Report: More hate incidents reported in city

In its annual Hate Incidents Report issued to the public Aug. 14, the City of Bloomington Human Rights Commission reported 32 local hate incidents, an increase of nearly 50 percent from last year.\nCovering the period between July 2005 and June 2006, the report tracked an increase of 10 incidents from last year.\nOf the 32 reported incidents, 19 were acts of vandalism or graffiti, six were verbal, two included physical confrontations, one involved spitting on food, two involved the burning of gay pride flags, one involved a burned Bible and one involved a burned Quran.\nThe July 2005 firebombing of the Islamic Center of Bloomington was included, as was the protest and burning of a gay pride flag outside of the Inner Chef culinary supply store on the downtown square in November 2005. The report also mentioned the racially motivated attack of a man outside Kilroy's in April 2006, which caused the man to briefly lose consciousness.\nThirteen incidents seemed to be motivated by racial bias; 10 by bias toward gays and lesbians; nine by religious bias; and three by sexual bias.\nBarbara McKinney, director of the BHRC, emphasized in the city's press release that the increased number of incidents did not necessarily indicate that more hate incidents had occurred, just that more had been reported.\n"There's no way to know with any certainty whether this is a true increase or whether there are actually fewer hate incidents occurring and people are doing a better job reporting these incidents to the police or to the BHRC," McKinney said.\nPamela Freeman, associate dean of students and the director of the Office of Student Ethics and Anti-Harassment Programs at IU, agreed with McKinney.\n"You really cannot interpret those numbers as a call for alarm," Freeman said. "Unless there were several years of a pattern forming, you really cannot interpret those numbers as trends, but that certainly doesn't mean that it's not important. Any numbers are a concern."\nOn-campus incidents teams take in reports and compile data for the campus, also releasing an annual report.\nThe number of IU incidents remained at similar levels, with the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services' incidents team recording the most at 90.\nIncidents of a political bias were not included in the city's report but were noted by the BHRC and included an anti-Bush graffiti depicting the President's last name with a swastika for the "s."\nIn August 1990, the Bloomington Common Council unanimously approved an amendment to the Bloomington Human Rights Ordinance giving the BHRC the explicit authority to collect data and issue an annual report regarding hate incidents in the community. The commission receives reports from the Bloomington Police Department, community members and the media, including anonymous reports. The stated goal of the report is to make the community more aware of local hate incidents.\nTo report a hate incident, described in the city's Human Rights Ordinance as "verbal or physical abuse directed at individuals or groups because of their race, sex, color, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, religion or national origin," contact the Human Rights Commission at 349-3429 or human.rights@bloomington.in.gov.\nTo report an incident to IU's Racial, GLBT, Religious Bias or Gender Incidents Teams, call 855-4463 or write to reportit@indiana.edu.\nCopies of the city's report are available to the public at City Hall, 401 N. Morton St., Suite 220 or by calling the BHRC at 349-3429.