HRC briefed on recent hate and bias crimes in Eugene

Speaker: Eugene’s Human Rights Commission hears about the latest hate and bias crimes in the city. On Oct. 21, HRC Chair Dr. Silky Booker: 

Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): We’ll move to the EPD liaison report with Lt. Williams. 

Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): Yeah, good evening. My name is Jeremy Williams. I’m a lieutenant at the Eugene Police Department. I know we have some new faces on the Commission.

[00:00:18] Congratulations, Dr. Booker, for your selection to chair. That’s going to be nice working together in that capacity over the upcoming year. Since I was unable to attend last month’s meeting, I apologize for that. We’re going to have the whole summer’s docket and then the months that have passed since then. So I’m going to switch over to my notes here to make sure that I’m accurate and concise. I did a summary earlier today.

[00:00:39] So beginning in June: On the third, at about 1 p.m., a downtown Hispanic business owner, a female, called the police because an elderly male came into the business, immediately demanded to know if she was a legal citizen. After some time of this, she asked him if he wasn’t going to be shopping, that he leave.

[00:01:02] He then knocked over above the Boba Tea machine that was on the counter, and when she tried to catch it, it left a pretty significant bruise. He walked out. A concerned citizen followed him and got him to give a verbal name. 

The case was assigned to a detective, and the detective believes he has identified the suspect and has what’s called an ‘attempt to locate’ out for him, which is sort of like a warrant, so that if he’s contacted by police in the area, he’ll be flagged and he’ll be held until we can conduct an interview or make an arrest.

[00:01:34] June 25, kind of in the South Downtown area: This was a long-term neighbor conflict. A female neighbor is upset at the victim, who is Black, the reasons that appeared to him to be vague and unclear. But on this date, he was watering his plants and she was hollering at him and upset in a way he couldn’t understand.

[00:01:56] And the next day, he came out and saw a message in chalk written on the sidewalk outside of their house that had a variation of the N-word and police did make contact with her and him. They worked with the victim a bit, through the community engagement team and also code enforcement. There’s some element to that that wasn’t clear to me immediately in the report. The victim ultimately declined prosecution and said he felt as though this was less an issue of racism and more of a mental health matter. 

On June 27 in Southwest Eugene, a neighbor was verbally harassing his female victim neighbor. He was erroneously calling her various things, including transgender, gay, and male, and the victim is confused. She says she’s none of these things. The victim also—more concerning, but segueing out of that and into the source of her police report—she found her brakes had been tampered with and weren’t functioning properly, which is a problem when you live in the hills particularly.

[00:02:59] She took her car to the auto auto repair shop and found the brakes had indeed been tampered with. This was followed up on by one of our community service officers, but they have not received a phone call back from her complainant. The detective has also attempted to reach out to her without success.

[00:03:16] July 11, in a West Downtown apartment, we had a hotel owner—and I can remember getting these on the tip line as well—of Indian descent, who was experiencing some harassing behavior by apparently unhoused folks, as he described it, passing through his parking lot, hanging out by his trash cans, blocking driveways and otherwise interfering with his business.

[00:03:39] He would go outside to ask them to leave, they would be aggressive with him and and say things like suggesting that he go back to his country, and would not move along. Unfortunately, the hotel manager doesn’t have any cameras. This was assigned to a detective who’s been working with the victim.

[00:03:55] Unfortunately, we have not developed suspect information, but the good news is the problem seems to have stopped, at least for now. So that was good news, at least since July.

[00:04:06] July 16, at the Wendy’s on West 11th, we had a Black victim arrive on a bicycle. He reported being harassed by a white suspect carrying a red, white, and blue baseball bat. For no apparent reason, the man pushed over the victim’s bicycle and was using the N-word. The victim called the police. Unfortunately, the only other person there, the manager in that store wasn’t outside, didn’t see it happen.

[00:04:30] There’s no video surveillance at that location, and the victim has sort of declined ongoing contact with the police following this incident. So no further suspect information or prosecution apparently desired at this point. 

At the very end of the month on the 31st, we had an unhoused Black male victim underneath the Ferry Street bridge.

[00:04:49] He was approached by a suspect, possibly a second one was in the area—that’ll come up in a moment. And he was aggressively solicited for oral sex. When he declined, he was threatened. There may have been an ax. An ax was pulled out, but then he was also struck from behind, likely by a second subject.

[00:05:10] There were people in the park that witnessed some kind of altercation. Our victim was transported to the hospital with a pretty significant laceration to his ankle requiring medical attention. This is assigned to one of our SIU detectives who thinks he’s got a suspect ID on one of our subjects and is working on a second.  So that investigation is ongoing. 

[00:05:30] The next day, Aug. 1 in Southeast Eugene, one of our University of Oregon employees who’s openly Jewish and was undergoing some unfriendly hostile online activity and posters posted up around the University (as sort of the background to what happened on the first), she reported that when she came out to her car, which was parked on the street in front of her house, there was a graduation cord, like a nylon graduation cord, that had been tied into a noose and left under the windshield wiper of her car. That was assigned to one of our special investigations unit detectives.

[00:06:04] The victim wished to keep this somewhat private and asked that an extensive neighborhood canvas of video surveillance would not be conducted to ensure her privacy; so we didn’t yield any suspect information, unfortunately, and they don’t have any on the house.

[00:06:19] So I also happen to serve on and chair the Lane County Threat Assessment Team, and I think this one’s going to be one to keep an eye on through threat assessment. And in addition, our local FBI agent who handles threat assessment was also consulted and she spoke with the victim as well at that time.

[00:06:37] On Aug. 3, downtown, 2 a.m., a male gay couple were on a corner. They were accosted by one of the victim’s ex-lover’s boyfriends who was upset and started making anti-gay slurs to the victim about his sexual orientation. He ended up getting into a physical confrontation with these two folks outside of a bar. Security came outside and pepper-sprayed the suspect. Our downtown officers arrived and arrested him and lodged him at the jail for intimidation and disorderly conduct.

[00:07:08] On the same day, Aug. 3, this was in the North Ferry Street Bridge neighborhood. In an apartment complex, one neighbor was seen by the victim, a Black tenant, a lady, she saw this neighbor huffing on a nitrous canister. He became agitated with her because she declined his request to pet her dog. 

And the next day she found a pentagram drawn in chalk on the ground outside her front door, and then a couple of statues of Abraham Lincoln, one of which was hanging by the neck, obviously clearly visible from her front door, unmistakable.

[00:07:41] He admitted to doing both acts but didn’t offer an explanation and just said he was high. He was arrested and taken to the jail for the crime Bias Crime 2.

[00:07:50] Aug. 5 on West 18th, EPD received a referral from the Oregon Department of Justice Hotline.  Apparently we’d had a couple from Afghanistan, a husband and wife, who were walking near the Albertsons on West 18th.

[00:08:04] A car drove up, a passenger leaned out and threw a full bottle of wine at them, and it struck the husband in the shoulder, caused him pain, but no injury. That was assigned to one of our detectives, Detective Peterson.

[00:08:19] On Aug. 23, on South Willamette Street, kind of a strange thing, a suspect drove up to the pizza parlor. He wanted to pick up the pizzas he’d ordered. He became upset with the staff member at the counter, called him the N-word, even though he is not Black. The manager came out and tried to keep the piece, refunded the suspect his money. And let him have the pizzas also just to get him to leave. One of the business employees went outside and took photographs of the suspect’s vehicle, which further upset the suspect who charged at him.

[00:08:51] They tussled, the employee actually hit the suspect, and then retreated back into the restaurant. They locked themselves inside. The suspect was yelling and threatening at the door and actually broke the window out.  Before leaving, in the course of this, he used a pejorative for Hispanic folks, and the victim of that incident said he was of Hispanic descent.

[00:09:05] Officers went to identify the suspect went to his home. He was intoxicated. They lodged him for disorderly conduct. There’s a little bit more around why that the victim didn’t think that that was a bias crime incident. He felt like it was more about being drunk and being upset about the pizza situation. So the crime that was selected was disorderly conduct.

[00:09:31] Sept. 18, downtown. At about 10:30 p.m. a man walked by an unhoused lady sitting in an alley and he called her a bum and a druggie. And then he pushed her and he hit her. She didn’t have any injuries, but obviously was pretty upset about this.

[00:09:45] Bystanders had to intervene and broke it up. Officers came and arrested this guy. He continued to protest and claimed they were arresting the wrong person. But once he arrived at the jail, he continued to be hostile and seemed to single out the only female booking deputy that was helping out. So he was lodged at the jail for disorderly conduct harassment and bias crime in the second degree for the victim’s status. 

Two more cases. 

Sept. 19. At some downtown apartments, two neighbors were arguing over a longstanding grievance involving a bicycle. One threatened the other with bear spray and called the Black victim the N-word. The case was assigned to a detective, but the victim said he no longer wished to pursue the case

[00:10:30] On Oct. 2 in the west downtown area, there was a mutual road rage. It’s kind of a complicated back-and-forth with neither party acting responsibly or reasonably, dispute, which was causing some risk to the public.

[00:10:48] At one point, one of the suspects called the other one, a Hispanic person, the N-word. Evidence indicated that both had committed the crime of disorderly conduct and issued them both citations for that. That’s my entire list. Does anyone have any questions for me?

[00:11:04] Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): Lt. Williams? I have a question. Was there any particular reason why the FBI chose to talk to that one particular Jewish victim, but none of the other cases that involved Black victims?

[00:11:18] Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): From my recollection, there was a lot of concern on her part. She’d received so much vitriol and threats online and around the university that she’d already been the subject of a threat assessment by the FBI and by the university. So she kind of already had a caseworker assigned to her ongoing issues. 

[00:11:37] Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): And then the other case that kind of concerned me was the apartment complex victim. The person was arrested for bias crime 2, you said?

[00:11:45] Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): He was lodged for bias crime in the second degree, yeah.

[00:11:48] Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): Did that victim get any kind of follow-up from EPD in terms of assuring her that they have her best interest in mind and any kind of retaliation or any kind of steps she needs to take in terms of retaliation? 

[00:12:01] Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): I can tell you, assuring the victim of a crime, particularly a violent or a person crime, it’s typical for us to kind of explain how the legal process can go because people are concerned about that. Like: Am I going to have to appear in court? Will people see me? Am I at risk of retaliation? Our policy would be that all of these cases we’ve discussed are also referred to the Department of Justice and also the Office of Equity and Community Engagement with Fabio.

[00:12:28] So, and then a lot of times those conversations are also driven by a person’s comfort level. 

[00:12:35] Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): Just from my overall experience living in Eugene and watching these reports that are constantly coming out, especially in the climate that we’re in, I feel like not enough examples are shown to these criminals in terms of when they use the N-word, when they are biased against Black people.

[00:12:56] There are no strong examples of repercussions for their actions, and one in particular is labeling their racism as a mental health issue. Yes, it is a mental health issue, but it is also racism. And I think anybody that chooses to be racist towards Black individuals or any individuals of color has mental issues.

[00:13:17] There’s no doubt about that. But I don’t want EPD to get into the habit of bypassing criminalizing these people the way they need to be criminalized and basically saying, ‘Oh well, it’s a mental health issue. It’s not a racist issue because they have mental health issues.’ You know, I can say I have mental health issues. That doesn’t give me a right to go around calling people racial slurs.

[00:13:41] Would I get a pass, if I say I had mental issues and I just started yelling racial slurs at people? Probably not.

[00:13:48] Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): The Police Department didn’t make that statement. That was the victim’s choice. And we don’t, we don’t typically. We don’t typically drive prosecution decisions unless there’s a community risk aspect or in cases of domestic violence, the statute mandates an arrest.

[00:14:03] So when there’s not a clear and present danger in a situation and there’s not a legal mandate requiring a physical custodial arrest, then the policy and the practice is to be victim-centric and allow victims to make the decisions about how they want to proceed with the case. And it was the victim in this case that felt sympathy for his neighbor and attributed the conduct to mental health.

[00:14:27] But I do understand your perspective and we certainly can’t. We’re not going to get in the business of beginning to make excuses for people’s bad conduct when it moves into the realm of bias crime, and victimizing our marginalized communities.

[00:14:39] Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): I do feel like a lot of times in these racial situations, especially within the Black community, they will take the road lesser traveled in terms of follow-through and being consistent with pursuing legal action and help because of lack of support from the legal system.

[00:14:56] So a lot of times I think the victim is choosing to probably—and this is just me, going off of what I’ve experienced and people that I’ve talked to within the Black community—a lot of times it’s because they feel lack of support from EPD and other legal services that they’ll get the support that other people are offered, you know, or given, when they have a racial incident or something happened against them.

[00:15:23] So I just want that to be stated because there is a fear within the Black community that they will not have the full support of EPD and the legal system when it comes to making complaints and pursuing suspects and people that do criminal behavior. So I think that’s something EPD needs to be aware of in terms of the racial climate that we’re currently in, and will be in for unforeseeable future for now. 

[00:15:49] Speaker: Human Rights Commissioner Cynthia Cannon Poindexter: 

[00:15:52] Cynthia Cannon Poindexter (Human Rights Commission):  Thank you, Lt. Williams. Your reports are always very difficult to hear. I’m sure they’re difficult to say, and I am noticing this time that in addition to verbal assaults, you had five incidents where violence either happened or was threatened. And some of these are life-threatening, like: pushing an unhoused woman; breaking a window; making it possible for somebody to have a car accident because the brakes have been tampered with; and throwing a bottle. So, and I also want to say that those two incidents involving the symbolic use of a noose: very, very disturbing. 

[00:16:51] Speaker: Dr. Silky Booker:

Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): Is there a process in place to help victims that are homeless? Because I know you said that there’s a victim outreach… if you could shed light on EPD’s process for reaching out to victims that are homeless. I’m not sure about the incident on July 31 with the Black male victim that was harassed for oral sex and then chopped with an ax.

[00:17:11] I don’t know if he’s homeless or not, but I’d be interested to find out if EPD reached out to him since that incident, and if he was given the same kind of victim support maybe the University of Oregon employee did, in terms of the racial incident. I think all these racial incidents are equally important when violence is a part of the crime…when they have these crimes of racial incidents and attacks against them and then where’s their line of protection and their reassurance from EPD that, even though they’re homeless, that their lives matter just as much as the University of Oregon employee.

[00:17:50] Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): As far as our—who I believe to be an unhoused—victim under the Ferry Street bridge, that investigation is ongoing and the Eugene Police Department doesn’t care if you live in a cargo box or in a mansion. If you’re the victim of a crime, we’re going to pursue an investigation to hold people accountable.

[00:18:06] I personally once traveled to Corvallis and looked through a transient camp to bring a victim back down to Lane County for a grand jury, and that was not easy to locate her. One of my violent crimes detectives currently just purchased with our department funds purchased a cell phone for a crime victim so that he could keep tabs on that gentleman and make sure that he made it to his court appearances, both of which were greatly appreciated by the involved.

[00:18:31] And those are challenges that are real, and I think that’s why you’re bringing it up, Chair. They can frequently be a real challenge for the investigator when you’ve got court deadlines and you’re having a hard time finding people. 

[00:18:42] Another tactic I’ve seen is an officer will get a subpoena from the district attorney’s office. They’ve got a quick-set grand jury or plea deal has fallen through, and they need to be prepped for trial. And we’ll send out a department-wide email with the subpoena and our officers, more often than not in the majority of the time able to find these people ’cause their officers know where these people live and they know how they operate.

[00:19:07] Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): And that’s why I wanted to know if there was a particular process the EPD has probably come up with in terms of, well, how do we continuously show support to our homeless people when they don’t have an address or they are unable to be contacted to reassure them, ‘Hey, you might not want to move on, or you might not want to, you know, transient to another town until, you know, we can get you the support you need’ type of situation. Does that make sense? 

[00:19:32] Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): Yeah. Yeah, it is certainly challenging. We do the best we can and we’re always looking for new strategies. I’d love to use this forum for an opportunity to expand that conversation. 

[00:19:43] Presenter: That’s Eugene Police Department Liaison Lt. Jeremy Williams, briefing the Human Rights Commission Oct. 21 on recent hate and bias crimes.