Wolverhampton
Hate Crime
Information on hate crime and organisations that offer support and advice to victims and witnesses.
In England and Wales, hate crime laws recognise five protected characteristics. These are:
Hate crimes can include a range of behaviors such as verbal abuse, intimidation, threats, harassment, assault, and damage to property. These actions become hate crimes when they are motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on their actual or perceived protected characteristic.
It’s important to note that the victim does not necessarily have to possess the protected characteristic themselves; the crime can be based on the perpetrator’s perception.
The Equality Act 2010 is the law that protects you from discrimination. It also gives you the right to challenge discrimination. You are protected by the Equality Act if you have certain protected characteristics. For more information please visit Equality Act 2010 Guidance - GOV.UK.
You are protected under the Equality Act 2010 from these types of discrimination:
Have you or someone you know been a victim of a hate crime or hate incident?
Hate crime in any form is wrong. That is why it is important that if hate crime happens to you or someone you know, that you report it.
Reporting makes a difference – to you, your friends, and your community. By reporting hate crime when it happens, you can help stop it happening to someone else. You will also help the police to better understand the level of hate crime in your local area, and improve the way they respond to it.
You can report a hate crime online using true vision. The site can also give you information about hate crime or incidents and how to report it, as well as information about the help and support available to victims of hate crime.
If you do not wish to contact the police in the first instance, you can contact the following organisations that offer a range of support and advice and will treat your incident in strict confidence (unless child protection issues are raised).
Staff at these centres have been trained to deal with complaints and to provide appropriate support:
The incident
Mr S said that as he tried to get out of the lift, the perpetrator - Ms C - would not let him, his wife or children go past and was verbally abusive, telling him to "go back to his own country"; she then proceeded to push Mr S several times.
ASB officer visit
When the ASB officer visited Mr S and his family were all at home and the children had not even been sent to school as they were too frightened to leave the flat. Mr S told the ASB officer that another resident of the block - Mr M – had banged on their front door, swearing and shouting and being racially abusive. Mr S. called the police who were due to send out an officer to take a statement that morning.
Application for injunctions
The ASB officer quickly gathered the evidence together and immediately applied to the court for injunctions against Ms C to stop her from entering the block and being physically or verbally abusive to Mr S and his family and against Mr M to stop him from contacting Mr S and his family and using or threatening violence against them.
Temporary accommodation
Mr S and his family were very shaken by the incident and were terrified about leaving the flat and he said he was afraid of who would come to his door or what may happen when he left. The same day, the ASB officer therefore arranged for Mr S and his family to move into temporary accommodation overnight as the injunction applications were due in court the following day. Late in the evening the ASB Team transported the family and their overnight belongings to the temporary accommodation.
Court outcome
The court granted the injunctions against Ms C and Mr M but Mr S still felt unsafe returning to the block as he stated that Ms C would get people she knew living in the block to cause him and his family trouble as previously another resident living in the block who was an associate of Mr M and Ms C had thrown a glass bottle at him from out of her window.
Resolution
With his agreement, Mr S and his family were then moved into long term temporary accommodation before being re-housed in another area of the city.
Remedi exist to enable those accessing our services to be the people they can and want to be, through the creative and proactive use of restorative approaches.
As well as our usual daily high visibility patrols and day to day policing responsibilities, the team focus on intelligence led operations, with the aim of preventing and reducing crime on the bus/train/tram network.
If you are deaf or hard of hearing and experience a hate crime or hate incident, Zebra Access can support you to report it.
Useful links and resources:
