Last year, California’s ‘CA vs Hate’ program instituted a non-emergency hate crime reporting hotline where residents could report observed instances of hate.
Now CA vs Hate has released its inaugural report, giving valuable insights into the types of hate crimes and incidents that occur within the state, and what groups are most affected.
Hate Crime Hotline
The hotline, administered by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), allowed the documentation of over 1,000 hate reports in the previous year. In a statement, the CRD outlined the difficulty with recording hate crimes and the motivation for the hotline.
“Many hate crimes have historically gone unreported due to a variety of factors, including fear of retaliation, lack of culturally competent resources, concern around potential immigration consequences, and distrust of law enforcement,” said the CRD.
Anonymous Reporting
In the statement, the CRD also emphasized the importance of those who wish to remain anonymous.
“As part of the effort to make CA vs Hate as inclusive and easy-to-use as possible, individuals who report an act of hate can remain anonymous and, recognizing that hate can target multiple aspects of a person’s identity, may select multiple bias motivations related to the report, the CRD said.
Most Cited Motivations
Of the over 1,000 reports received by the hotline, a subset of 560 reports were further investigated by CA vs Hate to make conclusions about motivations.
CA vs Hate found that 35.1% of these reports were motivated by race and ethnicity, 15.1% by gender identity, and 10.8% were related to sexual orientation.
Religious Hate
A report fact sheet by the CRD broke the categories of hate events down, allowing trends to be examined.
Anti-Jewish hate topped the list at 36.9% of religious targeting reports. In second came anti-Hindu hate at 23.3%, and third came anti-Muslim reports at 14.6%.
Racial Hate
When looking at reports related to ethnicity, anti-Black hate was the most common at 26.8%. The next most common ethnicity affected was Latino at 15.4%.
Anti-Asian hate was the third most common on hotline reports related to race coming in at 14.3%.
Gender Identity
Reports related to gender identity targetting most often involved anti-Transgender or anti-female hate.
Anti-Transgender hate came in at 28.6% of gender identity targetting reports while anti-female represented 24% of those reports.
New Data
Although this data on the hotline can give insight into the prevalence and types of hate incidents perpetrated in California, the California Department of Public Affairs warned against making conclusions too soon.
“It’s important to note that CA vs. Hate is new, and the data should not be treated as being representative of all acts of hate in California,” the department said in a statement to Religion News Service.
Hindu Advocates
The new data from the hotline is being seized on by many advocates as evidence of a rising amount of hate.
“Currently we live in a world where powerful groups and academics deny the very existence of religiously motivated violence against Hindus, even though they accept it happens to other faith communities,” said Pushpita Prasad of the Coalition of Hindus of North America. “As a California resident, I have been aghast at the lack of action and attention to this violation of my sacred spaces and my religious freedom.”
Hate Crime Rise
The move to create the hate crime hotline came as a result of recent jumps in the number of reported hate crimes in the state of California.
Hate crimes jumped by 20% across the entire state in 2022. In Los Angeles County in 2023, reported hate crimes reached the highest level in over 20 years.
Anti-Asian Hate
Robin Toma, the Executive Director of the LA County Human Relations Commission, was disappointed in the resurgence of anti-Asian hate after the pandemic.
“Anti-Asian hate crimes, which had soared during the pandemic, declined 25% in our county, which is on par with declines that we’re seeing statewide. But, the 61 anti-Asian crimes reported were still the second largest number in this reports long history,” said Toma.
Understanding Trends
Hindus for Human Rights released a statement in the aftermath of the report, insisting that it provides another reason to be vigilant against intolerance and that it constitutes an “alarming trend.”
“We are committed to understanding the underlying causes of this trend and urge the community to join us in addressing and combating all forms of religious hatred,” said the HfHR. “This report underscores the urgent need for continued vigilance and collective, interfaith action against intolerance in all its forms.”
