Once again thanks to a Rescare member for bringing an important news-item/opinion-piece to our attention. An excellent article on ‘disability hate crime’ by Ben Reilly-Smith was published in The Guardian in the run-up to the Paralympics. It features some dreadful facts and and depressing statistics, but readers should persevere and read it in full.
Despite talk in the popular media of changes in public attitudes to disability following the Paralympics, we remain sceptical, and draw your particular attention to Ben Reilly-Smith’s concluding assessment:
“… It is the same conclusion – that the justice system still treats people with disabilities differently – which others have come to. In particular, there is a problem around the perceived unreliability of evidence given by people with learning disabilities, be it victims or witnesses. According to a Mencap spokesman, if a lawyer thinks that a disabled witness will underperform on the stand, they will not take the case to court. Last month, the government ratified most of the recommendations of an inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into disability-related harassment. The coalition promised to oversee the creation of more accessible justice, better frontline training and stronger accountability from administrators. But there was a line in the response that dismayed some charities. “Ownership for tackling disability-related harassment and hate crime is primarily the responsibility of the local authorities,” it read. “Central government’s role is not to be prescriptive but to lead, advise and encourage.” To campaigners, it had the familiar ring of responsibility being shirked.”