Boulder – A city commission Monday night approved $8,000 to help start an anti-hate hotline and recommended a hate-crimes ordinance in response to racial incidents early in the year.
The unanimous decisions came after a spirited debate between residents who favored the ordinance and hotline, and those who feared they will stifle free speech.
The Human Relations Commission’s favorable recommendations will go to the City Council for consideration. Commissioners also are asking the city for as much as $21,000 to help fund the hotline over the next six months.
“We believe we need that because the incidents of hate crimes have increased,” Bill Cohen told the commission. Cohen was part of the Community United Against Hate committee formed after a violent attack on a black University of Colorado student.
“The city’s response has not been adequate,” he said.
But free-speech advocates, such as the Boulder County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, cautioned the commission.
“It is very true that we need to address discrimination,” ACLU chairman Judd Golden said, “but if these charges are made falsely or over-broadly … victims would be created there too.”
If approved by the City Council, the recommended hate-crimes ordinance would “enhance” criminal sentences if it can be proved that a crime was motivated by racism or bias. The ordinance has not been written, so specific crimes and punishments have not been detailed.
“We are not creating new crimes,” Cohen said – a different tactic from the recently amended Colorado Bias-Motivated Crimes state statute.
Race relations in Boulder garnered attention after several complaints from minority students at the University of Colorado last spring. Then in June, CU student Andrew Sterling said he was attacked by a man yelling racial slurs. Phillip Martinez was arrested in that incident.
In light of the attack on Sterling, the city’s Human Relations Commission funded the Community United Against Hate committee with about $10,000. The $8,000 approved Monday night comes out of that sum.
The anti-hate committee recommended the ordinance, a legal-advocacy fund and the hotline for racially motivated incidents.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
