While hate crimes are on the rise across the U.S., Longmont has not seen the same trends.
Reported hate crimes verified by the Longmont police included two in 2022, six in 2021 and three in 2020. Following the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, which is being prosecuted as a hate crime, there have been heightened discussions about hate crimes especially against members of the LGBTQ community.
According to One Colorado, a hate crime is considered a threat or act of intimidation, harassment or physical force that is motivated by bias against a person based on their actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and physical or mental disability.
Longmont Police Chief Jeff Satur explained that hate crimes are generally tied to another crime.
“When there is one, they tend to inflame the community and sometimes they’re pretty concerning … but we’re fortunate that we don’t have a lot of crimes like this in our community,” he said.
Satur added that depending on the nature of the crime, prosecuting it as a bias-motivated crime may be more challenging as intent must be proven in court. Additionally, the chief acknowledges that hate crimes often go unreported by LGBTQ victims.
“It kind of reminds me of the days back in the ‘90s with domestic (violence) where people didn’t feel safe coming forward or didn’t feel there would be something done, so it goes unreported from that standpoint,” Satur said.
A statewide survey by Hate Free Colorado recently found that nearly three in 10 adult Coloradans said they experienced a hate crime or bias-motivated incident in the last five years, but only 18% reported the incident to police.
Out Boulder County Executive Director Mardi Moore has found that there are a variety of factors that might stop someone from reporting a hate crime.
“There’s all kinds of problems with that, right? People don’t trust the police to report, people are afraid to report, whatever all those variables are,” she said.
Moore has worked actively with law enforcement in Longmont and Boulder County to improve hate crime reporting. A work in progress for years, Out Boulder County will now be making a concerted effort beginning next year to train local police on LGBTQ language and issues.
Unique to Boulder County, the district attorney’s office has a Bias Hotline where victims can report hate crimes to ensure the case is recorded and handled properly. The number is 303-441-1595 and for non-emergency reporting only; reporters should call 911 for in progress crimes.
“We are doing our best to make it so people will feel comfortable reporting,” Moore said.
In recent years, Moore has also noted an increase in microaggressions against the LGBTQ community. The rise in violence against the community has not gone unnoticed by its members.
“The level of fear in the community I think is heightened — myself included — based upon the political rhetoric and the recent murders at Club Q,” she said.
On Nov. 30, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a terrorism advisory bulletin that specifically cited the attack against the Colorado Springs LGBTQ, warning that people on forums known to post racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist content praised the alleged murderer.
Moore wasn’t sure that halting this type of hatred entirely would ever be possible, but encouraged people to take a stand against hateful rhetoric.
“I don’t know that it ever gets to stop, but I do think that when you hear, when I hear somebody headed down that cliff in conversion, I think it’s each of our responsibilities to stop them and to engage in a conversation so the othering stops,” she said.
As for Longmont, Satur spoke specifically to the department’s close relationship with Moore. Longmont has an officer that acts liaison with the LGBTQ community, though Satur noted he hopes to increase that number as two other liaisons recently retired.
He emphasized that his officers would thoroughly investigate any crime reported to them.
“We have great officers that have a lot of compassion. I’m confident with some of the training that we’ve done that we would do a good job, but it’s still hard, right?” he said. “… I do want to assure anybody that’s been a victim of a crime that Longmont is a safe place to report a crime.”
