Hate Crime report

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Members of the Black, Jewish, and the LGBTQ communities are targeted the most for hate crimes in Hamilton. That was the findings of the 2016 hate crime report released Thursday by the Hamilton police.

In 2016 there were 115 hate incidents in Hamilton, a slight increase from 2015. The number includes hate crimes, which are criminal offences and hate overtones, which cannot be proven to have been motivated solely or in part because of a person’s bias or prejudice towards the victim but include some racial overtone.

Hamilton’s black community feels under siege. The report says they’ve been targeted the most, 30 times. The next most attacked group, Hamilton’s Jewish community. 21 hate incidents an increase of almost double from last year.

Hate incidents towards Muslims decreased in 2016 from 19 to 10. There were 20 hate incidents reported that targeted the LGBTQ community. 13 of those were gay and 7 were transgender.

Hamilton police are urging the public to report every hate crime no matter how insignificant one may think it is it could leave to something more dangerous.