AUSTIN (KXAN) — After a weekend where a drag brunch in Austin was canceled due to a bomb threat and where police in nearby Lakeway said they were investigating antisemitic graffiti, we think it’s a good time to remind you about a program the City of Austin launched roughly a year ago that is helping them promote resources and track hate incidents.
“The We All Belong campaign is an anti-hate initiative that we launched last summer to first of all help us to help people report hate crimes and hate incidents more effectively and to know what to do, but also to celebrate the richness of our community, to tell people that everyone belongs in Austin,” Austin City Council Member Alison Alter said. She brought the resolution forward to kickstart the campaign.
According to city data, there have been four reported hate crimes in Austin so far in 2024. There were 52 reported last year — and those happened in every single city council district. That data only became available last year, on a public-facing dashboard.
“We know that we are seeing a lot of incidences against the LGBTQ community, against the African American community, against the Asian community, with respect to religion. But it plays out differently in different parts of the community and we have a much better sense of how people are feeling,” Alter said.
That’s a huge part of why the city rolled the initiative out in the first place, the help the city understand where hate incidents are happening, how likely the community is to report them and to have overall better data before taking action.
“If we want to ask the hate crimes task force, we want to ask APD victims services to address hate incidences, they need to have data,” Alter said.
You can find the website launched along with the initiative here, where you can report suspected hate crimes to the Austin Police Department, explore APD data on bias-motivated crimes, look at community survey data on the threat of hate crimes, connect with community partners, and learn about “We All Belong” events coming up.
‘Party at the People’s House’
The City of Austin is hosting its “Party at the People’s House” again this year, tied to the We All Belong campaign. It will include live music, food and drinks, art and a market.
That event is happening at City Hall on June 22 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
You can find more details on that annual event here.