With the Northwest seen by white supremacists as the “last great homeland” for the white race, the number of hate crimes has dramatically risen in the past two years, said Greg Rikhoff, city of Eugene human rights manager.
Local political leaders, diversity programs and law enforcement are combating the problem by raising awareness and involvement in the community before the problem reaches higher proportions, Rikhoff said.
As part of that effort, the city of Eugene and Eugene Police Department are serving as two of the hosts for the Oregon Hate Crimes Conference taking place Saturday through Monday at the Eugene Hilton and Conference Center. The theme of the three-day event is “Eliminating Bias Crimes — Healing Our Communities.” Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was beaten to death in 1998 because of his sexual orientation, will give the opening speech.
“The conference is important because there needs to be a general awareness in the community at minimum that [hate crimes] can and do occur,” Eugene Police Chief Jim Hill said. “It’s a real feather in the cap of the Eugene community to have it here.”
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore, who has supported national hate crimes legislation, is scheduled to speak Sunday.
The city of Eugene donated $5,000 to the event, an amount matched by the EPD, said conference coordinator Tracy Schermerhorn. In addition to financial contributions, the city has donated staff hours and space for the conference, she said.
“It’s the biggest civic project of the year in Eugene,” Schermerhorn said.
“The idea for the conference came two years ago when we saw the rise in bias crimes,” said Rikhoff, who serves as vice-chairman of the conference coordinating committee. “We discussed how important it is to get the rest of Oregon looking at this issue, not just Portland.”
In the past 20 years, white supremacists have targeted the Northwest because of its relatively small number of people of color, Rikhoff said. Pushing the “Northwest Imperative” — a movement to force out people of color and make the area white only — white supremacists have been the cause of most racial contention in Oregon. Several bombings in Eastern Oregon and Washington have been attributed to the Aryan Nations, Rikhoff said.
“In the last two years, there has been a huge increase in ‘lone wolf crimes’ — individuals acting alone in the effort to promote the white race by starting a race war,” Rikhoff said.
Though attacks may be focused on a single person, they impact the entire community or culture of the victim, Rikhoff said. When Shepard was brutally murdered in Wyoming, it reverberated in gay and lesbian communities throughout the nation, he said.
“We really wanted to focus on getting not only an intellectual but emotional understanding on hate crimes. It’s hard for privileged whites to understand what these crimes do to our culture,” Rikhoff said.
Another focus of the workshop is promoting good relations between the police and community members, encouraging them to work together to combat hate crimes. The conference puts emphasis on the realization that stopping hate crimes is not a police issue alone, Hill said.
“There is a fair amount of negative marketing about police, and it’s important we are seen as supporting and protecting all members of the community,” Hill said. “We want to showcase to people the strategy and policies we have in place to deal with hate crimes.”
In addition to speakers and performances, the conference will give participants a chance to network and brainstorm. Registrants include members of law enforcement, educators, activists and directors of organizations from every corner of the state, and they range in age from 14 to 95 years old, Rikhoff said.
“It’s a great cross-section. We hope to get them empowered and give them some skill,” Rikhoff said. “We want to give them the power to make a difference.”