Hate crimes in LA County 'continue at record levels,' new report finds

Christopher Buchanan, Los Angeles Times on Dec 4, 2025

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LOS ANGELES — Hate crimes in Los Angeles County remained near record-high levels in 2024, despite slight decreases in several types of violent incidents, according to a report released Thursday.

The findings from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, presented at a news conference in Koreatown, said there were 1,355 reported hate crimes victims in the county during 2024, a 1% decrease from the previous year.

“To get a sense of the magnitude, that total represents an average of nearly four hate crimes in each day,” said Robin Toma, the commission’s executive director.

Toma said hate crimes continuing locally at historic rates can be partially attributed to improved reporting, along with partnerships between law enforcement agencies, and community organizations such as LA vs. Hate and 211LA.

Anti-Black hate crimes accounted for a majority of the reported incidents at 51%, with the total number of victims increasing from 325 in 2023 to 345 last year. The data maintain a years-long pattern of over-representation of Black individuals as victims in racially driven incidents. The report cited one incident in December last year, when a Black woman driving her car in Long Beach said a white perpetrator began to yell slurs at her and brandish a weapon “about 8 times.”

Professor emeritus Brian Levin, founding director at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said “socially scapegoated groups” bear the brunt of violent hate crimes. Simple assaults, aggravated assaults and robberies all rose to varying degrees, which — including vandalism — accounted for 88% of all reported hate crimes, according to the commission’s report.

Hate crimes against the Middle Eastern community increased sevenfold, the report found, the largest rise of any racial category. Crimes that involved language regarding the conflict in the Middle East accounted for 6% of all total incidents. Nearly half of these occurred in school settings, the report added.

The number of hate crimes in which victims were identified as Latino also increased from 2023 to 2024, with 25 more incidents reported, for a total of 71.

Levin said the trend could possibly be attributed to inflamed rhetoric concerning immigrant communities coming from elected officials in Washington.

The scapegoating of immigrants and transgender people enabled negative stereotypes to flourish, which in turn influenced victim targeting, he said.

In October of last year, according to another incident highlighted in the commission’s report, a Latina Certified Nurse Assistant was repeatedly punched and visibly injured by a Black patient after he told her, “I hate Central America. Go back to your country.”

Toma said that data on immigrant or Latino communities may be skewed because some are afraid to report incidents for fear of immigration enforcement consequences.

Sheriff Robert Luna, who also spoke at the news conference Thursday, said any reporting party would not be scrutinized by his agency for their immigration status.

“I’m wearing this uniform, and everyone looks at me differently because I wear this uniform,” Luna said. “But on a weekend, if I go to a Home Depot, not in uniform, I’m looking over my back to my reality, and so I have that sensitivity that we are in some challenging times.”

Nearly all crimes against transgender individuals resulted in violence, with a 3% increase in total reported incidents, the commission’s report said. Crimes against nonbinary individuals also rose, according to the report, but there was a slight decrease in incidents against the LGBTQ+ community overall.

Bambi Salcedo, president of the Trans Latin@ Coalition, said the report reflects the “realities” of transgender individuals in L.A. County and nationally.

“This year alone, at least 52 trans people (nationally) have been murdered,” Salcedo said. “What that means is that, for every week of the year, at least one of us has been murdered.”

Incidents involving Asian victims decreased from 70 in 2023 to 52 in 2024, the report said. Gang-related crimes also decreased after historic highs in 2023.

Religious-based hate crimes mainly targeted Jewish victims, which accounted for 80% of the total, but decreased from 244 to 202 reported incidents, according to county data. Anti-Muslim crimes — which made up the second-largest majority of incidents — increased from 19 to 21 crimes. Scientologists were identified as victims in 16 incidents last year, compared to 10 in 2023.

“These findings should be alarming, reflecting the persistence of high levels of hate with our concern that it will continue to grow given the political climate,” Toma said.