This fall I learned that the Inland Empire’s U.S. Attorney’s Office is one of the few in the nation to have a civil rights department.
On Oct. 22 the Riverside County Bar Association hosted the Department of Justice for a presentation urging community leaders to loop the DOJ in on their civil rights activism.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Barragan opened the event by urging everyone to report hate crimes to the FBI online or by calling (800) 225-5324 (call-fbi). The FBI will coordinate with the USAO. Reports may also be made through a portal on the USAO website.
“We want to hear from you about what your communities and the people you represent are facing. We’re mindful that statistics don’t always tell the whole story,” Barragan said. “Where there is one (civil rights violation), there may be many. This is a place where it’s safe to report and people should feel comfortable doing their part to end hate.”
We were divided into groups to share stories.
My group included representatives from a synagogue, a Riverside County housing authority, an environmental justice group, an immigration support group, an elderly services group and a legal aid organization.
Many said a major factor to not reporting hate crimes is distrust of the government or law enforcement.
“We know trust is not built over days or weeks or even months. It’s a long process,” said David Harris, chief of the Civil Division. “We’re here for the long haul.”
Barragan talked about cases where his department has intervened – against a major car manufacturer for repossessing cars from servicemembers, a county for inaccessible polling places, prisons where women are being sexually harassed, the largest privately owned gym in the country over disability accommodations, a major bank for not lending to people of color.
Locally, they went after both San Bernardino and Colton school districts because, the DOJ says, they failed to provide adequate language learning services.
This office also addresses housing and religious land-use protections.
“We used U.S. civil authority to make a meaningful change,” Barragan said. They are small but when they take action against civil rights violations and hate crimes, “we hope it amplifies a message to a larger community.”
“If you come to us and we’re not the right people, we’ll direct you to the right people,” he said.
“There’s a women’s prison in Dublin, California. It was the federal Department of Justice who went after its own employees for violating people’s civil rights for committing horrible sexual abuse,” said Harris. “Whoever it is, if they’re violating people’s civil rights, we’ll go after them. We’re as offended by this as you are.”
This lunch presentation was held in Downtown Riverside.
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