Disabled hatred

Seems odd to be thinking about it in light of the Paralympics success? Yes well for many it seems this is any everyday occurrence and an increasing problem. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9626664/Disability-hate-crimes-rise-by-a-quarter-in-a-year.html Disability hate crimes' rise by a quarter in a year,

Official figures show the number of “disability hate crimes” recorded by police forces in England and Wales in 2011/12 increased by almost 25 per cent on the previous year

Or maybe it seems odd to be thinking about it on a blog about mental health? However it seems like many places within the care industry, like the care of those with mental health problems lacks the scrutiny that has ousted much of the abuse from other areas. You just have to look at Winterbourne View investigation http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-20092894 to see a total lack of care. The fact is that in years gone by this may well have been a care home for the elderly rather than for the disabled and the scandals and court cases about the abuse within these environments has brought the public eye to them already. However it seems that mental health and other care homes were either ignored or considered exempt from these problems.

It seems a huge oversight to me that when it was highlighted for other care environments that it was then not rolled out to all places with this type of care however maybe this was because of reporting of incidents, however I feel it more likely that the problems were compounded by the lack of people listening such as in Broadmoor. http://www.channel4.com/news/broadmoor-patients-perfect-victims-for-savile-abuse

Mr George added "We were perfect victims, because in a place like Broadmoor, immediately people say; 'You're mad, you're bad, you're a nutter. Therefore we don't believe anything you say'," he said.

See my earlier post on Safety within mental health wards (27/3/12).

But what about disability related harassment?

This is not restricted to situations of care but more to everyday life. The figures released from the police show

On 13 September 2012, the Home Office published statistics on hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales for the first time. In 2011/12, 43,748 hate crimes were recorded by the police, of which:

35,816 (82 per cent) were race hate crimes

1,621 (4 per cent) were religion hate crimes

4,252 (10 per cent) were sexual orientation hate crimes

1,744 (4 per cent) were disability hate crimes

315 (1 per cent) were transgender hate crimes

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/hate-crime/

Please note that this is recorded crime and some hate crimes fall into more than one category ie. both race and religious and so forth, which means that they may be fewer than 43748 victims reporting crimes. It is also noted by the police that

Research suggests that hate crime is hugely under-reported.

Yes well I would definitely agree with that but what kind of huge is that huge?

Well if you look at this you’ll see that they quote

It has just been reported that the number of disability hate crimes recorded by police forces in England and Wales for the year ended December 2011 was 1,877.1 This is an increase of 24.1 per cent on the previous year, and is the only equality strand to have seen an increase in the police recording of hate crimes

And then later on

Contrast these figures with the Crime Survey for England and Wales; they show the number of people experiencing a disability hate crime in the year to the Spring of 2011 was 65,000. So, just under 3 per cent of hate crimes experienced by disabled people end up being included in the official figures. This means that for around 34 out of every 35 incidents of disability hate crime, the victim was either unable or unwilling to report the hate crimes committed against them.

That’s quite a fall off and maybe grossly under-reported might have been better and somehow I doubt that it is just hate crimes against the disabled that are so grossly under-reported but the biggest question for me is why there has been such a spike in the number of crimes reported. 24.1% increased from the year before.

Well as suggested in the manifesto above this could be because the percentage being reported has gone up or it could be that the problem has just become so much worse. And who can tell well the guardian ran this story back in August

Disability hatecrime: is 'benefit scrounger' abuse to blame? suggesting that the governments and the department of work and pensions comment on welfare reforms has led people to focus on the disabled in a negative way

The Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of irresponsible rhetoric, in particular for its suggestion that three in four people claiming incapacity benefit are faking disabilities

And in this time of austerity when people are struggling to make ends meet it seems the disabled may have inadvertently be handed up as the biggest reason for it and people are reacting. However I am not convinced that this isn’t the tip of the iceberg and that actually the attitude of I’m all right Jack and I’ll do anything to make sure I’m alright is widespread and causing many people to lose compassion, understanding and turn a blind eye. Of what am I talking..?

Well I’ve listened to people who have enlisted to get money from government schemes for particular purposes...a bike to ride to work. Nothing in that, if you’re going to ride the bike to work and therefore cut down on the carbon footprint...except that they weren’t. They wanted a new bike though and despite their full time salary, home and expensive car they still applied for the money. The company despite knowing that they lived around 40 miles away and not something that I would expect most people did as a bike ride to work, gave them the money. I sat and thought what a cheek but their friends applauded them for getting a new bike and not having to pay for it all. They have a new bike and they ride it, but not to work and I still feel aggrieved by it, yet I’m not entirely sure I wouldn’t have done the same. The point is that actually in so many ways we have no compassion for the next guy, no compassion for the person lower down the food chain, income scale, who might actually need that money to afford a new bike, who may well use his bike to ride to work. In this particular instance I do believe that everyone who applied did get money but it still doesn’t sit right with me since a good number did not need it and so many in this country do. They don’t seem to have a problem with this and as I say they ride the bike so that’s alright but really it just shows that they haven’t looked at what they are doing, how scrounging is a part of their lives. This attitude is endemic and it seems that when it comes to the bottom end and those who have nothing everyone is very quick to say no you can’t have the perks and get angry about it if they believe that people are and anyone who is different is percieved as being on benefit and therefore a scrounger/faker.

It seems this may be causing an upsurge in hate crimes however when I read about the types of insults and harassment I am unconvinced that this is the main cause. It seems that obvious disability is bigger sparking point than the implied lack of disability that seems to cause the faking it attitude, although neither are mutually exclusive. However it is the suggestion in Hidden in plain sight that it is partly to do with the separateness of the disabled, that the removal from society has made them scary and different and the lack of experience of them has led to people fearing and retaliating in this way. They have a point and to some extent I do agree but there is a part of me that goes it will not matter how much we are integrated or people start talking about disability, since it has not really help those of different race and we stopped apartheid, and such racial exclusions a long time ago. Hate crimes against race stand at 35816 for last year. However this is not to say that getting the disable out there, into schools and theatres, onto the tube and other places is not a good idea but I feel most of the work at present really needs to be about attitude, the attitude of the police, of government and of the general population because hate crime is committed by people not by legislation or laws and stopping it is not simply saying you mustn’t it’s about changing the attitude that it’s acceptable so long as you don’t get caught which is where the police come in. If the majority of people do not believe they will be listened to when they report crime they will not report it, it will not be condemned and it will not get debated because people will assume if no one is doing anything, or saying anything then either none is happening or as a perpetrator that it is okay and it is not.