Californians Don't Hate Each Other as Much as They Used To

Californians are hatin' on hate

Well, this might help explain last year's mass exodus to Texas.

The California Attorney General's Office released some uplifting stats that show Californians have less hostility -- or at least they're not acting on it -- than in previous years. The AG welcomed the numbers which show an over 4 percent drop in reported hate crimes in 2011.

Perhaps this comes as a surprise to you, considering some of the depressing headlines we've seen as recently as this week, such as "Marines probed for hate crime beating outside California gay bar."

Still, hate crimes dropped from 1,107 in 2010 to 1,060 reported crimes in 2011, according to Attorney General Kamala Harris. Hate crimes involving race, ethnicity, and national origin account for the most common type, representing 57.5 percent of those reported last year.

Here are some highlights from the report:

• Anti-black hate crimes account for 29.5 percent of all hate crimes;
  

• Since 2002, anti-Hispanic hate crimes have decreased by 43.6 percent;
  

• Hate crime events involving a sexual orientation bias decreased 12.5 percent, from 279 in 2010 to 244 in 2011;
  

• Hate crime events involving a religious bias increased 1.5 percent, from 198 in 2010 to 201 in 2011.
  

• Anti-Jewish hate crimes continue to be most common, accounting for 8 percent of all hate crimes reported since 2002;
  

• Of the 161 cases with a disposition available for this report, 46 percent were hate crime convictions, 50 percent were other convictions, and 4 percent were not convicted.
  

"There is no place in our inclusive Golden State for hate crimes and their destruction of what makes California so special," Harris said in a statement released last week. "I welcome the decrease in these senseless crimes and commend state and local law enforcement for their efforts to protect every Californian."

The hate crime reporting system was implemented by the Department of Justice in 1994. Law enforcement agencies are required to submit copies of initial crime reports to the department, and each agency has established procedures incorporating a two-tier review process. The first level is done by the initial officer who responded to the suspected hate crime incident. Then each report is reviewed by at least one other officer to confirm that the event was, in fact, a hate crime.

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