FRANKFURT, Sept. 22 (JTA) – Hate crimes are up in Berlin. In the first half of this year, there were 397 such crimes compared to a total of 426 for all of 1996, according to Berlin’s senator for the interior, Joerg Schoenbohm. The incidents include the spraying of neo-Nazi graffiti as well as the use of neo-Nazi emblems, which are banned by law. Schoenbohm says districts in the eastern part of the city, which was once the capital of communist East Germany, are a center for much of the activity. In one such district, the members of the far-right NPD political party increased from 50 to 130 during the first half of the year.
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