Hate Crimes Reported in State Last Year Show Slight Decline

Reported hate crimes declined slightly in the state last year, according to a California Department of Justice report unveiled Friday.

The figures showed that overall hate crimes leveled off at 1,957 incidents--five fewer than in 1999. Sixty-three percent of those crimes were motivated by race or ethnicity, 21% by sexual orientation and 15% by religion. African Americans were the most frequent victims (31%). White males were the most frequent perpetrators, although the report did not contain that breakdown, an official said.

“The good news is that hate crimes reported in California are down,” said Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, who released the report on the second anniversary of a racially motivated rampage in which a gunman killed a postal worker and wounded several people at a San Fernando Valley Jewish community center.

It is unclear whether hate crimes are down because “we live in a more tolerant society or because of failures to report hate crimes,” Lockyer said.

But he echoed concerns raised in a March study that concluded many incidents are not properly classified as hate crimes by local law enforcement agencies. That study by the state Civil Rights Commission on Hate Crimes found that many California police agencies lacked proper training to spot hate crimes. The commission also found that some agencies had “credibility issues”--failing to call some crimes hate crimes to avoid negative publicity.

On Friday, Lockyer singled out Orange County for criticism. He said that only three of 11 criminal cases reported by police there as hate crimes were prosecuted.

“Obviously, Orange County has a lot to do to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of their knowledge of hate crimes,” the attorney general said.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Fell, who handles hate crime prosecutions, said the numbers were low because “we’ve taken a very proactive stance in taking on hate crimes.”

Lockyer also criticized the city of Los Angeles, which prosecuted only nine of 65 hate crime cases referred by police, saying, “That’s a low ratio.”

Recently elected City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo is considering additional resources for the city’s hate crimes unit, said spokesman Ben Austin. Delgadillo’s predecessor, Mayor James K. Hahn, could not be reached for comments.

Fred Persily, executive director of the California Assn. of Human Relations Organizations, said low rates of reporting and prosecution are broader problems.

“We’ve met with a number of cities where, frankly, they’ve never even heard of hate crimes and don’t know what hate crimes are,” said Persily, who sits on the state Civil Rights Commission on Hate Crimes. “As long as that’s the state of the art, the numbers will be important to show that hate crimes really do occur, but they’re not very useful in determining trends.”

California has more hate crimes than any other state, and Los Angeles County--with 829 incidents last year--has more than any other county.

Lockyer said some hate crimes might be the result of “the friction that arises out of diversity.” He also said the fact that more than a quarter of all state residents are foreign-born may make hate crimes more difficult to identify because of language barriers and cultural attitudes toward police.

About 16% of all reported hate crimes were against Latinos, a rise from about 14% last year.

Lockyer said he is working to implement new training programs for law enforcement and public campaigns to heighten awareness of hate crimes.