Report: LA Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes Increased by 60.5% in 2019

[additional-authors]

Aaron Bandler

January 24, 2020

LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 06: Los Angeles Police Department Mounted Platoon officers ride down Hollywood Boulevard as police and deputies step up security near the Hollywood/Highland Red Line Metro train station and other stops on December 6, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. An increase in security is in response to Federal and Los Angeles officials who say they were alerted by authorities in another country that an imminent and very specific threat has been made against the city’s Red Line commuter rail system. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released data on Jan. 22 highlighting that anti-Semitic hate crimes increased 60.5% in the city of Los Angeles from 2018 to 2019.

The Los Angeles Times reported that there were 69 instances of anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2019, compared with 43 in the prior year. According to LAist, the marked increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes stems in part from the LAPD adding “swastika vandalism” to its classification of anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2019.

Professor Brian Levin, director of the Cal State San Bernardino Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, told the Times, “The bottom line is, swastikas have been normalized, and when we combine that with the ubiquity of anti-Semitic epithets and memes on the internet, I think it shows we’re in a new era.”

Hate crimes overall increased 10% from 2018 (292) to 2019 (322). In 2016, the LAPD recorded 229 hate crimes in Los Angeles, meaning that hate crimes have increased more than 40% from 2016 to 2019.

“We are saddened but not shocked by the 60% rise in anti-Jewish crimes,” Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Los Regional Director Amanda Susskind said in a statement. “This reflects the uptick in anti-Semitic incidents ADL is tracking across the country. ADL education programs are part of the solution.”

She added: “Hateful rhetoric has become a cultural norm and it has real-time consequences. We can only fight this by standing together.”

ADL applauds @LAPD for getting statistics about hate crimes in the City of LA for 2019 out so quickly. We are saddened but not shocked by the 60% rise in anti-Jewish crimes. This reflects the uptick in anti-Semitic incidents ADL is tracking across the country.

— ADL Southern California (@ADLSoCal) January 24, 2020

ADL education programs are part of the solution. @LAPD statistics also reflect a rise in hate crimes targeting the African American community, transgender people and the Muslim community.

— ADL Southern California (@ADLSoCal) January 24, 2020

Hateful rhetoric has become a cultural norm and it has real-time consequences. We can only fight this by standing together. #fightinghateforgood

— ADL Southern California (@ADLSoCal) January 24, 2020

American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Regional Director Richard S. Hirschhaut similarly said in a statement to the Journal, “It is disturbing but not surprising that antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes continue to rise in our city. It is particularly troubling that hate crimes directed against individuals rose markedly and were more violent in Los Angeles in 2019. Together, law enforcement, public officials, and community leaders must redouble our efforts to address this scourge before it further erodes our social fabric.”