Emergency services come together in Cumbria for Hate Crime awareness week

Emergency services and health services across Cumbria are partnering together this week (Oct 8 – 14) to support hate crime awareness week.

Partners from Cumbria Fire and Rescue service, North West Ambulance Service, Civil Nuclear Constabulary and North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust are joining Cumbria Constabulary to raise awareness of hate crime and encourage reporting.

Cumbria Constabulary have also reached out to local employers and Carlisle United to amplify the message with their employees.

Also, throughout the week which started on October 8 the constabulary's neighbourhood policing teams have been attending schools to conduct education talks and been out in our community's raising awareness.

T/Detective Superintendent Matt Scott Strategic lead for hate crime said “We know that hate crime within Cumbria often goes unreported.

“We are reaching out to our communities and the many people that visit Cumbria to report incidents to us so we can investigate, bring offenders to justice and signpost victims to the appropriate support.

“We understand reporting incidents can be daunting and there are alternative options to reporting to the police.

“I can assure the public we take these offences extremely seriously and continually assess our hate crime policies and procedures to improve our response.

“If you have been a victim of a hate crime whether its towards, your disability, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or gender identity, please get in touch so we can investigate and provide you with support. Your report could stop others facing the same prejudice.”

Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Peter McCall comments: “It’s essential that we raise awareness on how to report hate crime and I encourage anyone who has either experienced or witnessed any form of hate crime, to report it.

“I understand that some people don’t feel comfortable reporting a hate crime or hate incident to the Police and there are various other organisations that can help, such as reporting online to TrueVision, calling Crimestoppers anonymous line on 0800 555 111 or contacting Victim Support through their 24 hour online chat facility.

“I urge people to come forwards if they have been a victim or witnessed hate crime. You will be listened to, you will be taken seriously, help is out there – please don’t suffer in silence.”

Mohammed Dhalech, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service said: “Every year, hundreds of people in Cumbria are affected by hate crime. Nobody should have to live with the fear and anxiety that this crime causes. It can also affect other people in your community, especially if they are seen to be part of the same group in society and wider society itself.

“Hate crime can take many forms - from verbal abuse in the street to abuse on social media - and may focus on anything from disability, age, sexual orientation to religious faith, culture and race. That can make it difficult for people to recognise, we encourage anyone who experiences any form of Hate Crime to Report it to the Police.”

Lyn Simpson, Chief Executive of North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The Trust does not accept bullying, harassment and discrimination in any form. We take hate incidents and hate crimes very seriously and we are committed to ensuring that all our staff and patients feel supported if they experience a hate incident or hate crime or feel able to report it if they see it happening.

“As a Trust, we will not tolerate any form of abuse, harassment or violence from anyone against staff, visitors, and those who use our services, whether verbal, threatening or physical.”

‘We know that some of our staff we recruited from overseas are experiencing discrimination and hate crime right here in Cumbria now and the impact on individuals is huge. We couldn’t operate our services for our community without our international staff and whole community should be welcoming and supporting everyone with open arms. Hate crime is for all of us to address – if we do nothing when we hear or see it we all condone it and we are actively supporting our staff to campaign for action to be taken against the perpetrators.”

Carlisle United Chief Executive Nigel Clibbens said “When we were approached to support this initiative, we were eager to do all we can. For many of us Hate Crime can appear an invisible and perhaps remote issue that doesn’t affect us, that makes us lucky. For lots of others they are not so fortunate, and they suffer real harm. It’s an important issue. We want everyone to know what they can do if faced with it.”

“We are asking our fans and community to report incidents so the Police can investigate and bring offenders to justice. We also want to point victims to the appropriate support.

“We are building our links with community groups and as we seen different and diverse groups come to games the issue comes into focus. If it happens at a game or out in the community, support is there and the Police will deal with it.”

Nigel Davidson Club EDI Officer and Fan Director added: “We are in a unique position at the football club to play a very important role in highlighting the issue of ‘Hate Crime’, as well as being able to report it and support the victims of it. There are various methods of reporting Hate Crime and we wish to encourage anyone who has been a victim or a witness to report it as soon as possible. We have strong links with the local Police and are looking to develop these further through initiatives such as this."

What is a hate crime?

Being targeted because of hostility or prejudice towards your disability, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

You can also be targeted for more than one characteristic or perceived characteristic.

Hate crimes can include but are not limited to:

• Assault

• verbal abuse

• damage to property

• threatening behaviour

• robbery

• harassment

• online abuse

How to report a crime

You can report a crime in several ways:

• If it’s an emergency and the crime is taking place, call 999 and ask for the police.

• In an non-emergency, you can report online - Report a Non-Emergency Crime/Incident Online - Cumbria Constabulary, Report a Hate Crime - Cumbria Constabulary or speak to an officer via 101.

• You can go to your local police station.

• You can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if you want to remain anonymous.

• If you’ve experienced hate crime, you can also report the incident online through True Vision

Support available

Victim Support

• https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/

• If you want to speak to someone now, call our free 24/7 Supportline – 08 08 16 89 111 or start a live chat. In an emergency always call 999.

Tell Mama

• Report in Anti-Muslim Hate or Islamophobia (tellmamauk.org)

• 0800 456 1226

CST

• CST – Protecting Our Jewish Community

• 0800 032 3263

Remedi

• Remedi (remediuk.org)

• 0114 2536669

Stop Hate UK

• Stop Homophobic, Transphobic, Racial, Religious & Disability Hate Crime - https://www.report-it.org.uk/

• Helpline: 028 90 890 890