Police say 2 suspects behind much of Peel hate graffiti
Peel Police say hate-motivated crimes increased in 2017. Muslim community most targeted, report says
Instances of hate-motivated graffiti in Peel Region soared in 2017, and police believe two people are responsible for much of it.
In their annual report on hatemotivated crimes, Peel Police said they investigated 158 hate/ bias-motivated crimes in 2017, representing a 168 per cent increase over the 59 seen in 2016. Hate-motivated mischief made up 67.1 per cent of those cases last year, and all of those were crimes involving graffiti. Instances of hate-motivated mischief surged by 271 per cent from 2016 to 2017.
“Approximately 64, or 60 (per cent) of said reports, are believed to have been committed by two suspects,” read the report.
Peel police would not divulge any information about the suspects or if any arrests have been made, saying only it’s an “active investigation.”
Investigators also wouldn’t say which areas were being hit.
Religion was the most common target, accounting for 76 of the 158 hate-motivated crimes.
Race/national origin was second at 24.7 per cent and 39 incidents, followed by sexual orientation with eight, or 5.1 per cent.
“In 2017, there was a notable increase of reported hate-motivated crimes targeting religion, growing from 26 in 2016, to 76 in 2017,” said the report.
Most targeted was the Muslim community, followed by the Jewish faith.
Incidents of hate-motivated crimes against Muslims spiked from five occurrences in 2016 to 57 last year.
The Black community was the most targeted racial minority, seeing an increase from 17 crimes in 2016 to 39 a year later.