‘It takes all kinds of people to build a community’ are the words used on the front cover of the new guide ‘Being different is not a crime’ offering advice on challenging hate crime launched to a packed audience by Blackpool Councils Faith Equality and Diversity unit.  Produced by the unit, the guide is a continuing part of the universal drive to challenge crimes against people who are sometimes viewed as different and to emphasise the strength and value of equality and diversity in Blackpool.
Involvement and comment from a large number of community and authority attendees was complemented by an interactive performance Forum Theatre company Dead Earnest, which showed how seemingly inconsequential actions can lead to community confrontation and even hate crime.

Dead Earnest actor Alan Meadows who played Stan the ‘open prejudice’ shopkeeper in the challenging play said afterwards ‘I was very impressed by the range of responses. It’s very easy to demonise my character but today there was a real effort to bring about some community cohesion rather than just to bring out and isolate a villain’.

Recent media reporting seems to show an increase in hate crime, and such headlines as ‘Pensioner beaten and robbed’…’Cruel theft of disability wheelchair’….and ‘Goth girl kicked to death because she looked different’…give us a growing perception of hate crime, but given the reaction of people at the event there is a real desire to do something about it, and a start is about everyone reporting incidents with confidence that effective remedies will happen.

PC Julie Hall Diversity Officer of the Lancashire Police western division said ‘What we have seen today emphasises that the crux of the matter is that we have to have people reporting incidents and crimes to us before the agencies can do anything about it. Agencies are working together but the message is that people need to do their part by reporting crime’.

This was reinforced by Sgt Steve Hodgkins of Blackpool Police who said ‘There is passion from the police to move today’s event forward and from everything we see across the community that passion is there as well. Hate crime needs joint work and effort’.

Here is the key to the issue in that in many areas of equality, the public is largely ignorant of hate crime, and therefore only a minimal amount of effort is made by individuals to confront the prejudice which feeds these crimes. Andy Divall, Manager of the Faith Equality and Diversity unit said before the event that the aim of the event is ‘giving everybody in Blackpool an opportunity to know how to report hate crime’.  That reporting though has to be by the people who are part of the community, and events which are because a person is perceived as being different cannot be tolerated.  Andy continued by saying that ‘Blackpool is a diverse community, and is becoming more diverse as the years go by. This is a major opportunity to share with each other and make sure we genuinely build a better place for all’.

The launch event, and the production of the booklet was particularly important to Catherine Mugonyi, a member of the FED unit, who worked to create the book and obtained launch event funding, but for whom simplifying the opportunity to report hate crime is a serious challenge.  Asked why she created the book she said ‘I felt that there was no single place where you could find out what to do about hate crime.’  As to the outcomes of the day, she summed up the feelings of everyone at the event by saying that ‘We need to be aware of what hate crime is, and what effects it has on people. The book shows that we will support people and that we are all working together and believe in seeing these things through and that potential victims do not live under the threat of crime’.

The guide ‘Being different is not a crime’ is available in a range of formats from the Equality and Diversity Unit, Blackpool Council. For further information or to obtain a copy please telephone 01253 477117 or e-mail equalities@blackpool.gov.uk . It is also available online at www.blackpool.gov.uk/hatecrime

Stephen Brookes © 2008

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