SAN DIEGO — A new report from SANDAG shows a big jump in hate crimes across San Diego County and several groups that work with victims believe the actual number of incidents is much higher.
From shots fired from a pellet gun at members of the LGBTQ+ community in Hillcrest and antisemitic flyers dropped in multiple spots across the county to graffiti with racial slurs at an elementary school in Chula Vista, San Diego has seen a steady stream of attacks on marginalized groups.
“This is a crisis,” said Fabienne Perlov, Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League of San Diego. As a result, she isn’t the least bit surprised by the new SANDAG report which shows hate crimes jumped 39% from 2022 to 2023. In fact, she believes the problem is a lot more prevalent. “We know that marginalized communities historically do not report hate crimes or hate incidents due to the distress of law enforcement or even because they're not aware of how to report a hate incident or hate crime.”
The SANDAG report found intimidation to be the most common form of hate, followed by crimes against property, and assaults.
“I am deeply concerned about the number of hate crimes that have been committed against the community here in San Diego this past year,” said Sara Brown with the American Jewish Committee in San Diego. She says the situation went from bad to worse after the October 7th attack last year by Hamas on Israel and there's no sign that the numbers will start dropping anytime soon. “We need to see our elected officials, our law enforcement, civil leaders, religious leaders, everyone needs to come together and prioritize fighting back,” she said. “We are America's finest city. We deserve better.”
While hate crimes saw the biggest spike, shoplifting, and prostitution also rose dramatically year over year. On a positive note, murders across the county were down 21% last year, rape was down 19%, and burglary was down 15%.
CBS 8 reached out to San Diego police to get their thoughts on the numbers but had not recieved a response back by the posting of this story. That said, the ADL tells us law enforcement has been willing to work with them to investigate incidents of hate and protect targeted communities. “Change will not happen if we're working in silos,” Perlov said. “We need to come together as a community to tackle this issue.”
WATCH RELATED: Hate crimes up 65% in City of San Diego in 2022