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Attorney General Partners With Private Groups To Fight Hate Crimes

Phil Weiser

Hate crimes are on the rise in Colorado. The state is partnering with eighteen private groups to address the issue. 

Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the initiative Monday morning, saying he doesn’t know why hate crimes are up, but that new efforts are needed to stop them.

“It’s that spirit of welcoming everyone, regardless of where you came from, regardless of who you love, regardless of what you look like, regardless of who you worship, and so together we can stand against hate,” said Weiser.

The Colorado Coalition Against Hate has released a guide to help prevent hate crimes, and to assist victims. The effort comes after the recent arrests of a man accused of plotting to bomb a synagogue in Pueblo-- and another accused of threatening people outside a Denver mosque with a BB gun.

 

Scott Franz is a government watchdog reporter and photographer from Steamboat Springs. He spent the last seven years covering politics and government for the Steamboat Pilot & Today, a daily newspaper in northwest Colorado. His reporting in Steamboat stopped a police station from being built in a city park, saved a historic barn from being destroyed and helped a small town pastor quickly find a kidney donor. His favorite workday in Steamboat was Tuesday, when he could spend many of his mornings skiing untracked powder and his evenings covering city council meetings. Scott received his journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is an outdoorsman who spends at least 20 nights a year in a tent. He spoke his first word, 'outside', as a toddler in Edmonds, Washington. Scott visits the Great Sand Dunes, his favorite Colorado backpacking destination, twice a year. Scott's reporting is part of Capitol Coverage, a collaborative public policy reporting project, providing news and analysis to communities across Colorado for more than a decade. Fifteen public radio stations participate in Capitol Coverage from throughout Colorado.