Hate crime — it still hasn’t gone away

TACKLING hate crime . . . Det Sgt Mark McDowall

HERE in Oldham we regularly salute the idea of equality with gay pride marches, diversity festivals and other community events. But while they play a vital role in our borough, far away from all this colour and noise, many still suffer at the hands of those who don’t believe in such equality. There were 585 reports of hate crimes between April 1, last year, and the end of March, this year, but police believe many more go unreported.

Reporter Jennifer Hollamby spoke to the police about their drives to tackle hate crime.

“White trash,” “it’s 9/11 today, let’s go and get them,” “what are you doing in our area?”

Ugly tirades indeed, and if you add in some formidable punches and kicks, then you have an accurate snapshot of the kind of hate crimes police in Oldham have been dealing with in recent months.

Another victim has a husband who works nights and often has racist abuse shouted at her when she’s alone at home with her toddler.

How long would it take any of us, in the face of this onslaught, where we know we alone are being targeted, while others are left alone, to lose our self-esteem?

To start to think that maybe you deserve some flak because you are of a different race or because you’re gay, transgendered or disabled is illogical, but you can see that it would happen when someone is broken down by persistent abuse.

And this is part of the rationale behind Oldham police’s continuing drive to encourage more people to report hate crimes.

Det Sgt Mark McDowall, who heads Oldham’s hate crime unit, said: “A hate crime is any incident that someone, be it the victim or anyone else, perceives to have been motivated by race, religion, age, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

“The whole idea of logging something as a hate crime comes from the report into the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. It means our specialist hate crimes unit will deal with it.

“We have a hate crime incident management group which regularly meets to discuss incidents. It comprises the Oldham Race Equality Unit (OREP), the community safety unit, victim support and other groups.

“The community safety unit can look into maybe improving security in the area, installing cameras and helping to enforce ASBOs, while the victim support and OREP could offer counselling and practical help, like compensation.

“Being a victim of any crime is bad enough, but the effects of hate crime can have a really long-term impact on the victim — that’s why we offer so much support.”

And there’s even more at stake than this.

“I was in the line-ups in 2001 having petrol bombs lobbed at me in Waterloo Street and that was the result of lots of little incidents building up. If hate crime isn’t taken seriously, then the riots will happen again,” added Det Sgt McDowall, who admits that the battle to win hearts and minds is not yet won.

“I don’t know why hate crimes are so under-reported. It might be that people have had a bad experience in the past or they might wrongly assume that we won’t take it seriously.”

Det Sgt McDowall is also quick to quell rumours that the force will not be as keen to deal with issues where the perpetrators are Asian or black for fear of being branded as racists.

“When we deal with a crime, we don’t see colour, we just see a victim.

“If people think we are not dealing with the issue of stones being thrown on the bypass for example because some people perceive the perpetrators to be Asian, then I’d tell them that we have lots of plans in the pipeline to tackle the bypass issue.

“We have also had cases of Asian drivers being targeted by white youths on there.”

As overdue as these changes might be, if a person merely has to claim that they think they were targeted because of something like the colour of their skin, is there a danger that the system could be exploited by people merely wanting a more efficient police response?

“Of course not everybody will tell the police the truth, but I believe the benefit of having this system in place far outweighs any potential for that to happen,” said Det Sgt McDowall.

“And it doesn’t mean we take other crimes less seriously. All of these responses would potentially be available for victims of any crime, but they are simply more formally in place for hate crime incidents.”

While the majority of hate crimes in Oldham are race-related, the gay and transgender community and disabled people are also affected.

“I’ve dealt with a young lesbian couple who are still at school and have faced a lot of abuse,” said Det Sgt McDowall. “It’s difficult enough trying to grow up and deciding whether to come out without having the sense that you don’t feel confident in school.”

While the concept of hate crime reporting might be a step in the right direction, it is hard to ignore the fact that is also laced with complexities, in the way that anything which is dependant on people’s perceptions inevitably is.

Somebody might record an incident as a hate crime where it transpires that it was not motivated by any particular prejudice, but perhaps the fact that they would make that assumption is just as damning an indictment of the borough.

Det Sgt McDowall concluded: “In one incident where the victim was white, it was local Asians who went to their aid and gave us information, while in another incident where an Asian was attacked, it was white people who helped him. I think both of those examples are very telling.”

Anyone who would like to report a hate crime can do so by calling 0161-856 5050 or by logging on to www.gmp/police.uk/hatecrime.