City of Bend taking new steps to address hate speech and discrimination

BEND Ore. (KTVZ) - The city of Bend's Human Rights and Equity Commission addressed issues of hate speech and discrimination and steps they recommend to better address them at a city council meeting last week.

Their presentation, on the eve of the city's annual Welcoming Week, included specific disturbing examples of hate incidents that have happened around the city. They also emphasized the differences between bias incidents vs, bias crimes.

"There have been multiple incidents over time where folks just didn't feel safe in Bend and there was just no process to resolve or provide healing or support to those folks who've been impacted. So we really filled in the gap there," new city Equity and Inclusion Director Andrés Portela said Monday.

They are looking to create a formalized process around reporting bias incidents.

Examples of bias incidents can include name-calling, using racial or ethnic slurs to identify someone or using degrading language. Bias incidents can also be creating a racist or derogatory image/drawing. These incidents are handled differently from a bias crime.

"We focus on bias incidents, making sure that folks know what happened to them," Portela said. "It's not necessarily a crime, but it still impacts them negatively, explaining that it does happen in the city. And how do we create process around that?"

The commission is creating a coalition with community partners so they can assess the impact of these incidents and determine how best to respond effectively. They also mentioned a resource guide and safety plan are being developed.

Here's the full presentation given to the city council by Portela and city Accessibility and Equity Manager Cassandra Kehoe: