CALIFORNIA HATE CRIMES UP IN '96; POLICE AGENCIES HANDLE MORE THAN 2,000 CASES.Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau More Californians were assaulted, bullied bul·ly 1 n. pl. bul·lies 1. A person who is habitually cruel or overbearing, especially to smaller or weaker people. 2. A hired ruffian; a thug. 3. A pimp. 4. or murdered in 1996 because of their religion, sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. or the color of their skin, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a report released Friday by the state Attorney General's Office. Some 2,054 hate crimes were reported to local police in 1996, most of them violent and most of them motivated by racial hatred, the report found. Police statewide reported 300 more such incidents than in 1995, a 17.1 percent increase. But officials objected to comparing the earlier figures against the current report, because hate-crime awareness has grown. ``It's not just local law enforcement, it's also the victims,'' said Matt Ross Matthew Brandon Ross (born January 3, 1970) is an American actor. Filmography
Statewide, the incidents included 774 assaults, 712 cases of intimidation, 59 robberies, four murders and two rapes. The rest of the offenses were property crimes, such as theft and vandalism The intentional and malicious destruction of or damage to the property of another. The intentional destruction of property is popularly referred to as vandalism. It includes behavior such as breaking windows, slashing tires, spray painting a wall with graffiti, and . More than 70 percent of the crimes were motivated by race, while 17.6 percent were spurred by sexual orientation and 11.1 percent were motivated by the victim's religion. Of the racially motivated incidents, 759 - by far the largest share - were perpetrated against African-Americans. There were 220 anti-white incidents, more than reported against either Asians or Latinos. Figures for Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. echoed the trend statewide, with 481 incidents in 1996, compared to 437 the year before, a 10 percent jump. Most other cities in the region posted relatively small numbers. Calabasas had two hate crimes. Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, had three. Glendale and Palmdale each reported eight. Some 13 incidents were reported in Lancaster in 1996, up from 10 the previous year, according to the report. The state has collected hate-crime statistics only since 1994, and Friday's report marked only the second time officials had analyzed a full year of data. Because local officials are still being trained in hate-crime recognition and analysis, the report likely understates the true number of hate-related crimes, officials said. |
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