A preliminary report shows that hate crimes rose by more than 15% in the nation’s 10 largest cities in 2023, with Los Angeles shamefully leading the pack.
“L.A. will either be first or second this year for the most hate crimes reported in the United States since national data collection began,” said Brian Levin, founding director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism. “It's either going to be New York or Los Angeles when we get the final data in.”
The L.A. County Human Relations Commission’s 2022 Hate Crime Report documented an 18% increase in hate crimes from the previous year, reaching the highest number in more than 20 years. The county broke records for the number of anti-transgender crimes and anti-immigrant slurs.
Levin notes that part of the nationwide rise could be driven by cities improving their reporting systems – but that’s not the whole story.
“We’re seeing organic increases, a record surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes,” he said.
In 2022, religion-based hate crimes were up 27% in major U.S. cities, and Jewish people were targeted the most. Levin says anti-Jewish hate crimes were up 48% in L.A., along with a 40% increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes.
He says the preliminary data shows that New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Austin all broke records for hate crimes in 2022.
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