A SURGE in the number of reported racial hate crimes in Swindon is just the tip of the iceberg, officers said.
A Freedom of Information request submitted to Wiltshire Police by the Adver revealed the number of racial abuse reports jumped from 159 crimes between January and August 2019 to 222 for the same period this year – a 39.6 per cent increase.
The number of incidents went from 40 to 45 – a 12.5 per cent increase. A hate incident is described as a non-crime incident which is perceived by a victim to be motivated by hostility based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
Hate crime advisor for Wiltshire Police Andrew MacLachlan said many offences may have gone unreported in the county this year due to victims being too afraid to speak out.
Zak Agilah, who runs the Black Lives Matter Swindon and Wiltshire Facebook page, claims he has been called the n-word among other things numerous times over the past five years across the town, including in Old Town and the town centre.
“I’ve been called the n-word mostly out in town on a night out or on the street but almost always in arguments with people who claim to not be racist,” he said.
“People have been trying to fight me because of that. They've called me monkey.
“Even people who have mixed-race kids and black partners have called me the n-word, so I can only imagine the things they say to them in anger.”
He added: “I have always been very proud as a black man and any racial abuse that has come my way, as much as I suffered, I never accepted it.
“It is all because of my skin colour. And you just don’t understand. You just don’t get it why. And when you ring the police, they don’t do anything. They don’t understand.
“It makes you feel like you don’t belong in the country. And it makes you feel like you are different, and you can’t ignore that feeling.”
The organiser of the town’s first BLM demo in June made the decision not to report any of those incidents.
He said: “I have never thought about reporting it to the police simply because I have no faith in the police to even be able to show empathy to these kinds of situations, let alone to see the need to pursue and prosecute someone committing them.”
PCSO MacLachlan is urging victims to report any crimes to help them tackle the issue.
He said: “Of course, we know, there are many more crimes that take place that we don’t know about because they are not being reported and that’s what we need to get to.
“There’s a number of reasons why they don’t report it, one of them being they don’t think we’ll do anything about it. Some don’t trust the authorities. And lot of people don’t want to draw attention to themselves because it’s a personal thing.”
Hate crime is an act of violence based on someone’s race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
The town saw a peak in 2018 with 245 racial hate crime recorded, representing a five per cent increase on 2017.
He added: “All police forces take hate crime very seriously. We’ve got a set procedure within our force, of what we do when a hate crime comes in, and it’s followed very strictly.
“It’s not something we sweep under the carpet.
“It’s a very difficult time when you’re a victim of any crime, but when it’s against who you are then this is why they are taken very seriously.”
Hate crime advisors have been introduced in 2012 at Wiltshire Police, to provide extra support for victims.
“We will visit the victims if they want to have help. It’s just a further support them,” he said.
“They sit down and discuss what is going on. Quite often, when someone reports something to us, they could actually have been a victim for some year.”
There have been several police appeals over the past few months following racial abuse incidents in public across Swindon.
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More than 105,000 hate crimes were recorded in 2019-20 in England and Wales, an increase of eight per cent compared to the previous year.
In line with National Hate Crime Awareness Week which runs until Saturday, Wiltshire Police will be running awareness events to increase public knowledge and encourage people to think about how they would respond if a hate crime happened to them or someone they know.
Insp Simon Cowdrey told the Adver the rise has occurred from June onwards.
He said: “It probably coincides with Black Lives Matter protests, as few people felt more empowered, more confident to come forward, which is great news because ultimately we want victims of crime, hate crime in particular, to feel confident to talk to the local police.
“It’s only then we can get a picture of what’s going on in the community and we can start address the problems.”
Wiltshire Police is working on improving the quality of its investigations by introducing internal and external hate crime scrutiny panels.
He added: “I think that’d be a very positive step to be transparent of what we are trying to achieve and what we are doing. We are looking to introduce it towards the end of the year.”
Anyone affected by a hate crime, should call in an emergency 999 and in a non-emergency call 101. Visit: https://www.report-it.org.uk/.
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