New LA County report shows ‘unprecedented’ hate crime levels

About a year ago, a Black woman driving in Long Beach was stopped at a left turn lane when a white woman pulled up nearby and began honking. As the Black woman made the left turn, the white woman stayed with her, then drove alongside.

“[N-word] my family owned you,” the white woman yelled at the Black woman. “You slave, you Black [N-word].”

The Black woman turned, and saw the white woman also had a handgun. The Black woman changed lanes, then got behind the white woman, who stopped and then pointed her gun at the Black woman. The Black woman later said that the white woman waved the gun toward her about eight times before the encounter ended.

That incident is one of the 1,355 hate crimes counted in the new 2024 Los Angeles County Hate Crime report, released earlier this month. Titled “Strength in Numbers,” the report states that 2024 was the second worst year for hate crimes in the 44 years that the LA County Commission on Human Relations has been tracking them, though not by much.

The worst year on record was 2023, with 1,367 hate crimes in the county, according to last year’s report.

“This year’s report makes clear that hate isn’t slowing — it’s evolving and appearing in the daily lives of far too many Angelenos,” Third District Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath said in a Dec. 4 statement. “No matter who you are or how you show up in the world, you deserve to be safe and supported in Los Angeles County. We will not rest until that is true for everyone.”

Though 2023 had a dozen more hate crimes overall than 2024, last year marked record highs in hate crimes committed in LA County against Black people, LGBTQ+ individuals, Jewish people, Latinos, Middle Easterners, women, Israelis, Muslims and Scientologists, according to the report. 

In addition, there were 102 hate crimes committed against transgender people in LA County last year, the largest number so far recorded, the report noted. Nearly all of these crimes (95%) were violent, according to the report. Also, the overwhelming majority of suspects in these hate crimes (95%) were men.

It’s difficult to compare the LA County findings to Orange County. The most recent report available showed 95 hate crimes in 2023, down from 112 the previous year (which had been a record high) but that report’s authors noted that the 95 figure “may be underrepresented due to the four Orange County [police] agencies partially reporting for the year.”

Though 2024 broke record highs in LA County, hate crimes have been increasing since around 2015. In fact, hate crimes dropped to their lowest level ever recorded in the county in 2013 (after a previous record high total of 1,031 in 2001), but then began ticking up in 2015, and started climbing steeply in 2020.

The LA County Commission on Human Relations called the latest findings “unprecedented” in the report, noting that they reflect “both the alarming persistence of hate and the commission’s ongoing efforts to respond and take action against hate.” Expanded community partnerships and safe ways for victims to report hate crimes suggests, according to the report, that “victims who come forward are increasingly finding strength in numbers.”

The report noted that, as in earlier years, the largest number of hate crimes occurred in public places (35%), followed by homes (25%), businesses (20%), schools (11%) and religious sites and organizations (4%). 

Though hate crimes at schools are a relatively small number of the total incidents in the county, that number has risen considerably in recent years, rising from 139 in 2023 to 147 in 2024, according to the report. “This is the highest count ever documented in this report,” according to the commission, and includes both K-12 schools and college campuses.

Much of the hate in the county, the report noted, has fallen once again on Black residents. 

“African Americans were again grossly over-represented in the overall total of those targeted and made up 51% of racial hate crime victims,” the report stated, noting that Black people make up just 9% of the county’s population. “The 345 anti-Black crimes were the highest number ever reported, surpassing the record from the year prior in 2023.”

These incidents, like the one that began this story, “deeply concern” Sharifa Batts, the president of the NAACP’s Long Beach branch. She called the reported increases in so many hate crimes “a sobering reminder that racism and bigotry are persistent threats to the safety and dignity of our communities."

“There is a person, a family, and a neighborhood forever impacted by these statistics,” Batts said in a statement to the Watchdog. “These numbers call on all of us to remain vigilant and committed to education, prevention, and accountability.”

As for hate crimes against LGBTQ+ persons, the vast majority (72%) of sexual orientation crimes targeted gay men, according to the report. While there was a slight decrease in the number of crimes from the previous year (182 compared to 189), the 2024 figure still represents the second highest count in the last 44 years.

And these crimes are often violent. 

In one example that took place in March of 2024, a white woman and her partner were outside a church in Long Beach when they saw a Black man they had previously filed a restraining order against for prior incidents, according to the report.

“Stupid fucking lesbians,” the man yelled at the women, according to the report. He then threatened to get his “bitches” to surround and “fuck up” the victims. Then he pushed the white woman and slapped her across the face. 

When the woman grabbed her phone to call the police, the man knocked it from her hand. Though he fled the scene, police later arrested him, according to the report.

As previously noted, nearly all anti-transgender hate crimes were violent, and 83% of hate crimes that targeted gay men were violent, the same percentage as last year, according to the report. What’s more, 12 of 14 anti-lesbian hate crimes were violent (86%), 54% of LGBT (non-specified) cases were violent and all four anti-bisexual cases were violent, according to the report.

Nearly 90% of suspects in these hate crime cases are male, the report notes.

As previously noted, hate crimes targeting Muslims and Scientologists set record highs, but the overall number dropped 13% in 2024 – 259, compared to 297 the previous year, according to the report. Eighty percent of all religious hate crimes targeted the Jewish community, the report noted.

While most religious hate crimes took place in Los Angeles itself, other cities, including Long Beach, did report a few, according to the commission.

In July 2024, for instance, a Christian church in Long Beach reported that an unknown suspect painted the number “666” on their two front wooden doors, according to the report.

The report noted that while the majority of victims in these hate crimes were white (77%), most of the suspects were also white (59%).

As it noted last year, the Commission on Human Relations believes that the high levels of hate crimes in the county are “due in large part to improved reporting of these human rights violations.” 

The commission especially found value in its LA vs Hate project, which started in 2018 and includes a reporting system, as well as what the report describes as an “ongoing, multi-sector, art-centered community-building, hate prevention, and marketing campaign.”

For her part, Batts said the NAACP Long Beach branch will “continue working with community partners to build solidarity and strengthen protections to ensure that every resident can live free from hate and discrimination.”