Fargo Human Relations Commission votes to support anti-bias ordinance

Fargo City Commissioners must give final approval

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – The Fargo Human Relations Commission votes unanimously to support an anti-bias ordinance.

Introduced by City Commissioner Arlette Preston, the ordinance aims to more clearly identify, report and respond to hate crimes in Fargo.

“We need a bias crime ordinance to send a message to communities that every person, that every individual belongs here,” Preston said at Thursday’s Human Relations Commission meeting.

The ordinance would create a new article in the city’s Municipal Code addressing certain crimes like harassment or assault, committed in whole or in part because of a person’s race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Violence or threats due to any of those factors would be a criminal offense with a penalty of up to $1500 and/or imprisonment for up to 30 days.

Preston says bias crimes in our community are under-reported. She says that’s because people don’t know how to report them and they’re not always recognized by law enforcement, which is why the ordinance includes training for police officers.

If it’s approved, Fargo Police would develop best-practice guidelines for the proper identification, investigation, documentation, and reporting of hate crimes committed within the city. Training for officers would take place every two years.

Some say this type of protection for Black, Indigenous and people of color is long overdue.

“To me, that seems completely backwards that we don’t have hate crime legislation yet,” Vanessa Clark of Fargo said at the meeting. “That tells me that we’d rather sweep it under the rug and pretend these issues don’t exist.”

“It’s been going on for over 10 years. It took a Black man dying and it took a Black man speaking up,” said Wess Philome, referring to George Floyd and the events that transpired following his death.

“If you don’t have the data, you don’t have a picture of the problem, and not collecting data is just covering your face,” commented Barbara Dunn of Fargo.

The ordinance will be introduced at the next Fargo City Commission meeting for final approval.

The North Dakota Legislature recently rejected a resolution addressing bias crimes throughout the state.