The ‘Hate Wave’ That Isn’t

Afunny thing happened after Mayor de Blasio essentially blamed President-elect Donald Trump for “a huge uptick in hate crimes”: Someone looked at the numbers.

It turns out that far more hate crimes were reported in New York City during and after the last presidential election in 2012.

Politico, which asked the NYPD for its figures, says there were 403 incidents then, versus 360 this year through last week. Were Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to blame?

Yes, the city in 2016 has seen a rise over 2015 in reports (not confirmed incidents) of hate-based attacks since Trump’s election, which the mayor sanctimoniously declared is “obviously connected to the election.”

But even that uptick is relative: The 43 reports in the three weeks after the election reflect a 115 percent hike over the same period in 2015. But the NYPD didn’t release data to make a comparison from 2011 to 2012.

Moreover, two-thirds of the reported incidents targeted Jews or gays — two groups that didn’t come up in campaign rhetoric, making any link to Trump even more dubious.

It will be interesting, too, to see how many reports are actually confirmed upon investigation — long after over-the-top media attention to each incident has ended.

This is not to pretend hate-based crimes don’t happen. They’re unacceptable no matter how low the numbers. And that includes attacks and threats like the headline-making ones against a city transit worker and offduty cop, both Muslims.

But the baseless claims of some vast surge in hate crimes are pure partisan politics, an effort to discredit Trump’s election and delegitimize his upcoming presidency.

The left will have plenty to complain about in the Trump years: Best save your fire for real issues, not some phantom menace.