Story by Amy Palmer
Since the EU referendum on 23rd June, there has been a noted rise in hate crime towards people from ethnic minority groups and Muslims. South Yorkshire Police has reported 43 incidents of hate crime in the fortnight following the referendum, which police believe is a large increase.
The Messenger spoke to a family recovering from the effects of hate crime. On 2nd July a man on a bus verbally attacked their mother with racist, islamophobic and xenophobic comments. Her friend also had a milkshake thrown over her.
The incident happened on the 88 bus between Wicker and Spital Hill and police are appealing for witnesses to call 101 or email enquiries@southyorks.pnn. police.uk quoting ‘incident number 968 of 2nd July 2016’.
The woman is still very shaken but she and her son wanted to encourage people to report incidents straight away, so action can be taken by the police. They believe if the bus driver had intervened the situation could have been dealt with better.
She told me:
“I’ve been living here for fifteen years and never had this issue before. People have always been friendly and kind to me – Burngreave people are nice people.”
Her son has appealed to people for more information via social media and has received dozens of messages of support and love from strangers.
He said,
“I can’t describe it – it’s amazing. It’s been reassuring to see that people will stand together against hate.”
While this incident has been reported to the police, many incidents of hate crime are not. A hate crime is a crime motivated by racist, ableist, homophobic or other types of prejudice.