Hate crimes in Los Angeles County soared last year to their highest mark in five years even as overall crime dropped across the region, according to a report released at July 24, 2008.
The annual report by the county’s human relations commission shows 763 hate crimes were reported in 2007, a 28 percent increase from 2006.
The most common hate crimes were those motivated by race.
A majority of the hate crimes involved vandalism and simple assault, but aggravated assault was involved in 187 of them, a nearly 90 percent increase over the year before.
The report said that 105 hate crimes were based on religion – a 17 percent increase -and nearly three-quarters of them were anti-Jewish.
