Harry Shannon
An article in the Hamilton Spectator was on hate crimes in the city – at least, based on reports to the police and their judgement as to whether they were indeed hate crimes. But the police officer they spoke to said that the increase was disturbing but also that if they had gone down he would be concerned.
At this point, you’re likely going “Huh??!!” So was I. In fairness, the article did discuss the issue of reporting, which is crucial. Imagine if a 20-year-old black man is stopped in his car for no legitimate reason by a white supremacist cop who makes some racist remarks. That would meet the definition of a hate crime. But what are the chances that the driver will report this to the police?
The point, of course, is that the statistics compiled by the police depend not only on what actually happens in the community, but on how people interpret those events and whether they decide to report them.
Hence my letter to the paper:
