A disability hate incident is any incident where you or someone else has been targeted because they or you are believed to have a disability.
No two hate incidents are the same but they may include the following:
If you see someone getting hassled, and you think it is because they are disabled you can report it as an incident, even if the victim has not done so.
In January 2009, Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living produced a report ‘Disability Hate Crime’. Statistics supplied from the Race for Justice Task Force showed that 7 out of 10 disabled people had experienced crime in the last 2 years.
In the ‘Getting Away With Murder Disabled people’s experiences of hate crime in the UK’ report, statistics from the first national survey of people with learning difficulties, carried out by the charity Mencap in 2000, found that nearly nine out of ten respondents said that they had been ‘bullied’.
These incidents don’t just affect the lives of those involved but affect their friends, their families, and every part of the local community.
If hate incidents are not reported, the bullies, bigots and thugs will feel their behaviour is totally acceptable and that they can continue to abuse people whenever they feel like it.
