NJ communities joining a campaign to stamp out hate

An anti-hate program that was launched earlier this year in Monmouth County is expanding to other parts of New Jersey.

The Safe Place Initiative, which began in Seattle in 2015 has spread across the country and is now taking hold in parts of Monmouth, Middlesex, Morris and Union counties as well.

According to Dorian Korieo, a Seattle police officer and the founder of the international Safe Place program, it is designed to assist all victims of hate, bullying and bias offenses that include race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression of identity, national origin or ethnicity.

Keep victims safe

He said the Initiative partners with businesses, schools, organizations and places of worship, “anywhere that is open and has a public space where a victim can wait for the police to arrive and a staff member can call 911 for them.”

He said when a business joins Safe Place, if someone comes in and says they have either been the victim of a crime of they are afraid of becoming one “we ask that the business owner call 911 as soon as possible, if the victim as been a victim of assault time is ticking, the longer they wait to call 911 that suspect may be moving farther and farther away.”

He explained they will stay at that Safe Place business until police arrive.

Korieo said when different businesses and organizations join the Safe Space Initiative they display a rainbow decal.

Sending a message

“It sets a standard of not only hate crimes and bias crimes in their business, they’re not acceptable in their neighborhood and they’re going to stand up against that.”

“We’re not asking these business partners to be the police, we’re just asking them to be good neighbors, to let victims stay there and call 911, that’s all we’re asking them to do.”

He said if other businesses would like to join Safe Place they should reach out to their Police Department or County Prosecutor’s Office “or they can reach out to me, my website is spdsafeplace.com.”

The Safe Place Initiative program is also operating in Canada and several cities in Europe.

David Matthau is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at david.matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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