Rise in Hate Crimes Recorded by County

In Los Angeles, a white man called out a racial slur and then shot a black man in the face. At a Catholic church in San Pedro, someone spread feces over an altar. A Latino man grabbed another on a Hollywood street, spat in his face and denounced him, in Spanish, as homosexual.

Those incidents were among 933 hate crimes reported in Los Angeles County in 2000, the second-highest total recorded since the county began tabulating them in 1980.

Hundreds of churches, homes and businesses were vandalized. Police reported five hate-related murders and two attempted murders. Two rapes were reported, one sexual assault, two arson incidents and one cross-burning.

The figures released Thursday in the county Human Relations Commission’s annual hate crimes report show increases from 1999 in most types of incidents. The figures also show that more Latinos are committing hate crimes.

The total number of hate crimes rose 9%. Racially motivated crimes, which make up more than 60% of all hate crimes, increased 23% from 1999.

“One hate crime in Los Angeles County is one too many,” Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said. “The solution to the problem is not to minimize it, nor exaggerate it, but to gather information . . . and work with the various communities and schools to teach tolerance.”

The last time figures were as high was in 1996, when hate crime reports spiked at 995.

Blacks were targeted more for racial hate crimes than any other group. The victims of religious hate crimes were overwhelmingly Jewish. And almost all the hate crimes based on perceived sexual orientation were committed against gay men.

Increasingly, figures show that Latinos are both hate crime victims and offenders.

In cases in which suspects are known (the majority of offenders are not), Latinos committed 26% of racial crimes and 33% of sexual orientation hate crimes.

The majority of victims targeted by Latinos were black, officials said.

The rise in Latino offenders is probably explained by the sheer number of Latinos in Los Angeles County, said Robin Toma, executive director of the Human Relations Commission. But also, he added, the activity of some Latino gangs has become more racially focused. The study authors and others noted that cultural and language barriers result in hundreds of hate crimes that go unreported.

This is mostly apparent in the Latino community, where recent immigrants often do not report hate crimes because of language barriers, distrust of law enforcement and fear of deportation, said Laura Barrera, spokeswoman for a Los Angeles-based immigrant rights organization.

The same is true in immigrant Asian communities, said Kathay Feng of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

“No racial group escapes the trauma of hate crimes,” Toma said.

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Victims and Offenses

There were 933 hate crimes reported in Los Angeles County in 2000, an increase of almost 9% from 1999.

Source: Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations