Hate crimes in Orange County last year were down slightly over 2020, but there was a jump in racially charged incidents, according to the OC Human Relations Commission’s annual report issued Thursday.
The county recorded 398 hate crimes and incidents in 2021, including 97 hate crimes and 301 incidents, which fall short of drawing criminal charges. Last year, the county logged 112 hate crimes and 263 incidents. In all, it represented a 6% increase in hate crimes and incidents over 2020.
Hate crimes were down by 13%, but hate incidents were up 14%.
Of the hate crimes, 56% were based on a victim’s race or ethnicity, 21% were motivated by religion and 23% were due to sexual orientation.
In the hate incidents category, most of the offensive behavior was due to race or ethnicity at 65%, 29% targeted religion.
The victims of hate incidents were primarily of Asian descent with 51% falling into that category. Twenty-six percent were antisemitic.
The hate crimes and incidents are up 165% compared to five years ago.
Thirty-three percent of the crimes and incidents happened in public places such as a park or on the street.
For hate crimes, 25 were in public, 14 were in a residence, and 14 were in a work place.
Of the hate crimes in 2021, 16 were anti-Black, 10 were anti-Asian/Pacific Islander, seven were anti-Latino, four were anti-Middle Eastern/Arab, and four were anti-white. Ten were anti-gay, five were anti-LGBTQ and one was anti-lesbian. In 26 incidents the bias was unknown.