(Photo: Chicago Police Department)

Three teens have been charged with a hate crime after attacking an African-American teen and putting a noose around his neck for his alleged relationship with a white girl.

The accusers, who are all white, range from age 16 to 18. According to the Chicago Tribune, on Dec. 23, the victim, 17, went to the home of one of the accused. Upon his arrival, the teens put a noose around the victim’s neck, used the N-word and refused to let him leave the house. Eventually he escaped.

Matthew Hermann, 18, was charged with felony counts of unlawful restraint and committing a hate crime, in addition to misdemeanor battery, police said. The other two suspects are facing charges in juvenile court.

The attack is just one of many hate crimes reported within the last month.

In October, nineteen-year-old Deryl Dedmon was charged with capital murder for allegedly beating and driving over an African-American man. And just last month, a Black baby doll was found hanging by its neck from a metal chain in the Bronx headquarters of New York City’s Parks and Recreation Department. Nearby, "KKK" was found scratched on a bathroom wall.

“I think what’s going on in the big picture is that many, many white Americans feel that they are somehow losing their country to people who don’t look like them. That sense has clearly been exacerbated by the appearance of Barack Obama,” Mark Potok, director of the intelligence group at the Southern Poverty Law Center, tells BET.com. 

A recent report by the FBI says that an overwhelming majority of racial-bias crimes perpetrated in the last year have targeted Blacks.

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