Lawmakers: Racist graffiti re-emphasizes need for Human Rights office in Clark County

‘Ugly vandalism is only the latest example of hate crimes,’ Moeller says

June 30, 2009

CLARK COUNTY – Maybe a tiny piece of good can actually come from the recent incidents of racist graffiti that disfigured a Vancouver neighborhood.

Southwestern Washington lawmakers agreed today (Tuesday, June 30) that the incidents do at least put a human face on state-budget cuts. Specifically, according to state Rep. Jim Moeller, the vandalism shines a new, very unfavorable light on budget cuts that are making today the last day for the state Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in Vancouver.

“This disgraceful crime that hit a Vancouver neighborhood serves to further underscore the awful timing of these budget cuts,” said Moeller, D-Vancouver. “Unfortunately, this ugly vandalism is only the latest example of hate crimes that defame and defile our community.”

A few years ago, Moeller led the work to bring the commission office back to Clark County for a day a week.

Moeller said that “as citizens and representatives of our southwestern Washington neighborhoods and communities, we are all tremendously concerned about the loss of the commission office. It has been such an important local resource for folks who are struggling to cope with incidents of discrimination.”

Clark County is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, and this growth comes with a price. The population explosion brings an increase in the number of hate crimes – as well as a surge in allegations of injustice and inequity addressed by the commission.

Today’s closing of Vancouver’s part-time HRC office means that people must travel to Olympia to meet personally with a commission investigator.

“The personal, face-to-face interaction is so very important in these kinds of cases,” Moeller said. “Sadly, requiring folks to drive two hours up the freeway will create a hardship. It will convince a good many people to drop their issue before it’s even addressed – and before an attempt is even made to correct the problem.”

Closing the regional office will also prevent much of the community outreach that the commission conducts in neighborhoods that have been victimized by hate crimes, such as these graffiti incidents in Vancouver.

The Human Rights Commission primarily addresses hate incidents, including discrimination in the work place and in other parts of society. And the commission also brings multicultural-awareness activities and programs into areas where hate crimes and other appalling acts rear their hideous heads.

Since 2008, there have been a total of 52 employment-related complaints in Clark County filed with the HRC – compared with 658 such charges levied statewide. In Clark County, there have been nine housing-related complaints and six public-accommodation-related complaints – compared with 158 and 71 complaints, respectively, registered across the state.

As for this recent and revolting graffiti itself, Moeller and other southwestern Washington legislators – state Reps. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver; Jim Jacks, D-Vancouver, and Tim Probst, D-Vancouver, and state Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver – all strongly condemned the vandalism.

The state lawmakers welcomed and seconded comments from other local community leaders:
Earl W. Ford, Immediate Past President of the Vancouver Branch of the NAACP, said that “I join fellow citizens in expressing deep sadness at these senseless acts of vandalism. Unfortunately, times of economic despair and competition for scarce resources all too often breed fear, contempt and blame. I hope that people of good will in our towns will always choose to join hands, voices and hearts in support for families who are under this cruel attack.

“Let us also pray and work to heal the hearts of the attackers,” Ford said, “for they, too, are members of somebody’s family.”

“The issues of racial conflict in Clark County have been lingering,” said Maria Rodriguez-Salazar, President of the Clark County League of United Latin American Citizens. “I know too well the fear one feels awakening to such hate. In 2005, my family was awakened to salsa that had been dumped on our front door. We must denounce acts of hate that threaten human dignity, and that undermine the unity and strength of our community.”

“To cause people to feel unwelcome in their own community and unsafe in their own home is not just a crime, but a dehumanizing and insidious act,” added Kathy Kniep, Executive Director of the YWCA Clark County. “The perpetrators have permanently altered the lives of not only the families whose homes were targeted, but any person in our area who is identified as part of a minority community. We owe it to ourselves, our neighbors, and our kids to make it clear that we will not tolerate these acts.”

Kniep and her colleagues at the YWCA Clark County are working to establish a “rapid-response system,” which will provide support to victims and raise awareness of hate incidents and hate crimes in the community, with an aim toward eliminating these activities.

People who want to get involved can contact Jay Atwood, YWCA Social Change Program Manager, at 360-906-9129, or via e-mail at jatwood@ywcaclarkcounty.org.

The state Human Rights Commission enforces the Washington Law Against Discrimination – which entails investigating individual complaints of discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodation, credit, lending and insurance on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, disability, use of a service animal, HIV/AIDS & Hepatitis C statuses, sex, marital status, age, retaliation, whistleblower retaliation, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, and veteran and military status.