Meeting over hate crimes in darien as numbers in recent years have increased in the CT – NBC Connecticut

Dozens of people appeared in a library in Darien to understand how hate crimes are reported in our state. Connecticut's police say in the past five years and expect this trend to be continued.

“I am interested in what makes people do better to do the idea of ​​hatred and understanding,” said Joan Madison von Stamford.

An appeal that brought people like Joan Madison and her husband Stu in the library on Thursday to find out what the state police do against hate crimes.

“How do you fix it if you can?” Stu Madison von Stamford said.

Ronnell Higgins, Commissioner for Public Security, means a much -closed approach that talks about the role of the police and civilians.

“We want to inform our communities about what a hate crime is and what steps you can take if you actually feel like you are the victim of a hate crime,” he said.

This comes when the state police said that the number of reported hate crimes from 87 last year rose to 137 in 2021, an increase of more than 50% and most cases were breed and religion. But the agency believes that these numbers are subjected. They believe that victims may not come to the police comfortably, and instead they report groups such as the anti-defamation League.

The regional director of ADL, Stacey Sobel, says they have their statistics to underpin this theory.

“In the past five years we have an increase in hate incidents of all kinds by 650% in our office,” she said.

Sobel and the state police ask people to report possible hate crimes so that they can get involved.

“I think if we all do our job and speak against it, we will really have an impact,” said Sobel.

“Even if you want to report it yourself for some reason, report it to someone else that you can include us and the police,” said Commissioner Higgins.

If you want to learn more about hate crimes and your reporting, you can take part in one of these events. The next one will be set for Waterbury next month.