Hamilton police report increase in hate incidents in 2022
There was a 61 per cent jump hate incidents reported to Hamilton police last year, with the Black, Jewish and LGBTQ communities the most frequent targets.
According to an annual report prepared by Det. Fabiano Mendes of the hate-crime unit, the 174 incidents include 26 hate crimes. Most incidents were random in nature, with no definable pattern, and were believed to have been committed by individuals and not by organized groups," the report concludes.
The report is scheduled to be discussed at the police board meeting Thursday.
In a statement, Chief Frank Bergen noted that hate crimes affect all Hamiltonians.
These crimes impact a sense of belonging, safety and well-being for victims and creates fear within our community," he said.
Police also know that not all hate incidents are reported to police for a variety of reasons, including believing the chance of apprehending a suspect is low, being embarrassed or past negative interactions with police. So the true number of incidents is much higher.
A hate/bias incident includes any incident involving hate or bias against an identifiable group. A hate crime is a criminal offence with evidence that it was motivated by prejudice.
The 174 incidents reported to police last year marked a jump from 108 incidents reported to police in 2021. It is also well above the 12-year average of 127 per year. The only year with a higher reported number on record is 180 in 2011.
Racist incidents were the top reported, with 91 total, including 11 hate crimes. This included 65 incidents targeting the Black community, up from 35 in 2021.
Comfort Afari of the Hamilton Black Health Community Leaders Forum said the rise in occurrences and crimes is concerning, but she noted that it is encouraging that the incidents are being reported.
This data shows us the extent of how communities are impacted and certainly, for those communities like the Black community, we know many hate occurrences go unreported," she said in a statement.
There were 49 hateful incidents targeting people because of their religion reported to police, with the Jewish community the most frequent target in 42 of the incidents. This was also up from 24 incidents targeting the Jewish community in 2021. There were five reported incidents last year targeting the Muslim community, down from 14 in 2021.
In a statement, Gustavo Rymberg, CEO of the Hamilton Jewish Federation, called the growing trend of anti-Jewish hate worrying" and called on the collective community" to do more to stand up against hate.
There were 23 incidents targeting people for their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Of the 26 incidents classified as hate crimes, the most common offence was graffiti (mischief) with nine incidents. There were eight threats, four assaults, two break-and-enters and one each for arson, causing a disturbance and non-graffiti mischief.
Someone was arrested in six cases, the victim declined to press charges in six others, two cases were handled through diversion (such as community service or counselling to avoid charges) and in one case the suspect was charged outside Hamilton. There are 11 cases outstanding in which no suspect has been identified.
Police have been working to encourage reporting over the last several years including presenting to community groups, offering more support to victims through victim services, training new recruits to identify and investigate hate occurrences, better tracking data and allowing hate crimes to be reported online.
Police have committed to establishing a hate-crime reviewing team, similar to the team that reviewed sexual assault cases following the revelation of how many sex-assault cases were deemed unfounded." This led to cases of sexual assault being reopened. Hamilton police said they are still working to establish the hate-crime review team.
Police are also holding a hate-crime symposium in May that will be open to both police and community members.
Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com