City of Bloomington and U.S. Department of Justice Host United Against Hate Forum

On Thursday, September 7th, from 6-9 p.m., the U.S. Department of Justice and City of Bloomington will host the United Against Hate Forum in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 401 N. Morton Street.

The goal of the forum is to address hate crime legislation, how hate crimes are prosecuted, and to provide resources for campus and community members. Since 1990, the Bloomington Human Rights Commission (now the Bloomington/Monroe County Human Rights Commission) has been collecting data and tracking hate incidents in our community. In 2022, the Human Rights Commission documented five hate incidents. Hate Incident Reports for the last ten years can be found on the Bloomington/Monroe County Human Rights Commission webpage: bloomington.in.gov/boards/human-rights. Please note that the annual reports contain descriptions of verbal harassment, threats of physical harm, actual physical harm and vandalism. The reports also address the apparent motivations behind each incident.  The Commission alerts prospective readers that the language contained in the reports has been preserved for accuracy, and is as such often offensive by definition.

Participants in the United Against Hate forum will include representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Indiana, the Monroe County Prosecuting Attorney, the FBI, Bloomington and Indiana University Police Departments, the Monroe County Sheriff, El Centro Comunal Latino, Bloomington United, Indiana University Office of Student Support and Bias Education and the Bloomington/Monroe County Human Rights Commission.

This forum will be available on Zoom or on Community Access Television Services (CATS) at catstv.net. Please register here: tinyurl.com/UAHForumRegistration for notification of details.

For additional information contact Michael Shermis, Bloomington/Monroe County Human Rights Commission Director, human.rights@bloomington.in.gov or 812-349-3471.