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Hate Crime in California Report Corresponds with ADL Data: The LGBTQ+ Community Is Being Targeted

  • June 28, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Laura Fennell, ADL West Communications Director
(310) 633-1435

lfennell@adl.org

Hate Crime in California Report Corresponds with ADL Data: The LGBTQ+ Community Is Being Targeted

California’s annual hate crime report reveals increases across the board in hate crime events with its most serious increases anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Jewish events.

Sacramento, CA. June 27, 2023 … The California Attorney General’s Office of Community Awareness, Response and Engagement (CARE) released its annual Hate Crime in California Report revealing startling increases across the spectrum of bigotry.

Hate Crime in California presents statistics on hate crimes reported by California law enforcement agencies that occurred during 2022. These statistics include the reported number of hate crime events, hate crime offenses, victims of hate crimes and suspects of hate crimes. Overall, reported hate crime events increased 20.2% from 1,763 in 2021 to 2,120 in 2022. With anti-Black or African American bias events remaining the highest with 652 reported events in 2022.

Anti-Jewish bias events saw the second highest increase at 24.3%, rising from 152 in 2021 to 189 in 2022. This corresponds with ADL’s Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which reported that California saw a dramatic rise in antisemitic occurrences in recent years. In 2022, the number of incidents increased 41% from 2021 levels, rising from 367 to 518. Additionally, ADL’s first-of-its-kind report on extremism in the state released in May 2023 also demonstrates remarkable increases in white supremacist events and propaganda distributions across the Golden State.

“There’s no doubt that the state of California has a problem with hate,” said Robert Trestan, Vice President of ADL’s Western Division, which includes California. “It is time for our state leaders to recognize that hate of all kinds and extremism poses a growing and dangerous threat to all Californians.”

Alarmingly, hate crime events motivated by a sexual orientation bias saw the highest increase and surged in all categories jumping from 29% from 303 events in 2021 to 391 in 2022. In the same period, Anti-transgender bias events increased from 38 to 59 events; anti-gay (male) bias events increased 28.4% from 211 to 271; and anti-lesbian bias crimes rose from 27 to 33.

This data aligns with ADL and GLAAD’s recent report on anti-LGBTQ+ extremist and non-extremist incidents, which documented 356 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents between June 2022 and April 2023. These incidents range from demonstrations aiming to intimidate organizers and attendees at drag shows, to bomb threats against hospitals that offer health care for LGBTQ+ people to a mass shooting that took the lives of five people in Colorado – speaking clearly to the heightened threats facing the LGBTQ+ community in the United States today.

One note of hope can be glimpsed in the reported decrease anti-Asian hate crime events which dropped by 43.3% from 247 in 2021 to 140 in 2022, which could be due to the decline of the COVID-19 pandemic, for which many Asian Americans were blamed and targeted with hate.

The offices of ADL California are honored to have the Attorney General’s office as a trusted partner and are grateful for the state’s commitment to fight hate for good. It is through elected leadership and community partnerships that we collectively can best call out, track, and prevent hate crimes from occurring in the Golden State. If your someone you know has been the victim of a hate incident, please report it to the police and to ADL at: https://www.adl.org/report-incident

ADL is a leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. ADL is the first call when acts of antisemitism occur. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education, and fighting hate online, ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate. More at www.adl.org

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Press Release_California Hate Crimes Report for 2022 Year_06-27-2023