Report on bias incidents and hate crimes to national database

Submit your report through ChicoSol
by ChicoSol staff | Posted October 17, 2017

ChicoSol is partnering with newsrooms around the country to create a national database of hate crimes and bias incidents for use by journalists and civil-rights organizations. There’s no authoritative data on hate incidents in America, and the Documenting Hate project led by the nonprofit ProPublica wants to change that.

If you’ve been a victim or witness, tell us your story here by filling out the form on the “Read more” page and submitting it the national database. This is not a report to law enforcement.

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Chico protesters say “clinic” is a “scam”

Women's Resource Clinic hosts anti-abortion speaker at gala
by Leslie Layton | Posted October 14, 2017

photo by Karen Laslo

More than 30 people gathered Friday outside Chico State’s Bell Memorial Union (BMU) to protest a Christian clinic — Women’s Resource Clinic — that was hosting an anti-abortion speaker at its annual gala.

Protesters, organized by a Mobilize Chico group called “Women on Reproductive Defense,” or “WORD,” said the Women’s Resource Clinic – not to be confused with Chico’s Women’s Health Specialists – is actually an anti-abortion organization that fails to provide “medical treatment” or “clinical care” and has intentionally confused the community about its purpose. read more

Chico store’s billboard unleashes hate

"Rouse & Revolt" art gone early today
by Leslie Layton | Posted October 6, 2017
upper photo shows billboard as it was Wednesday night; lower photo by Chicosol shows removed art on Thursday morning.

The brief appearance of a billboard that depicted President Trump as a Hitler-esque figure has unleashed a wave of hateful, threatening messages directed at a Chico woman and her vintage clothing store.

Nicholle Haber, owner of “Rouse & Revolt,” said Thursday she was shocked by the maliciousness of people who were upset by the billboard art that was posted at East Third and Mangrove avenues in Chico Wednesday night. The billboard appeared to have been scraped off entirely by early Thursday, hours after a Chico television station aired a story.

Stott Outdoor Advertising, the corporate billboard owner that rents the display space, said it had removed the store’s ad and swiftly released a statement to the press as the story won the attention of national media outlets. On Thursday afternoon, Haber told ChicoSol she would file a lawsuit to force Stott to restore the ad. read more

Student activist’s grisly killing still unsolved

Marc Thompson’s dad: Son was ‘destined for greatness’
by ChicoSol staff | Posted September 30, 2017

photos courtesy of Thompson family

We will never be the same because of you,
We will never be the same without you,
You will be remembered.
–From a poem by film director Lee Mun Wah in remembrance of Marc Anthony Thompson

by Dave Waddell

Marc Thompson had a big smile – broad and gap-toothed — and an even bigger personality. He made a mark on people, “like a blazing star across the midnight sky,” in the words of activist Lee Mun Wah, one of Thompson’s mentors. And he had dedicated his young life to fighting against a litany of social injustices.

Then, three years ago this month, he was brutally killed, his body found in his burned-out car in a remote area about 28 miles northeast of Oroville. Thompson’s parents, still devastated and mystified over the murder, continue to question whether the Butte County Sheriff’s Department did enough to apprehend his killer or killers. read more

DA: No crime by shooters in Rushing death

Peaceful Ventura man behaved bizarrely in Chico
by Dave Waddell and Leslie Layton | Posted September 28, 2017
Tyler Rushing

Tyler Rushing, who died during a chaotic confrontation in close quarters with Chico police, most likely succumbed to an earlier “devastating gunshot” wound from a private security guard responding to a burglary.

That’s the conclusion of Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey in a 17-page report made available to ChicoSol and other news media prior to a press briefing by Ramsey this morning.

Ramsey also wrote that a medical examiner was taken aback after multiple toxicology reports turned up a “moderate” amount of marijuana in Rushing’s system but no other drugs.

“The doctor expressed great surprise (Rushing) was able to function as long and violently as he did after the security (guard’s) devastating gunshot,” says Ramsey’s report. “He opined the subject’s extraordinary stamina and strength (were) most likely drug induced.” read more