Federal and Oregon officials are urging people not to hold back on reporting hate and bias crimes.
The call follows the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission’s third annual report on bias crimes. It found that between 2020 and 2021, reports to its bias response hotline rose 53 percent.
An FBI official in Portland says most incidents remain underreported, and urged victims and witnesses to call in crimes against people based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
David Tam of the Asian American Council of Oregon said it’s noteworthy that the federal government has joined the call.
“It validates that there is a growing concern – not only locally, but nationally,” he told KLCC. “I believe that law enforcement needs to be able to reach out to these communities of color and to engage with them and help them understand what are the processes, make sure that we are reporting these types of activities.”
Asian-Americans have seen a spike in hate crimes in recent years, linked to rhetoric over the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, some politicians and pundits call it the “China Flu” or “Wuhan Flu.”
Why incidents go unreported is sometimes due to fear of retaliation, mistrust of authority, or not knowing about resources. Tam said it can be generational as well, with some older members of the Asian-American community being less apt to speak out than younger generations.
The number for Oregon’s Bias Crime Hotline is 1-844-924-BIAS.
Copyright @2022, KLCC.
