A report by the California department of justice showed that the city of San Luis Obispo had the highest rate of hate crime events in the county in 2022.
California defines a hate crime as “A criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Of 21 incidents in the county, 13 were reported in the city. Santa Barbara county was found to have 17 hate crime events reported. Across California, hate crime events had increased by 20% between 2021 and 2022: A total of 1,763 to 2,120. San Luis Obispo city officials said: “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 sheriff’s department held a similar sentiment, adding that they are not aware of any active hate groups in the county, noting that hate crimes in the city are usually isolated incidents.
