Hate in the state

The controversial death of Trayvon Martin, a black teen who was shot and killed by a volunteer neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., serves as a disquieting reminder that racial violence is not a thing of the past. And our state is not immune to the violence. According to the California Department of Justice’s most recent annual report, Hate Crimes in California, 1,425 hate crimes involving 1,320 victims were reported in 2010. Here are some of the report’s findings:

• Since 2001, hate crimes with a race/ethnicity/national-origin bias are the most-common form of hate crime, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all hate-crime events.

• Hate crimes against blacks remain the most common, accounting for 26 percent of those crimes since 2001.

• Hate crimes with a sexual-orientation bias have consistently been the second- most-common form of hate crime since 2001, accounting for 25.2 percent of all hate crimes.

• Hate crimes with a religious bias are the third-most-common, accounting for 17.9 percent of all hate crimes.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/calhatecrime