Report: Majority of Weho's Hate Crimes are Violent

"Wherever you find a cluster of business catering to the LGBT community, you'll find a cluster of hate crimes as well," Marshall Wong, coordinator of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission's anti hate-crime program told the West Hollywood Public Safety Commission on Monday evening.

Such is the case in Weho, where even though the city is matching a county-wide decrease in hate-crimes, the LGBT community remains the main target of bias-motivated attacks.

According to data provided by Wong, 70-percent of hate-crimes reported in West Hollywood in 2011--the latest year for which is available--were committed on the basis sexual orientation.

The data shows that the vast majority of those hate crimes--81-percent--were violent in nature. Across the county, 71-percent of sexual orientation based hate crimes are violent in nature, a disproportionately high number when compared to hate crimes based on race or religion, Wong said.

"Because hate crimes are so overwhelmingly sexual-orientation based in West Hollywood, you have extremely high rates of violence," Wong said. "81-percent of all hate crimes reported in 2011 were violent in nature."

Hate Crimes Not Just Random 'Gay Bashing'

According to Wong, 57-percent of the hate crimes in West Hollwood occured in public places, while 43-percent took place in business and residences.

Wong presented a map showing that, though there were clusters of crimes reported around Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards, there was also a broad distribution of crimes reported in residential areas.

What that data showed, he said, is that hate crimes can be both spontaneous or premeditated.

"Most people think of hate crimes as spontaneous gay bashing that happen when people are leaving clubs or bars or something like that, but almost an equal number occur where people live," Wong said.

Hate Crime on the Decline

Despite the grim numbers regarding the prevalence of violent hate crimes against the LGBT community, Wong said that there was cause for optimism in the statistics.

Though the number of hate crimes increased by 15-percent in Los Angeles County in 2011, that number was still the second lowest in 22-years.

Across the county, the number of hate crimes increased from 427 to 489 after three years of steep decline.

In West Hollywood, the 17 hate crimes reported were up slightly from the 14 reported in 2010, but still well below the peak number of 27 reported in 2004.

Wong said that West Hollywood has been a "shining model" in responding to hate crimes, both by providing support systems for victims and by pursuing attackers.

"West Hollywood has been a shining model on how to prevent hate crimes, provide comfort to victims and aggressively peruse perpetrators," Wong said.