Hate crimes reported in SLO County more than double in 8 years. Who was targeted the most?
Hate crimes in San Luis Obispo County have more than doubled over the past eight years amid a surge in bias-motivated incidents reported throughout the state, according to the California Department of Justice.
A total of 21 hate-related incidents were reported in SLO County in 2022, according to the state agency’s Hate Crime in California report released in June.
That’s a significant increase from 2014, when five incidents were reported in the county, state DOJ data show.
“The alarming increases in crimes committed against Black, LGBTQ+ and Jewish people for the second year in a row illustrates the need for our communities to join together unified against hate,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “It takes all of us working together to combat extremism and foster a safe and inclusive environment for all Californians.”
The majority of hate crimes perpetrated in San Luis Obispo County over the past eight years have targeted Black people, according to state DOJ data.
In San Luis Obispo County, groups of masked men have displayed “white pride” banners at various locations, including Highway 101 overpass at Vineyard Drive in Templeton.
Most recently, on July 22, two men were spotted holding a banner reading “White men unite” in front of the San Luis Obispo City Fire Department’s Station No. 1.
San Luis Obispo City Mayor Erica Stewart condemned the “racist hate speech” on Instagram.
“In San Luis Obispo, we believe in the power of unity, acceptance, and love,” Stewart wrote in an Instagram post. “Our vision is a city that is welcoming, inclusive, and safe for all. We stand firmly against racism, bigotry, and discrimination of any kind.”
According to Ashley Myers, assistant regional director for the Santa Barbara chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, hate incidents are on the rise across California.
“Hate speech and hate crimes can do a lot of damage to a community,” Myers said. “But we’ve also seen instances were communities have said ‘No we’re not going to stand for this.’ ”
Spike in SLO County hate crimes reported in 2021, 2022
A total of 95 bias-motivated crimes were reported to law enforcement agencies in San Luis Obispo County over the past eight years, according to data from the California Department of Justice.
Of those 95 incidents, 21 were reported in 2022 and 20 were reported in 2021, the state justice department said. That’s a sizable increase compared with the seven hate crimes reported in the county in 2019.
The spike in reported hate crimes in SLO County is part of a statewide increase in reports of bias-motivated incidents.
Between 2021 and 2022, reported hate crimes increased 20.2% throughout California, according to the state justice department’s 2022 Hate Crime in California Report.
The numbers recorded by the California Department of Justice are based solely on hate crimes that were reported by victims or witnesses to law enforcement and then shared by law enforcement with the DOJ.
Those numbers likely don’t reflect the actual number of bias-motivated crimes that occurred during that time period, San Luis Obispo Police Chief Rick Scott said.
“Hate crimes are generally underreported and it is likely that they are also underreported here in SLO for the same reasons,” Scott wrote in an email. “Understanding underreporting does occur, we work hard to build community trust to minimize instances where someone who has been victimized does not report to the police.”
In SLO, community advocacy groups in the city can make a report on behalf of any person victimized by a hate crime, Scott said.
Why aren’t more hate crimes reported?
There’s a general discrepancy between the number of hate crimes reported to law enforcement and the hate crimes experienced by victims, according to a 2019 study of U.S. hate crime data from 2004 to 2012.
That indicates hate crimes are underreported compared to other kinds of crime.
A U.S. Department of Justice report about hate crimes shows about 42% of violent hate crimes reported by victims between 2005 and 2019, the most recent federal data available, were not reported to law enforcement.
The reasons why hate crime victims did not report vary.
About 38% of hate crime victims said they didn’t report those incidents because they were handled privately or without law enforcement, according to the federal DOJ report.
Meanwhile, 23% of victims didn’t report because they felt law enforcement would not help them, 16% of victims felt the crime was not important enough to report and 5% of victims said they did not report due to fear of retribution, the Justice Department found.
San Luis Obispo County Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth said that underreporting is not limited to hate crimes.
“You’re gonna have a percent of underreporting on any crime,” he told The Tribune. “We see it in sexual assault. We see that in domestic violence. We see that with theft. People are saying ... Why do I want to waste my time (reporting this)? Nothing’s gonna happen.’ ”
“That probably rings true ... for hate crimes,” he said.
That said, Dobroth said the increase in hate crimes reported in SLO County doesn’t necessarily point to more hate crimes occurring but rather more people reporting said crimes.
“I’m confident in making that statement that the population of individuals who would fall under the hate crime statutes as potential victims are likely more empowered over the last five years, decade or so, to kind of take control and report,” Dobroth said.
What’s the difference between hate crimes and hate speech?
Although making bigoted statements is reprehensible behavior, hate speech does not necessarily equate to a hate crime, Dobroth said.
“As much as it strikes at our ethical and moral core for somebody to make statements that are very hurtful, that relate to a protected class, right, which is the type of crime we’re talking about — the First Amendment protects most of that,” Dobroth said. “It’s only when someone makes a credible threat or engages in some criminal conduct where there could be the use of force, and they have the actual ability, that it becomes a crime.”
For instance, Dobroth said, graffiti that espouses hate speech would be considered a crime — vandalism — with a hate crime enhancement.
The California Civil Rights Department defines hate crime as a crime that is committed in part or entirely due to a person’s real or perceived characteristics, such as “disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation” or because of that person’s association with a person or group with those characteristics.
Meanwhile, a hate incident refers to hostile expression or action perpetrated against a person or group due to a person’s real or perceived characteristics such as disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, the Civil Rights Department said.
A hate incident can sometimes violate civil rights laws but may not violate criminal statutes.
“It may be illegal at a civil level, but it might not rise to the level of a crime,” Dobroth explained.
Although hate speech may be protected by the First Amendment, it is not harmless and can negatively impact a community, Myers said.
“Hate speech and incidents are almost a Venn diagram,” Myers said.
She described the act of displaying the white supremacist banner in San Luis Obispo as a hate incident because the men were
“in public making a declaration of hate.”
“And it’s hate speech because they have something in writing,” she explained.
Black people target of majority of SLO County hate crimes
In San Luis Obispo County, roughly a third of the 95 bias-motivated incidents that were reported between 2014 and 2022 targeted Black people.
In 2021, Black residents were targeted in seven reported incidents and in two reported incidents in 2022, according to local data from the DOJ.
A Santa Maria man was arrested in May 2022 after scrawling a racist, threatening note on the window of Powerhouse Barre and Pilates in Nipomo.
Ricardo Salazar later pleaded guilty to communicating a threat to someone that can result in great bodily injury or death with a hate crime penalty enhancement.
Reading the note, “I just felt heartbroken. I felt sad. I felt disappointment,” business owner Marissa Wilson, who is Black, told the Tribune in May 2022. “I felt uneasy because how can someone be so angry? We haven’t done anything to this person. We’re just here.”
Between 2010 to 2019, 49% of the hate crimes reported to law enforcement were motivated by anti-Black bias, according to data from the FBI Universal Crime Report.
Between 2021 and 2022, the number of racist incidents against Black people grew by 27.1%, according to a summary of the report.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community are also being targeted more throughout California. The number of reported statewide incidents grew from 303 in 2021 to 391 in 2022 — a 29% uptick.
In San Luis Obispo County, anti-LGBTQ+ bias is driving increasingly more hate crimes.
In 2022, five reported hate crimes targeted members of the LGBTQ+ community, compared to one incident reported in 2015 and none in 2016, according to the state Department of Justice.
Majority of hate crimes reported in San Luis Obispo
Out of all of the law enforcement agencies in San Luis Obispo County, the San Luis Obispo Police Department fields the most reports about hate crimes.
A total of 64 hate crimes were reported to the police department since 2014.
Scott said a few factors could account for that.
“The San Luis Obispo Police Department has been and continues to be very proactive in documenting not only hate crimes but hate expression,” Scott said via email. “Being that we are the largest city in the county, coupled with our policy of investigating and documenting ALL reported cases of hate crime and hate expression, we would expect to see a larger number being reported than some of our smaller cities in the county.”
The police department has kept a log of hate crimes on its website since January 2023, when California Assembly Bill 423 went into effect.
The bill recommends that law enforcement agencies post detailed information about reported hate crimes online for the public to see.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department has logged five reported hate crimes so far in 2023, according to the website.
Inclusivity and public safety is a top priority in San Luis Obispo, city communications manager Whitney Szentesi told The Tribune.
The city established a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion task force that met from September 2020 to January 2021 and presented a series of recommendations to the San Luis Obispo City Council.
The city employs a DEI manager, Nestor Veloz-Passalacqua, and is developing a strategic plan for DEI initiatives.
SLO County leadership offers mixed response to recent hate incidents
San Luis Obispo County leaders have clashed over how to respond to bias-related incidents.
On July 18, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors disagreed about the details of a resolution condemning displays of white supremacist messages in Templeton in April and May 2023.
“Holding up a banner that says ‘white pride’ is very close to ‘white power,’ ” Supervisor Jimmy Paulding said in the July 18 meeting. “I think that it’s important that our board specifically condemn white supremacy, acknowledge the threat that it is and its power to divide our community.”
Paulding proposed a resolution that denounced these incidents of racism, bigotry and hate speech in the county.
The resolution passed 3-2, with Supervisor Debbie Arnold and Supervisor John Peschong voting against the resolution because they felt including the location of the April and May incidents, Templeton, was offensive to North County residents.
“Templeton is not these people,” Peschong said in the meeting. “We’re a very diverse community and and we believe in freedom, but we also believe that there’s no place for racism in Templeton or San Luis Obispo County.”
How to report a hate crime
Hate crimes and hate incidents can be reported to your local law enforcement agency and the California Civil Rights Department. Reports can be anonymous.
Call 1-833-8NO-HATE or visit stophate.calcivilrights.ca.gov/s to report to the California Civil Rights Department. A care coordinator is available to speak to a victim in-person, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. PST.
The Anti-Defamation League also tracks hate incidents and crimes nationwide. Report an incident at adl.org/report-incident.
In San Luis Obispo, victims or witnesses of hate crimes or hate incidents can report them to the San Luis Obispo Police Department by calling 805-781-7312 or filling out a form anonymously at forms.slocity.org/Forms/hateincidentreporting.
