The Anti-Defamation League is calling out a record rise in anti-semitic attacks online. The new report was released just a day before the shooter carried out the attack.
On Saturday, Oct. 27, shooter Robert Bowers walked into a Pittsburg synagogue and took the lives of 11 people, injuring six others.
Leading up to the incident, Bowers used Twitter to spew hate calling Jews the children of Satan. It’s exactly the kind of rhetoric the ADL has been growing concerned about.
After analyzing more than 7.5 million Twitter messages from August to September, the ADL found nearly 30 percent of the accounts were repeatedly tweeting derogatory terms about Jews.
Some of them appear to be online robots. However, the ones controlled by real humans, the ADL says, are the most "harmful."
Prime targets have been Jewish journalists and political candidates, an uptick the ADL believes is the result of the upcoming midterm election.
The group says the attacks have also gotten worse since President Trump was elected.
It’s not just online hate the ADL Detroit office is tracking.
The civil rights organization says it's concerned about the uptick in hateful flyering found all over metro Detroit, including in Ferndale, Detroit and Sterling Heights.
The ADL is calling on the community as a whole to be more vigilant and to stand unified against the hateful messaging.
The Jewish community is holding a vigil at Capitol Park in Downtown Detroit at 6 p.m.
