Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum will join her Task Force on Hate Crimes in Portland, Eugene and Medford next week to hear from Oregonians impacted by hate-motivated conduct. During each listening session, members of the public are encouraged to share their stories about hate-motivated incidents in their communities and their experiences with discrimination. Community members who wish to remain anonymous can testify without sharing their names, or can submit written testimony.

Rosenblum’s task force, chaired by Oregon DOJ’s Legislative Director, Aaron Knott, has been meeting since last May. Its members represent a broad swath of policymakers, advocacy groups, religious organizations, law enforcement and others. The task force’s role is to make proposals to the 2019 Oregon legislature to strengthen Oregon’s hate crime laws, and look into whether law enforcement have the appropriate tools to investigate and combat these horrible crimes. The listening sessions will provide an opportunity for community members to inform the work of the Task Force, to expand upon the conversations at Task Force meetings, and help shape future legislation.

“It is appalling that hate-motivated crimes are on the increase in Oregon; this reality requires us to act. At these listening sessions we hope to create a safe place for Oregonians to share their experiences as targets of discrimination and hate motivated conduct,” said Rosenblum. “Our task force is currently working with the Oregon legislature to propose bills that would strengthen Oregon’s hate crime laws. There are a lot of ideas about how to address hate crimes, but I need to hear directly from the community. This approach served us well with our police profiling listening sessions which led to successful reforms.”

Members of the media who would like to attend can RSVP to Kristina Edmunson at Kristina.Edmunson@doj.state.or.us.