From the Herald Sun:

Hate crimes require special unit
Dvir Abramovich
April 29, 2008

SWASTIKAS smeared across a synagogue and a Jewish restaurant and obscene graffiti painted at an Islamic college.

A Jewish teenager is hit with a baseball bat and a Jewish father is punched in front of his children.

A Sudanese-born youth is viciously attacked by a gang; rocks and eggs are hurled at Hindu devotees at a temple in Carrum Downs; Indian taxi drivers in Geelong are bashed; threatening letters and e-mails are received by ethnic organisations; windows are smashed at a kosher bakery.

This is not a list from Europe or the US. These events took place in Victoria over the last year. Clearly, racially motivated violence is dramatically on the rise.

Hate crimes are the most pernicious expressions of prejudice. Heartless and unprovoked, they inflict enormous psychological harm, inspire vulnerability in the victim and intimidate an entire class of people.

Hate-crimes are an offence against all that Australians cherish, tearing “at the very fabric of our society, endangering deeply held beliefs in principles of individual liberty”.

They remind us that the dark forces of division still exist.

Admittedly, hate crimes occur in every country.

To combat this insidious and abhorrent behaviour, many police departments in Britain, Canada, the United States and elsewhere have taken the enlightened step of establishing dedicated hate-crime units. Victoria Police is yet to set up one, but it should.

This is how the units work overseas.

Any cases identified as hate offences are given priority, and specially trained officers are brought in to look at secondary and collateral activity related to the crime and to act as a liaison with the people suffering from the devastating effects of the assault.

It has been proven that hate-crime units investigate racial attacks that might have gone unattended and have generated a greater number of indictments.

Indeed, no one knows how many hate cases are under-reported or are buried in reports classified as simple assaults.

Police are the evidentiary gatekeepers. Prosecutors can only work with the evidence that they receive.

The Director of Public Prosecutions relies on motive and the key lies with the hate-crimes unit that can collect the evidence that the offence was motivated by hate.

The significance of a hate-crime unit is not limited to just arrests.

The concern shown by the unit will underscore the positive message that government and police are sensitive to victims.

Studies of the efficiency and success of hate-crime units reveal that such units have enhanced the credibility of police among ethnic communities.

Experience shows that hate-crime units get better results, since they break down traditional barriers and gain the trust of victims who are willing to report incidents.

Canada has introduced a 24-hour telephone hotline that allows victims to communicate such crimes, and in England there are “third party” reporting centres where people, who may not feel comfortable going to a station, can report hate-crimes that are then passed on to police.

If the Holocaust and other genocides have taught us anything, it is the grave consequences of apathy and indifference in the face of such violence.

The battle against racism never ends.

Australia is a multi-cultural and multi-racial society - it is the source of our strength as a nation. We must never allow the extremists to determine how we socialise with each other and defend those who cannot protect themselves.

The police are our greatest ally in this mission.

The establishment of a hate-crime unit is not a quick-fix solution, but rather a comprehensive, long-term strategy that will provide law enforcement with new tools to use in wiping out hate, and enable it to go head-to-head with racists in our community.

Dr Dvir Abramovich is director of Jewish studies at Melbourne University and has developed an anti-racism educational program.