What kinds of actions may be Civil Rights violations?
An action may be a Civil Rights violation when bias or discrimination appears to be a motive in what happened to you. A bias motive is hostility, or negative attitude toward, or prejudice against, any group or individual due to race, color, sex, national origin/ethnicity, religion, familial status, sexual orientation, or disability. The first step to consider is whether any bias indicators were present during the incident. Bias indictors are certain facts and circumstances which when combined with particular language or behavior suggest that a potential civil rights violation has occurred. Examples of bias indicators include: • Racial, ethnic, gender, and cultural differences between the offender and victim • Bias-related comments, written statements or gestures were made by the offender • Bias-related drawings, markings, symbols and graffiti • Objects or items that represent the work of organized hate groups were left at the scene of the incident • Victim or witnesses perceive that th
