Launch of anti-hate crime campaign

The advertisements carry a simple message ‘nobody deserves this and nobody deserves to get away with it’ with photographic images representing the six areas of hate crime - racist, homophobic, transphobic, sectarian, religion and crimes against people with disabilities. The advertisements will appear on billboards, adshels, washroom posters and online for the next month and will feature primarily in areas of higher reporting.

In the past year there were 671 racist hate crimes, 108 homophobic hate crimes, 27 faith/religion related hate crimes, 1200 sectarian hate crimes, 4 transphobic hate crimes and 63 disability related hate crimes reported in Northern Ireland.

Over the same period in 2008-2009 there were 771 racist hate crimes, 134 homophobic hate crimes, 35 faith/religion related hate crimes, 1,017 sectarian hate crimes, 2 transphobic hate crimes and 28 disability related hate crimes.

Speaking about the campaign Area Commander for Ballymoney and Moyle, Chief Inspector John Magill, believes that there is still under-reporting and thus this is once again the main focus of the campaign.

Chief Inspector Magill said: “I want to encourage people, whether they are victims of a crime or witnesses to an incident to report it to police. There are a number of methods available to make reports; these are in person, telephone or online reporting.

“As a Police Service we are fully committed to playing our role in preventing such dreadful crimes occurring. We all have a part to play in dealing with hate crime; the police alone cannot solve what is a wider societal issue. We all have a responsibility to unite against hate.”

“The advertisements put the issue in clear and simple terms - hate crime is unacceptable, no one deserves it and no one deserves to get away with it; to stop it, report it.”