Hate crimes in LA reach highest point since 1991, per LAPD data

Last summer, Patricia Roque and her family, who are of Filipino descent, became the target of a hate crime while in a drive-thru in the San Fernando Valley. 

On May 13, 31-year-old Nicholas Weber allegedly bumped Roque's car in a McDonald's drive-thru and proceeded to taunt her and her mother. While mocking an Asian accent, Weber shouted at the pair saying "You're so Asian" and "I kill you."

The incident escalated into a physical altercation when Roque's father arrived. Weber allegedly punched Roque's father and grabbed her mother by the neck. 

"Regardless of whether they are skyrocketing or remaining stagnant, there are still a lot of hate crimes that go unreported," said Roque. 

Weber has been charged with two counts of assault with a special allegation of a hate crime. He missed his first few court dates but is expected to appear in court on March 6. 

"It's very disheartening to see my family as victims," said Roque. "For us to do all of this work just to get the justice that we needed."

According to Professor Brian Levin, the number of hate crimes has been going up. The director of the Center of the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino said Los Angeles Police Department data shows a 13% spike in hate crimes between 2021 and 2022.

The bias category with the sharpest increase was in anti-transgender crime at 53%. Anti-Black crime increased by 36% and anti-Jewish crime went up by 24%. 

Levin said that politics is one of the driving factors behind the rise. 

"One of the things we've seen recently are election years, and increasingly midterm years, [are] peak times for hate crime," said Levin. 

According to Levin, 2022 saw the highest total of hate crimes since 1991, which is when the LAPD started collecting data on it.