the City of Eugene issued its 2018 Hate and Bias report. Mayor Lucy Vinis and other city officials spoke at a press conference at the Historic Mims House with the release of the document. Eric Richardson (NAACP of Lane County) and Joel Iboa (Human Rights Commission) talked about community engagement as a necessary component to prevention and response to hate and bias activity.
In 2018, there were 81 bias crimes and non-criminal incidents reported to the City through the Office of Human Rights and Neighborhood Involvement (HRNI) and Eugene Police Department (EPD), a 42% decrease over similar incidents reported in 2017. “While we celebrate the reduction in hate crimes and incidents, we know that a single case is too many. If we want to make Eugene a welcoming city for everyone, we need to make sure that government and community work together to say no to hate and discrimination.” Said Mayor Lucy Vinis.
The small data set precludes drawing strong conclusions, however the results indicate race and ethnicity were the leading motivating factors for reported hate and bias activity in 2018. African Americans were the group most affected by physical violence, the LGBTQ community was the group most affected by intimidation, and the Jewish community was the main target of criminal vandalism. The Latino/Hispanic community members and LGBTQ people were the primary targets of non-criminal incidents. The distribution of hate and bias incidents did not change from previous years and central neighborhoods continue to be the most impacted areas.
We hope you will take some time to read the report, which is available at this page: https://www.eugene-or.gov/529/Hate-and-Bias
The Hate and Bias report is prepared by the City Manager’s Office of Human Rights and Neighborhood Involvement (HRNI), in collaboration with the Eugene Police Department (EPD). HRNI, EPD, and the Human Rights Commission will continue to work collaboratively to strengthen partnerships with community groups and other agencies to deliver on the City Council commitment of making Eugene “a welcoming, inclusive and safe community for everyone” (City Council of Eugene, Resolution 5174).
For More information please Contact:
Fabio Andrade, MPA, MCRP
Human Rights and Equity Analyst
City Manager’s Office
Human Rights & Neighborhood Involvement
99 West 10th Avenue, Eugene-OR 97401
Phone: 541-682-5277 Fax: 541-682-5221
FAndrade@ eugene-or.gov
*Hablo Español