Published by PROPUBLICA
Fondato nel 2007, Propublica è un media statunitense, di base a Manhattan, che vanta una redazione di giornalisti impegnati in inchieste e reportage alla ricerca di “storie aventi forza morale”. Senza scopo di lucro, nell’interesse pubblico e in difesa del giornalismo investigativo, queste le tre linee direttive della rivista, il primo media on-line a vincere il Premio Pulitzer, nel 2010.
Qui un approfondimento sul rischio dell’ondata di violenza e odio razziale che segue stravolgimenti elettorali, come la decisione riguardante l’uscita dall’UE in Gran Bretagna e l’elezione di Trump negli Stati Uniti.
DI PATRICK G. LEE
A divisive vote, with jobs and immigrants the most combustible issues. An outcome that surprised the experts. A nation left on edge, with many anxious about intolerance and the violence that can stem from it.
No, not just America today, but also the United Kingdom seven months ago. Last June, voters there opted out of the European Union, ushering in a new prime minister who has since backed controversial proposals, including one that would require pregnant women to show papers that prove their “right” to use the national health system, before being allowed to give birth in a hospital.
So, were the worst fears of racial, ethnic or other hate violence realized? A mix of government agencies, academics and other organizations have been laboring to offer answers.
In the week after the British went to the polls — widely known as the Brexit vote — there were more than 2,400 accounts of hate crimes reported through Twitter, according to a report from the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos.
In July, the first full month after the Brexit vote, police in England and Wales recorded more than 5,000 racially or religiously motivated hate crimes, a 41 percent jump from a year earlier, according to a report from the U.K. Home Office. Those numbers declined in August, but were still higher than reported numbers from before the referendum, the report said.