Disability Rights UK is shocked and alarmed at the news that 19 disabled people have been killed at a residential care centre in the Japanese city of Sagamihara.
It appears that the motive of the killed was hatred of disabled people. The attacker is reported to have told police that ‘he wanted disabled people to disappear’.
Stephen Brookes MBE, co-ordinator of the Disability Hate Crime Network says:
“Hate Crime is an abhorrence Disability Rights UK and the Disability Hate Crime Network are continually fighting, and the terrible acts of murder and serious injury committed last night in Japan against disabled people by someone who saw us as valueless is yet another proof we are living in a seriously disengaged world. Targeted inhumanity and mass death is almost an expected news item every morning.
Politicians and prospective leaders have weak, and in too many cases almost complicit attitudes to directed abuse insult and hate performed in their name or policies, particularly in unregulated social media posts; to be courteous and considerate to others is almost becoming a questionable action.
There is the reality of an increased level of violence becoming a media driven norm, where devaluation of life is 'aided' by PC games based on points and rewards for mass killing.
We need a real change at all levels in creating a set of values in which disabled people stand firm against the betrayal they face from disinterested society.”
Notes
- In this country the Home Affairs Committee intends to carry out an inquiry into hate crime and its consequences, including lone wolf attacks such as the killing of Jo Cox MP and this incident in Japan. Disability Rights UK will be responding to this inquiry – see www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2016/july/inquiry-hate-crime-and-its-violent-consequences
- The Crown Prosecution Service’s eighth Hate Crime Report details a 41 per cent increase in disability hate crime prosecutions, compared to 2014/15.
- Today Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced that Police handling of hate crime is to be reviewed after a sharp rise in incidents following the EU referendum. See www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36890398