Last year, the number of hate crime cases in LA City hit a new record of 692, the highest ever.
Statistics and analysis media “Crosstown” reported on the 3rd that hate crimes in LA have been increasing for nine consecutive years.
According to a survey conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), 692 hate crimes occurred last year, an average of two cases a day.
Over the past four years, 2018 (295 cases), 2019 (326 cases), 2020 (380 cases), and 2021 (596 cases), hate crimes have continued to increase.
Hate crimes refer to crimes that root from hate and discrimination of a particular race, gender identity, religion, gender, and age. In particular, hate crimes against the Asian and Pacific communities during the COVID-19 pandemic surged up to 96%.
According to statistics from the Federal Ministry of Justice, only about half of the hate crimes are reported to the police, which indicates that the number of actual crimes occurring is twice as many as the aggregated data.
Amid the overall increase in hate crimes, the number of hate crimes against Asians decreased from 49 in 2021 to 35 last year.
“Compared to the growing number of crimes, the low rate of reported crimes by Asians leads to a low rate of hate crimes,” Blake Chow, director of LAPD, said at an Asian hate crime response seminar in August. “Reporting is the most important thing to prevent and eradicate hate crimes.”
Meanwhile, hate crimes against black people increased by 25% (162 cases in 2021 → 205 cases). It was followed by 95 Latino cases, 86 Jews, and 85 LGBTQ cases.
BY KIM YE-JIN [kim.yejin3@koreadaily.com]
