By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Barack Obama's election as U.S. president has provoked a rise in hate crimes against ethnic minorities, civil rights groups said on Monday.
Hundreds of incidents of abuse or intimidation apparently motivated by racial hatred have been reported since the Nov. 4 election, though most have not involved violence, said the Southern Poverty Law Center.
White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens have seen a flood of interest from possible new members since the landmark election of the first black president in U.S. history.
Far right groups are also capitalizing on rising unemployment in the economic downturn and a demographic shift that could make whites a minority by mid-century, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.
"We have seen a fairly dramatic backlash over the last three or four weeks, since the final weeks of the campaign," said Mark Potok of the Center, based in Montgomery, Alabama which monitors far right groups.
"These (incidents) are merely gut level reactions from a lot of people," Potok said. "There is a substantial subset of white people in America who are boiling angry over this."
In the highest-profile case, a federal grand jury indicted Jeffrey Conroy, 17, for second-degree murder and classed it as a hate crime last week after Marcelo Lucero of Ecuadorean descent was stabbed to death on New York's Long Island.
Six other teenagers face lesser charges in the case. All pleaded not guilty. Police said last week the seven youths set out to find and attack Latinos. more
ATLANTA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Barack Obama's election as U.S. president has provoked a rise in hate crimes against ethnic minorities, civil rights groups said on Monday.
Hundreds of incidents of abuse or intimidation apparently motivated by racial hatred have been reported since the Nov. 4 election, though most have not involved violence, said the Southern Poverty Law Center.
White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens have seen a flood of interest from possible new members since the landmark election of the first black president in U.S. history.
Far right groups are also capitalizing on rising unemployment in the economic downturn and a demographic shift that could make whites a minority by mid-century, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.
"We have seen a fairly dramatic backlash over the last three or four weeks, since the final weeks of the campaign," said Mark Potok of the Center, based in Montgomery, Alabama which monitors far right groups.
"These (incidents) are merely gut level reactions from a lot of people," Potok said. "There is a substantial subset of white people in America who are boiling angry over this."
In the highest-profile case, a federal grand jury indicted Jeffrey Conroy, 17, for second-degree murder and classed it as a hate crime last week after Marcelo Lucero of Ecuadorean descent was stabbed to death on New York's Long Island.
Six other teenagers face lesser charges in the case. All pleaded not guilty. Police said last week the seven youths set out to find and attack Latinos. more
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