Are hate crimes on the rise in Humboldt County? Do you know what a hate crime is? Are you at risk for being a victim because you are a "different" race, age, religion, sexual orientation, homeless, disabled? If these issues concern you, a representative of the US Justice Department will be speaking at a community meeting, 5:30 p.m., April 27 at the County Courthouse in Eureka.

In the past six months alone, in Garberville a homeless man was beaten to death in his sleeping bag, in Fortuna a Native American man suffered severe brain damage after being repeatedly kicked in the head, and in Arcata an African-American man was spit upon and attacked.

Booker Neal, Senior Community Representative from San Francisco, will lead a discussion about local hate crimes, reporting and preventing them, and establishing a quick response team for the victims. Additionally, Neal will meet with the Sheriff, the District Attorney and other law enforcement officials.

This will be Neal's second meeting in Humboldt County. The first meeting was hastily called in March when Arcata resident Carolyn Swanson was concerned that arrests were not being made in the Arcata beating. The day following the March meeting, two arrests were made. Also attending the first meeting were HSU police, the Arcata police chief, representatives from the ACLU, the NAACP, the Human Rights Commission, the Victim Witness Program, and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

For more information, call Carolyn Swanson at 822-4411 or the Human Rights Commission at 268-2548.