Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed a new link on the front page that goes to something called “Intolerance Watch.”
We have been beta-testing this project over the last few weeks, and are excited to make it fully public today.
For the series, we are writing stories about moments of intolerance in New Mexico based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and more.
So why are we doing this?
A 2013 U.S. Department of Justice study found nearly 260,000 reported and unreported hate crimes occur annually. There have been some efforts to track these, notably by the Southern Policy Law Center, but it is a rarity on the state level.
Not all incidents rise to the level of hate crimes, but are still serious and deserve to be reported on. For example:
- A woman yelled at a Muslim woman wearing a hijab in a Smith’s grocery store in Albuquerque
- Albuquerque Police investigating slur written on gay-friendly club
In times like these, it’s important that we all know these stories – and how local leaders and communities are responding.
So what do we need?
This is a big new project, taking resources from the four-person staff here at NM Political Report. We will continue to do our other hard-hitting investigative stories while adding this to our platter.
If you see a story that we missed or something that should be part of the project, email editor@nmpoliticalreport.com. When you read our stories, share them on Facebook and Twitter.
Donations help, as well. We are a donor-supported non-profit. We don’t rely on advertisements (we don’t have any) or a corporation to prop us up—we rely largely on donations from individual readers.
The donations will allow us to expand our coverage, including new projects such as Intolerance Watch.
