Hate crimes: brutal death must alter attitudes to disabled people
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Version 0 of 1. The names of Albert Adams, Stephen Hoskin and Sean Miles may not be immediately familiar, but their common fate is that they suffered years of harassment because of difference and disability. For them, as in the horrific case of Bijan Ebrahimi, whose murderer, Lee James, was sentenced last week, a false allegation of paedophilia or sexual violence had become a dangerous and ultimately murderous part of their bullying. In 2011, Katharine Quarmby published <em>Scapegoat: Why we are failing disabled people</em>, the first large-scale investigation into the growing number of violent deaths of disabled people in Britain. In case after case, victims had also been wrongly accused of sexual crimes. Quarmby is now a founder member of the Disability Hate Crime Network, which last week wrote to Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, urging him to review the sentences handed down to James and his associate, Steven Norley. The network argues that Ebrahimi's murder should be viewed as a hate crime that requires longer sentences. A hate crime is defined as any "… that is motivated by hostility towards someone based on his or her disability, race, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation". Two years before Ebrahimi's death, Hidden in Plain Sight, a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, drew attention to a "systemic failure by public authorities to recognise the extent and impact of harassment and abuse of disabled people". The report points out that public authorities are often aware, as in the Ebrahimi case, of earlier, less serious incidents but take no or little action. This has the potential to escalate into more extreme behaviour. When action is taken, it is frequently against the victim, not the perpetrators. Responses by services are often fragmented and unco-ordinated. The report adds: "Disability is rarely considered as a possible motivating factor in crime and antisocial behaviour. As a result the incidents are given low priority." The report points out that, for numbers of disabled people, harassment is accepted as inevitable. Often, the harassment takes place in view of others without being recognised for what it is. "A culture of disbelief exists around this issue." It will be 2014 before the Independent Police Complaints Commission publishes its report into the circumstances leading to Bijan Ebrahimi's death. It is shameful that in the 21st century people are still being tortured and killed simply because they do not fit a mythical norm. The "culture of disbelief", the downplaying of acts of intimidation, the essentially racist abuse endured by Bijan Ebrahimi and the underestimation of the psychological impact of a life lived in fear of the unpredictable and irrational were all elements in the day-to-day experience of a quiet family man who asked only for time with his relatives, his garden and his cat. That such modest ambitions ended in savage death is damning for any society that claims to be civilised. The campaigning work of Quarmby and the Disability Hate Crime Network is vital to keep the issue alive, ensure that effective action is taken and to monitor the impact of change. "The biggest challenge," the EHRC report rightly concludes, "is to transform the way disabled people are viewed, valued and included in society." Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |