Hamburger Mary Against Hate Credit: Suji Allen
Hamburger Mary Against Hate

Here’s an interesting detail I picked up while reporting on the assault of two gay men and resulting 4,000-person rally on the Hawthorne Bridge last week: reports of hate crimes in Portland are way down.

That’s weird, because the police, attorney general, and LGBT-advocacy groups have been pushing people since last spring to report all bias-motivated attacks, so you would think reports of those attacks would jump. In reality, the percent of hate crimes reported by LGBT folks did increase, but the overall number of reported hate crimes went down. Here are the stats, which I also included in this week’s print edition: In 2010, only 38 hate crimes were reported in Portland, compared to an average of 66 in the previous three years. Hate crimes are down even more in 2011; only eight as of April 2011, compared to 15 through April 2010.

But hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation made up 44 percent of those 2010 reports in Portland, compared to an average of 32 percent of crimes reported since 2007.

The stats either show that we’re living in a much safer city than we were four years ago, where LGBT people are increasingly likely to report bias-motivated crimes against them, or that people feel less comfortable reporting crimes to the police altogether.

In related news, ProgressiveOregon.com has started a petition against the Oregonian for apparently not covering the rally in any way. The petition already has over 500 signatures.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

8 replies on “Portland Hate Crime Reports Decline—Does That Mean We’re Safer?”

  1. What’s it take to get 4000 Portlanders to march against gang violence in North Portland? Maybe if a gay guy got shot, they’d care.

  4. After you have force out the minority, hate crimes appear to go down.

    When you run out of people of other color to hate you pick on the gays and gingers.

    Every time I see Hamburger Mary I just want to beat down the asshat pushing her down the sidewalk on that skateboard.

  5. You seem to insinuate (I apologize if I misunderstand) that perhaps LGBT people are now starting to clam up — but I can’t really think of any other measurable metric indicating that trajectory. Why did you mention it, and what do you really think?

  7. @Anony Mouse – at a big public forum after an anti-gay attack last spring, numerous LGBT people told law enforcement that they have not reported gay bashings because they are intimidated by officers and think nothing with come of the reports. I’m wondering if anything has changed over the past year, despite police and attorney general efforts to reach out.

    http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…

Comments are closed.