As of Oct. 1, the budget for Oregon’s Bias Response Hotline jumped from $43,000 to $2 million, allowing for more staff in 2022, according to The Oregonian.
Only around half of bias or hate-crime incident calls could be answered after the hotline launched in January of 2020, KEZI reported Sunday. The hotline was created in alignment with the 2019 Senate Bill 577, which made any violent act or clear threat against a person inside a protected class — which now includes gender identity — a felony.
Of course, a timely uptick in these incidents at the onset of the pandemic only made the two-person team more overwhelmed. In fact, the office of Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum revealed the hotline received roughly 1,100 calls in 2020 and had an increase by 134% in the second half of the year, according to an annual operations report from the hotline.
“It’s sadly appropriate for the hotline to have opened last year because of all of the social and political events our nation has been dealing with,” said Johanna Costa, a coordinator with the hotline. Costa added that around 60% of those calls were bias incidents like hate speech, and roughly 27% involved heinous acts such as assault or vandalism, which qualify as bias crimes.
Costa explained that national events last year contributed to these calls, like coronavirus-fueled anti-Asian hate, Black people being targeted after the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd, and anti-Muslim incidents following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
These incidents are also widely underreported, experts say. Costa expressed hope of a fully staffed office by the new year.
By: Rebekah Harcrow
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