‘Disturbing’ rise in hate crimes in California

Rev. Amos Brown spoke before the Board of Supervisors, calling into question police tactics and the treatment of African Americans, at City Hall in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. Rev. Amos Brown spoke before the Board of Supervisors, calling into question police tactics and the treatment of African Americans, at City Hall in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / Special To The Chronicle 2016 Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / Special To The Chronicle 2016 Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close ‘Disturbing’ rise in hate crimes in California 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

As the national discourse on race, religion and sexual orientation became increasingly heated in 2017, the number of hate crimes in California jumped significantly for the third consecutive year.

According to an annual report from the state Department of Justice, released Monday, hate crimes reported by law enforcement agencies rose by 17.4 percent from 2016 to 2017. That follows double-digit increases in 2015 and 2016, after six years of steady decline.

The number of hate-crime incidents in 2017 increased in every major category — race, religion and sexual orientation. African Americans and gay men were most likely to fall victim to hate crimes.

African Americans were targets in 27.6 percent of 2017 hate crimes, with gay men the victims in 15.7 percent.

However, Latinos or Hispanics were increasingly the subjects of hate crimes, with a 51.8 percent increase over 2016 as debate raged over illegal immigration and a wall at the nation’s southern border.

Representatives of Bay Area anti-discrimination groups said the statistics were significant and daunting but unsurprising, given the current political and social environment.

“This is a disturbing rise in hate crimes,” said Nancy Appel, senior associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Central Pacific Region. “The numbers have been going up in recent years, but this is a significant increase across categories.”

The Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, blamed the increase in hate crimes on President Trump, saying his remarks, in speeches and on Twitter, have made discrimination and hate acceptable.

“This president has emboldened those who are perpetrators of hate with his rhetoric, his vulgarity and with his outright abusive language attacking people from Caribbean Islands and from Africa,” he said. “It begins at the top.”

Hate crimes based on religion also rose — by 21.1 percent compared with the prior year. Anti-Jewish incidents increased by 26.8 percent, while crimes against Muslims rose by 24.3 percent.

Hate crimes in 2017 included a vicious attack on a Sikh man in Richmond who was beaten and whose hair was cut with a knife by two white men. The Sikh faith requires that men’s hair remain uncut and wrapped in a turban. Also, a mosque in Davis was vandalized, its windows broken and its handles wrapped in bacon.

The surge in hate crimes comes as overall crime statistics show a small increase — of about 1.5 percent — in the violent crime rate per 100,000 people and a decrease of 2.1 percent in the property crime rate.

The report also showed that the state’s homicide rate decreased from 4.9 to 4.6 per 100,000 population from 2016 to 2017. The arson rate increased 10.7 and the rape rate rose by 6.9 per 100,000 population.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan