LOS ANGELES — The number of reported hate crimes in Los Angeles jumped 15 percent in 2016, with a sharp increase in violence against LGBTQ people, according to a new study.
Overall, the 2016 totals for Los Angeles were the largest number of hate crimes since 2008 when the city recorded 280 hate crimes.
The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino looked at Los Angeles police statistics and found the number of reported hate crimes rose from 200 in 2015 to 230 last year. Attacks on LGBTQ people jumped to 61 in 2016, compared to 49 the year before.
Within the LGBTQ community, the group that saw the biggest jump in reported hate crimes was the transgender community, the report said.
“While Los Angeles had three straight years of rising hate crime, the nation has not seen consecutive increases since 2004,” according to the report. “If preliminary national increases, which will fluctuate as more data comes in from other jurisdictions, hold for the rest of the nation, 2016 will be the first time since 2004, when America has had back to back annual increases in hate crime.”
Reported hate crimes in Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest city, last year were above the 10 percent average rise seen in 16 of the most populated localities, but less than those found in New York and Chicago, the first and third largest cities.
Los Angeles’ highest number of recorded hate crimes took place in 2001, the year of the 9/11 attacks. That year, Los Angeles had 559 hate crimes, the highest number so far this century, the report said.
