Los Angeles County said Wednesday a record number of victims of hate crimes were recorded in 2021, reaching the highest levels since 2002.
The overall number of victims rose 23% when compared with 2020, and those most frequently targeted were people who are Black, Latino, LGTBQ, or Jewish.
The Commission also reported that crimes that appeared to target people based on their sexual orientation increased by about 15%, of those, 41 were committed against people who identified as transgender, the largest number recorded to date.
Incidents that targeted people by religion increased by nearly 30 percent, and the majority of the victims were Jewish.
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"I think that for 2022, 2023, my sense of it is that, based on what we've been seeing, is that we're going to continue to see increased numbers," said Commission executive director Robin Toma.
"In part, because I think our efforts to get people to recognize the importance of reporting hate crimes."
Officials said during a video call there were other factors in the increases, aside from more thorough reporting of individual events.
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The Commission said it based its count on the number of victims, rather than by the number of incidents, any one of which could involve multiple victims.
Also, police said the definitions and criteria used by officers and detectives to categorize incidents and crimes as 'hate related' have expanded, meaning more crimes that would have been excluded in years past are now included.
Gang-on-gang crime accounted for a significant portion of violent hate events, as epithets, and racial divides or racial motivation can sometimes overlay gang attacks.
