Hastings a racial battleground? Don't believe everything you read
EXACTLY three years ago to the day I moved to Hastings after being offered a job at The Observer.
In that short space of time I have grown to love this town which I now firmly consider my home.
Imagine my surprise then when leafing through the national newspapers this week that I discover Hastings is a hotbed of violence and, as The Sun to eloquently put it, "a racial battleground".
Obviously the news of the tragic death of Mohammed Al-Majed has sent shockwaves through Hastings and has attracted huge media interest.
It remains unclear as to what actually happened last weekend and, I suspect, we will never know the true motives behind the attack, but what is clear is how some people will use the tragic death of a teenager to their advantage.
Firstly the national press. On the hunt for a sensational angle and an attention grabbing headline the story broke as "Racist thugs kick Arab teen to death." This, we are now told by police, is not true. No matter to the nationals or TV news shows though. Far from it. With news teams hungry for follow up stories what we have seen in the last few days is wave upon wave of damning articles about mobs of racist thugs hunting in packs; a deprived town sinking further into the depths of violence and scores of foreign students cowering in fear.
For the record, none of the above it true. Although I suspect you knew that.
Then we have the politicians. Councillor after councillor issuing comments which spend less time sympathising with the heartbroken family of the deceased and a whole lot more time trying to point out Hastings isn't racist and making sure their name is printed alongside any article defending the town.
Nick Perry and Amber Rudd making their two penny worth known and in the blink of an eye the tragic issue of a teenage losing their life has been over-taken by the issue of whether or not - on the back of ONE incident - Hastings is racist or not.
I think it is important to say categorically Hastings is NOT racist.
There are more than 100 nationalities represented in this town and the majority of people find it both a welcoming community and an inclusive one.
Anyone who attended St Leonards Festival earlier this year would have seen thousands of people from dozens of different nationalities all coming together for an event which is all about inclusiveness and celebrating differences within our community - not accentuating them.
Cast your mind back as well to the last bout of council elections when the vile BNP - coming off the back of a high profile visit from the even more vile national party leader Nick Griffin - claimed to anyone who would listen that they were heading for unprecedented success in 1066 Country?
The result? Not one single councillor and, in truth, not one candidate who even looked like winning their ward. And they didn't just get a bloody nose at the polls but scores of local residents got together and organised a protest rally in the town centre to show the right-wingers exactly what this town things of bigots.
Also, the impression that this death leaves is that Hastings is a dangerous place for foreign students. Again, this is not true.
The figures released by Hastings Borough Council are that the town is visited by 35,000 foreign students every year. The police figures show that attacks on foreign students last year number no higher than 30.
That is one crime per 1,000 foreign students. If the police could mirror that figure across the rest of Hastings the town would be the safest place in the country.
The Safer Hastings Partnership has been praised for the work done to make sure the students are safe and some of its representatives were even invited to Italy to talk about the success in student safety.
One attack - one late night incident should not be allowed to undo all this good work.
Sadly though it seems Hastings is just an easy target. My home town of Horsham has never been on the receiving end of this sort of national smear campaign. In the last month though one teenager who I used to coach football to has been jailed for murdering a schoolboy by battering him with a pair of nunchucks and an old classmate of mine was caught meeting an undercover cop he believed to be a young girl and had groomed on the internet. When arrested he was carrying a scalpel, a range of sex toys and a hammer. Have we seen headlines of 'Hell in Horsham'? Of course not.Why should we expect different treatment for Hastings?
The saddest thing of all though is that all the arguments about Hastings, the political point scoring and posturing and thesensational and predictableheadlines from the nationals it is easy to forget a young life has been tragically cut short.
Mohammed Al-Majed was a youngster with his life ahead of him. A young man with a family and friends who must be going through a torrid time.
If, as I suspect it will, this turns out to be a late-night argument gone terribly wrong we should not forget that the lives of those who may be deemed responsible will also be changed forever.
Our thoughts should be with Mohammed's family. Not selling papers or scoring points.
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Weather for Hastings
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 2 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
