Massachusetts
Antisemitic crime up by 94% in Florida, 70% in Mass., states warn
Antisemitic crimes rose in Florida and Massachusetts in 2023 compared to 2022, government reports showed.
Antisemitic crimes increased by 94% in Florida and 70% in Massachusetts, according to Florida Attorney-General Ashley Moody’s 2023 Hate Crimes in Florida Report and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security’s Hate Crimes in Massachusetts 2023 report.
“Following the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Jewish community was increasingly targeted on college campuses, places of worship, and other areas of our country,” said Moody.
“To protect Jewish Americans, we took action – calling for a zero-tolerance policy for hate crimes and urging Florida college and university police chiefs to protect Jewish students and other religious groups.”
Moody’s office collected 311 reported hate crimes in 2023, a 36% increase from the 229 reports in 2022. Among these 311 incidents, there were 70 anti-Jewish motivated crimes. Antisemitic crimes accounted for 22% of all hate crimes in the state.
Hate crimes motivated by antisemitism
Almost 71% of all religion-motivated crimes were motivated by antisemitism in Florida in 2023. Anti-religion-motivated crimes represented 31.5% of all hate crimes in 2023, second only to racially motivated crimes, which made up 38% of the reports. Twenty of the 2023 hate crime incidents took place at a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque.
Thirty-eight of the anti-Jewish crimes recorded by the Florida Attorney-General’s Office were acts of vandalism, and 15 were acts of intimidation. There were also four incidents of simple assault and the same number of aggravated assaults.
In 2023, 278 agencies participated in the reporting system, with 75 reporting hate crimes, compared to 58 the previous year.
Eighty-nine municipal police departments, 14 campus police agencies, and the Massachusetts Environmental Police submitted a total of 557 hate-motivated crimes in 2023. Some 314 agencies had no bias crimes to report, and 41 agencies didn’t participate in the project. There were a total of 578 separate offenses, and 634 reported bias incidents in 2023.
Hate crimes in Massachusetts increased by 26.5%, according to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security report. This was the highest amount of hate-motivated crimes reported since 2002.
The most frequent bias for these hate-motivated crimes has consistently been anti-black crimes, said the state body, followed by anti-gay, antisemitic, and anti-white crimes. Anti-Jewish crimes represented a total of 18.8% of the 634 bias incidents reported to police in Massachusetts. The amount of antisemitic crimes reported to police rose from 70 in 2022 to 119 in 2023.
Massachusetts police received anti-Jewish bias reports for 82 vandalism incidents, 23 intimidation incidents, four simple assaults, and two aggravated assaults in 2023. Churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were host to 35 bias incidents in 2023.
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security detailed that hate crimes are not reported as a stand-alone offense “but rather as part of a separate criminal violation, ranging from vandalism to harassment to violent crimes.”
Massachusetts
Massachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
Watch CBS News
Massachusetts
How will the Iran war impact gas prices in Massachusetts?
With a widening conflict in the Middle East after the American and Israeli attack on Iran Saturday, global markets are bracing for a shakeup in the energy supply chain.
So, here at home, what can consumers expect at the gas pump?
An increase in oil prices is almost always followed by an increase in gas prices. And the oil market has already reacted to the war. NBC News reported on Sunday that U.S. crude oil initially spiked more than 10%, while Brent, the international oil benchmark, rose as much as 13%.
Early Monday morning, reports were coming in of black smoke rising from the U.S. embassy in Kuwait City.
While Iran’s oil reserves supply less than an estimated 5% of global production, the main concern is the Strait of Hormuz. This maritime passageway borders Iran at the bottleneck of the Persian Gulf, and more than 20% of the world’s oil passes through. If Iran closes or restricts Hormuz, the oil market could face severe disruptions.
Gas prices rise about 2.5 cents for every dollar increase in crude oil prices. As of Sunday, U.S. crude oil prices had already increased by nearly $5 a barrel.
“I fully expect that by Monday night, you could credibly say that gas prices are being impacted by oil prices having gone up,” GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan told NBC News.
GasBuddy characterizes their expectations for price increases as “incremental” rather than “explosive”. The group said to anticipate a potential 10-15 cent increase over the next couple of weeks.
Massachusetts
Body camera video shows Massachusetts police officer save 78-year-old man from burning truck – East Idaho News
EASTON, Mass. (WBZ) — Police body camera video shows an Easton, Massachusetts, officer rescuing a 78-year-old Raynham man from a burning car on Friday morning.
A Mack dump truck was experiencing problems on the side of Turnpike Street just after 2 a.m. when a Ford pickup truck struck the back of it, according to police.
The pickup truck then became stuck under the dump truck, trapping the driver, Francis Leverone, inside. A Toyota Camry then hit the back of the pickup truck and caught fire, police said.
Easton police officer Dean Soucie arrived at the crash and saw that the two vehicles were on fire. Video shows Soucie rushing over before breaking the driver’s side window and then, with the help of the two witnesses, freeing Leverone from the pickup truck. Soucie said he was confused but conscious.
“As I reached inside the vehicle, one of the passersby — he actually jumped into the cab of the truck, and he helped me free the individual,” Soucie said.
They then carried the driver to safety.
Leverone was taken to a nearby hospital before being transferred to a Boston hospital. He received serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
No one else was injured in the crash.
Dee Leverone told WBZ her husband is doing OK. “I’m just thankful for the people that got him out,” she said. “Very thankful.”
After watching the police body-cam video on the news she said, “I was shocked, I was like ‘Oh my God!’ I just couldn’t believe it. His truck is like melted.”
She says she realized that something was wrong last night when her husband never made it home from work.
“I kept trying to call him and call him, and I finally got a hold of him at like 4:30 a.m., and he was at (Good Samaritan Hospital) and he told me he’s gotten in an accident,” Dee said.
She says he’s recovering at the Boston Medical Center and being treated for a dislocated hip.
“He’s a trooper,” Dee said. “He’s a strong man — and you know he’s 78, but you know he’s a toughie. He definitely is a toughie.”
Soucie commended the help of the two witnesses and said that before he arrived at the crash, they had attempted to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher and removed a gasoline tank from the pickup truck before it could ignite.
“They jumped into action like it was nothing,” Soucie said. “Those two individuals were absolutely awesome.”
Easton Police Chief Keith Boone said that he is “extremely proud” of Soucie and the witnesses.
“He saved a life last night,” Chief Boone said. “He is an exemplary police officer and this is just one example. I think he’s a hero.”
Turnpike Street was closed for several hours following the crash. Easton Police are investigating.
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