CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Federal investigators are taking things a step further with a new ad campaign to help prevent hate crimes and protect those communities likely to be affected by them.
The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”
Specifically in Charlotte, the transgender community has recently felt the biggest impact of potential hate crimes after the killings of two transgender women in a matter of weeks.
Jaida Peterson and Remy Fennel are two of the 35 trans people killed in the U.S. so far in 2021, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
"Everyone deserves the right to live and be safe," Charlotte Black Pride member Rell Lowery said.
Organizations like Charlotte Black Pride along with Erase TransHate Carolinas work to advocate for the protection of transgender people.
Now, the FBI is stepping in to provide some additional help with a new ad campaign that will be seen on billboards, social media, radio and TV advertisements and more.
The goal is to raise awareness and encourage people to report hate crimes.
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"No one should be afraid of being targeted by an act of violence based on how they look, where they're from or any part of their identity," Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Charlotte Division Robert R. Wells said. "Hate crimes have no place in our country, our state, or our communities."
The FBI says its seen a 25% increase in the number of reported hate crimes over the past five years. There's a chance there could be many more that go unreported.
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