Black and Jewish communities are most targeted in hate-motivated incidents in Hamilton
Published March 12, 2020 at 7:31 pm
Hate crimes and incidents in Hamilton predominantly target members of the Black and Jewish communities, a report shows, though there remains a question as to how many of these incidents are actuall
Hate crimes and incidents in Hamilton predominantly target members of the Black and Jewish communities, a report shows, though there remains a question as to how many of these incidents are actually being reported.
The Hamilton Police Services Board was presented with a report on Hate Crime in the city in 2019 at their meeting on Thursday (March 12).
The report shows that there were 92 combined hate-motivated crimes and incidents. Of those, approximately 34 incidents targeted members of the Black community and 29 reported incidents targeted the Jewish community.
The number of incidents targeting men who identified as gay was eight in 2019 and the number involving people who identify as transgender was four.
Detective Paul Corrigan of the Hamilton Police Service’s Hate Crime Unit said he thinks that the number of actual incidents against the LGBTQ2S+ community is probably higher.
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“My gut tells me sexual orientation crimes and incidents are underreported,” he said.
He explained to the board that roughly two-third of hate incidents go unreported and even though Hamilton was said to be No. 1 in 2018 for reporting, there’s still a fear among victims to turn to the police.
When asked by Mayor Fred Eisenberger why there would be a fear among members of the community to report these incidents Corrigan’s answer was fairly blunt.
“People don’t forget,” he said, referring to a long history of mistrust between police services and the LGBTQ2S+ community.
“It will take time to build that trust again.”
In an effort, it seems, to rebuild that trust, Hamilton Police Services launched an online platform for people to report hate/bias-related crimes earlier this week.
“We know hate crimes are generally under-reported,” said Deputy Frank Bergen in a press release announcing the new online tool.
“And we’ve heard loud and clear that people need a way to report incidents to police in a manner that is comfortable for them, without having to visit a police station.”
Over the past 10 years, the average number of reported hate crimes is approximately 128.4 per year.
The report is careful to distinguish between hate-motivated crimes and hate/bias incidents.
A hate-motivated crime is where there is evidence to prove that a criminal offence was solely motivated or in part because there is a bias or prejudice against a victim’s race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, language etc. This includes hate propaganda, the report says.
A hate/bias incident is an incident in which the motivation cannot be proven to be bias or motivated solely by prejudice or bias but include some type of racial overtone.
Of the 94 hate/bias incidents in Hamilton in 2019, eight were considered a hate-motivated crime.
The new hate/bias reporting tool is available on the Hamilton Police website at www.hamiltonpolice.on.ca. Hate/bias incidents can also be reported on the phone at 905-546-4925 or in person at any Hamilton Police station.
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