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13
HISTORIC HATE CRIME RESEARCH
REPORT LAUNCH NOTTINGHAM
By Pastor Clive Foster
The iconic Albert Hall, Nottingham on Thursday 10th May 2018
was the venue for the historic launch of the Hate Crime Research
Report, ‘Still No Place for Hate’. The report was conducted by
Nottingham Citizens a chapter of Citizens UK the largest civil
society community organising organisation. The international
and national context has changed significantly since the last
repot in 2014, so with over 600 eager citizens of Nottingham
present this was an important moment as the finding and
recommendations of the report had its first public airing. The
challenge was put out to al in attendance from the start, ’What
sort of Nottingham do you want to create?’ The report conducted
over 4000 surveys with nearly 3000 coming from school children
across Nottinghamshire.
It was a privilege to co-chair along with Sajid Mohammed
from Himmah an enthusiastic and diverse Hate Crime
Strategy team. Over a period of 18 months meeting
mostly at one of Nottingham’s largest majority black led
churches Gods Vineyard Church in Lenton, Nottingham.
The strategy team, designed the surveys, pushed out
the surveys to citizens, visited schools assemblies, held
focus groups and negotiations with decision makers.
The culmination of this inspiring work was a careful and
insightful report on hate crime in Nottingham. The report
was compiled by academics from Nottingham Trent
University and University of Nottingham.
It was important the report reflected the voices of the victims
untarnished and undiluted. As a result the report did not
hold back from the types of lived experiences that victims
expressed . It was also personal for me as I had experienced
a hate crime some months before. I was racially abused in
the city centre, just before Christmas, while I was waiting for a
friend. I remember felling shocked and hurt at the time.
had been a victim, media coverage of terrorist events are
identified as major drivers of the most prevalent type of
hate crime and most of the victims involved in the survey
had not reported the crime to the police (79 percent). A
total of 56 respondents highlighted Brexit as a motivating
factor. The report spoke about Xeno-Racism which is
racism in substance which is directed to the impoverished
migrant stranger even if they are white.
Decisions makers on the evening such as the Police
Crime Commissioner Office, Nottinghamshire Police and
Nottingham City Council heard the recommendations
such as establishing Nottingham via the ‘Love Nottingham
Campaign’ which will seek to bring all corners of society
together to stamp hate crime and setting up a special
forum that will drive action across Nottingham, and to
ensure Nottinghamshire Police are better equipped to
understand and respond effectively to hate crime. The
decision makers were then asked to make pledges towards
the recommendations on the evening.
The feeling of being violated and unsafe was real – so I
reported the incident to the police – it is so important that
such incidents are reported to the authorities and I would
encourage all who experience any form of hate incident
to report it. Hate crime is a crime motivated by a person’s
race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, transgender
identity. It can include threats, verbal abuse, and assault. It was great to end the hate crime session on the evening
with a quote from the great Martin Luther King, ‘we must
act together, because hate anywhere is a threat to love
everywhere’.
Some of the report findings where shared on the evening
such as 36 percent of those surveyed claiming that they The full report can be downloaded at website:
http://www.citizensuk.org/nottingham
Pastor Clive Foster
Senior Minister – Pilgrim Church, Nottingham