Hate crimes decline

Valley has third-highest rate; The number of hate crimes in Los Angeles County has dropped for a second consecutive year, but crimes against Jews rose a "staggering" 49 percent because of anti-Semitic graffiti, according to a county report released Tuesday.
C.J. Lin in the Daily News.
The San Fernando Valley had the third-highest rate of hate crimes out of eight areas studied across the region in 2009, behind only metropolitan Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley, according to the annual Hate Crime Report by the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations.

"The San Fernando Valley is a place where you have a big variety of hate crimes - racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation," said commission executive director Robin Toma. "Because of the diversity of the population, and because of some of the demographic shifts, I think all of that may contribute to it.