Peaceful protests against police brutality are actually followed by a bigger spike in hate crimes than violent riots are.
April 29, 2026
Original Paper
Exacerbating Extremism? Police Brutality, Protests, and Hate Crime
SSRN · 6661258
The Takeaway
Records of hate crimes show that non-violent demonstrations are more strongly associated with a subsequent increase in reactionary violence. Most people assume that violent unrest is the primary trigger for social backlash and racial attacks. The data contradicts this by showing that peaceful calls for change provoke a more intense and dangerous response from extremists. This suggests that the mere visibility of a social movement is what triggers the reaction, not the level of property damage. Peaceful action may be more threatening to the existing social order than a temporary riot.
From the abstract
We investigate the impact of high-profile police brutality on instances of hate crimes. These high-profile cases have led to a number of social upheavals, including widespread protests against police misconduct and increased racial tensions. Thus, widely publicized police brutality can have an impact on crime generally by impacting how police and citizens interact with one another; police brutality can also impact hate crime specifically by leading to heightened racial tensions, impacting how pe