SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey’s Attorney General has announced a new initiative to combat a rise in bias and hate crimes being felt all over the state — with a plan to stop incidents before they start.
Last year in New Jersey, there were 2,699 bias and hate incidents reported statewide, a 22% increase from 2022. Attorney General Matt Platkin says this is a continuation of a troubling trend.
“For several years running now, we’ve seen a record number of bias and hate incidents targeting virtually every demographic group,” said Platkin, adding that anti-Black and anti-Jewish incidents have been the most common — and young people are often involved.
“It breaks my heart to know that the most likely place where a bias incident will be reported now in the state of New Jersey is a school,” he said.
The new plan to stop bias and hate incidents, through empowering trusted community members to defuse and de-escalate situations, is called the Community Peacemaker Collaborative, funded by a four-year, $347,000 federal grant.
“They’ll be trained by our experts and they’ll have the tools to be effective ambassadors to help disrupt cycles of bias, and prevent the incidents from occurring in the first place,” Platkin explained.
He says this is important because trusted members of the community come with built-in credibility that law enforcement doesn’t always have. “They can serve as valuable partners for us to help reach communities that for whatever reason, have hesitation to deal with law enforcement.”
According to Platkin, dozens of people will be trained to participate in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Anyone interested in signing up is encouraged to contact the Attorney General’s Community Relations Unit.