These numbers reflect similar increases in Southern California and statewide.
Hate crimes nationwide sharply increased by 17 percent in 2017, according to an FBI report, marking the third consecutive year such incidents fueled by prejudice have risen in an environment of political polarization.
This year also saw the biggest annual increase in hate crimes in more than a decade, and the largest since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Of the 7,106 hate crimes reported by more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies around the country, a majority of victims, 59.6 percent, were targeted because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry bias. Other motivating factors were religion and sexual orientation, according to the report.
Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,679 offenses. A majority of those, 58.1 percent, were anti-Jewish followed by anti-Muslim (18.7 percent). Hate crimes against Muslims declined in 2017 compared to the previous year when it was at 24.8 percent. African-Americans were the most targeted racial group.
This year, around 1,000 more law enforcement agencies participated in hate crime reporting. But that alone cannot be attributed to the double-digit spike in hate crimes nationwide, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.
“This is a rise that is so significant that we can’t simply attribute it to better or more efficient reporting,” he said.
Nationally hate crimes have increased by more than 30 percent over the last three years and by 44 percent in California during the same period, Levin said.
He attributes the increase to a number of factors including the rise in white nationalism, a decline of trust in institutions such as government, schools and the media, and the lack of political leadership in condemning the rise of hatred.
“What is most worrisome is the emboldening of white nationalism in public and virtual spaces,” Levin said.
President Trump has been criticized for his failure to quickly condemn hate crimes, particularly a homicide at a bar in Olathe, Kan., where 32-year-old Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Indian man, was shot and killed by a man screaming “Get out of my country.”
The president’s comments about “fine people on both sides” the day after the Unite the Right Charlottesville rally in August 2017 when Nazis carrying tiki torches marched on the University of Virginia campus chanting “Jews will not replace us,” also drew criticism.
The FBI report aligns with consecutive increases in hate crimes in Los Angeles and Orange counties as well as statewide.
Los Angeles County reported a 5 percent overall increase in hate crimes while Orange County saw a 12 percent increase .
The increase in hate crimes is a “chilling reminder that we must redouble our efforts,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
“We are especially concerned about hate incidents directed at African Americans and other racial minorities, which reflects the toxic rhetoric and racially divisive politics that we too often see at the federal level.”
The rise of anti-Semitism over the last two years, particularly post-Charlottesville, has been well documented by the Anti-Defamation League.
Barely two weeks before the FBI released this report, a self-proclaimed white supremacist barged into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh during a Shabbat service Oct. 27 and shot and killed 11 people .
Closer to home — and just four days later — a vandal scrawled “(Expletive) Jews” in red on the wall of an Irvine synagogue. Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
“This increase comes as no surprise,” said Joanna Mendelson, senior investigative researcher with ADL’s Center on Extremism. “Just look at the climate of hate, the divisiveness of society, the vitriol, how extremists have become more emboldened and how technology has been weaponized.”
Social media sites including uncensored platforms like Gab, which the suspected synagogue shooter visited right before the incident, have done their part to push anti-Semitic ideology and conspiracy theories, she said.
“Conspiracy theories are the bread and butter of extremist ideology,” Mendelson said. “The more unbelievable and convoluted they are, the more it’s embraced.”
Many of the conspiracy theories out there date back to a century ago and are simply recycled, she said.
The key to curbing this epidemic of hate is to forcefully condemn any form of hatred or bigotry, Mendelson said.
“Hate thrives in a vacuum,” she said. “Unless those with the bully pulpit speak out immediately, directly and decisively against hate, it will continue to fester.”
