Here's How Many Bias Incidents Moorestown Saw In 2020

MOORESTOWN, NJ — There were three bias incidents reported in Moorestown in 2020, according to a report released by the Attorney General’s Office and the New Jersey State Police on Tuesday.

There were two incidents in June and one in July, according to the report, which didn’t include specifics about each incident. A more detailed report will be released later this year, according to the Attorney General's Office.

While releasing the top line data last week, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal also announced that the Attorney General's Office and the State Police will soon begin making bias incident data available to the public on a monthly basis, starting in April. These monthly bias incident reports will show breakdowns by bias type and county.

For purposes of the state's reporting, a "bias incident" is a suspected or confirmed violation of New Jersey's bias intimidation statute, in which a victim is subjected to harassment, assault, terroristic threats, or other specified acts "because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity."

Because the data captures only reported bias incidents, it is under-inclusive in that it does not capture incidents that were never reported to law enforcement. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, over half of the victims of hate crimes in the U.S. from 2011 to 2015 did not report them.

Moorestown has a population of 20,355. According to the most recent statistics on ethnicity, 84.5 percent of Moorestown residents are white, while 6.42 percent are Black, 6 percent are Asian, 3.48 percent are Hispanic or Latino, 2.16 percent are mixed-races, 0.81 percent are other races, 0.09 percent are Native American, and 0.02 percent are Pacific Islander.

Following the release of the information, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig and FBI Newark Field Division Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr. reiterated federal law enforcement’s commitment to investigating and prosecuting all acts of bias-motivated violence and other deprivations of individuals’ civil rights, including crimes committed on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

“Some of the darkest hours that we have lived through recently as New Jersey residents have involved the horror of violence based on hate,” Honig said. “We have seen anti-Semitic violence in Jersey City and a gender- and race-based attack at the home of a federal judge. Now, we face a rising tide of hatred directed at Asian-Americans. New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in the country, and this kind of hate should find no home here. We urge the community to report hate-based crimes to the FBI and to contact our office’s civil rights hotline with information about discrimination in housing, employment, education, or public accommodations.”

“Hate crimes are not only an attack on an individual, but an entire community,” Crouch said. “Investigating these crimes is one of the FBI’s highest priorities. We will work diligently with our law enforcement partners to protect the rights of all Americans.”

Members of the public are encouraged to report bias incidents to their local police departments, or via the NJBIAS online portal at https://bias.njcivilrights.gov, or by calling 800-277-BIAS.