anti-Defamation League report. More than 400 incidents of white supremacist propaganda occurred between January 2020 and August 2022
In a new report by the Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based organization that monitors anti-Semitic incidents and other extremist activity around the world, it was reported that Florida saw a 50% increase in anti-Semitic incidents in 2021 compared to the year before. The report also shows that Florida has The third largest anti-Semitic incidents in the US, behind only New York and California.
In 2021, there was a 34% increase in anti-Semitic incidents throughout the country. The ADL found Florida to be home to a network of white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups responsible for organizing many rallies and spreading hateful propaganda. In all, the ADL’s Center on Extremism found more than 400 instances of white supremacist propaganda distributed between January 2020 and August 2022.
The report also notes that Florida is home to most of the people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots after the US election, including several far-right organizations. The report fills a void left by authorities in the state of Florida, who have skipped hate crimes, according to experts. Last year, for example, then-Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo told the Miami Herald that he ordered an investigation into why the department mistakenly reported hate crimes as regular crimes as part of the FBI’s annual roundup of hate crime data.
“Florida has been undercounting hate crimes for a long time,” said Brian Levin, a criminal justice professor at California State University San Bernardino and director of the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. “There is no state in the United States that has had such a bad response.” Levin said his Center for Crime Statistics’ analysis of 2022 and 2021 also showed a sharp increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes.
The ADL report highlights national anti-Semitic groups with a presence in Florida that have organized events in the state, as well as groups such as the National Socialist Movement, an openly pro-Hitler group led by a Florida man, Brett Colucci of Kissimmee.
At a January 2022 rally in Orlando near the University of Central Florida campus, three protesters, including Colucci, were charged with assault after they assaulted a Jewish student and stole the phone he was using to record them. The three men are scheduled to stand trial at the end of October.