Hate Crime Awareness Week - Taking care of one another

This week Sutton Council and the Police joined together to mark Hate Crime Awareness week. 

Together we’ve been speaking with people living and working in the borough about how safe they feel when they are out and about  and in particular whether they have felt discriminated against or whether they’ve been victims of any form of hate crime. 

We want to reassure everyone that, in Sutton, both the Council and the Police do not tolerate any form of abuse or hate crime and that we take these matters seriously. Any incidents will be dealt with and we have a zero tolerance approach to these offences.

One of the events I took part in was a Hate Crime Awareness workshop with some of Sutton’s Young Commissioners. It was good to have an open and honest discussion with some of our young people and find out about their own experiences of living and going to school in the borough. The Young Commissioners are made up of young people from all sorts of different backgrounds and it was inspiring to hear them talk about the need to tackle hate crime in all its forms, the importance of safe spaces and the obstacles that could prevent young people from reporting hate crime when it happens to them.

My message to the Young Commissioners was to be kind to one another, to treat others as you would wish to be treated and to think about how saying unkind words can really hurt someone. But we also talked about the importance of reporting hate crime incidents when they happen so that we can tackle it and make it clear that it will not be tolerated.

The terrible events in Israel and Gaza over the last ten days have deeply affected many people in our community. The appalling loss of civilian life, the lasting damage to people and homes and the sheer scale of the violence remind us what a fragile world we live in. Our hearts and prayers go out to people living in the region. 
I want to make sure that everyone living in our borough feels safe and secure.  If you receive any form of abuse because of your race, religion, colour, sexuality, or disability then it’s really important to report it.

Please take care and look after one another.

Councillor Ruth Dombey
Leader of the Council