The PSNI are launching the second of the series of short videos in our #VOICES campaign.
Leading the campaign, Superintendent Paula Hilman said: “We hope the videos, which are narrated by victims describing their own personal and often very painful experiences of how they have been emotionally affected by hatred and discrimination, will encourage members of the public to come forward and tell us what they know about hate crime.
“We want to encourage people to think about the human impact of these wholly unjustified and unacceptable attacks and the long lasting physiological and emotional damage they can cause. There is absolutely no place in Northern Ireland for intimidation or threats and there is a collective responsibility on all parts of society to protect our most vulnerable communities.
“This week the focus is on disability hate time and Tonya McCormac, Director of Leonard Cheshire Disability NI, also hopes this will highlight the various ways that both victims and members of the public can pass on information. She said; “It is essential that disabled people are supported to recognise hate related incidents and crimes and are supported to report such incidents and crimes to the police. We all as members of the public have responsibility to ensure that disabled people live in a society free from hate incidents and crimes”
Supt Hilman added; “We would encourage everyone to report all concerns or suspicious activity to the police. I really cannot stress enough how important information from communities is to us to support arrests and make subsequent prosecutions to help put an end to all forms of hate crime. Between April 1st and August 27th this year, 66 hate incidents with a disability motivation have been reported to police, 36 of these were subsequently recorded as offences. Behind each of these statistics is a person who has been affected.
“The victim in this video did not deserve to be treated the way he was. No one deserves this. Hate crime is wrong on all levels and the PSNI will do everything it can to ensure that everyone can live free from fear and discrimination.
“But we cannot do it alone. Information from the public is vital. We all have a role to play to challenge attitudes of prejudice and hatred and to build confidence and trust to help increase reporting of these unacceptable attacks to ensure results are delivered.”
Hate crime in all its forms is wrong. To help stop it, report it. There are a now number of ways to report hate crime in Northern Ireland –
Ring the non-emergency number on 101 and select option 2 or alternatively, members of the public can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
You can also click to care and report online via:
* the PSNI website
https://www.psni.police.uk/crime/hate-crime/hate-crime-reporting
* ia the True Vision website
http://www.report-it.org.uk/home
– through the independent charity Crimestoppers
https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/give-information-online/
– or through the Disability Hate Crime Advocacy service at Leonard Cheshire Disability on 02890 661281 or email advocacy@leonardcheshire.org
In an emergency always ring 999.
