The number of hate crimes that took place in Washington, D.C. has been on the rise in 2019 and it may go down in history as another record-breaking year, according to a WJLA report attributed to data from the Metropolitan Police Department.
In 2018, a total of 205 hate crimes occurred in the District of Columbia, up from 177 the previous year, which is a 15 percent increase.
Crimes based on sexual orientation discrimination had the largest share with 60 of the 205 incidents in 2018.
Of the rest, 49 were related to ethnicity/national origin discrimination, 39 were related to race, 34 were about gender identity/expression, 12 were religion-related, 10 were linked to political affiliation and one was based on discrimination against homeless people.
This year, 187 hate crimes were reported as of October 31. By the same date last year, there were only 173 reported. Therefore, the year of 2019 is expected to overtake 2018.
The biggest growth last year compared to 2017 was in gender identity and expression-based crimes, which jumped from 13 to 34. A total of 30 in the same category have been reported so far in 2019.
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