Retford hate crime victim talks about Restoritive Justice

Mansfield Chad

A Retford woman who was racially abused talks about how Nottinghamshire Police's restoritive justice scheme helped her and the man who racially abused her.

Transcript

00:00The event happened, I think, that was before Easter this year and I was, we went to workshop,

00:26I was there with my niece and we were in town centre trying to get a shop for African restaurant

00:34kind of, so we were looking through the town centre and this gentleman walked up to me

00:41because I had my line, I work for Cygnate, we deal with autism and learning disability

00:49patients, so of course we're contractors to NHS, so I use NHS line, so I have my line

00:56with my keys attached to me every time, so I don't lock myself out of the house.

01:01So he came up friendly and said, oh hey ladies, I said hi and he was like, you work for, where

01:09do you work?

01:10I said I work with Cygnate, he said but you have your NHS line, I said yes, we work for

01:15NHS, so of course we're allowed to do that, can I see your badge?

01:19So I don't have my badge on me, I said by the way, who are you to ask me for my badge?

01:24I need to, you need to identify yourself, ask me for my badge, I said I don't take my badge

01:28everywhere if I'm not at work, and then the next thing he said, oh you're here for Africans,

01:35you leave our country for us, and then I was like, excuse me, so I started laughing, so

01:42they said, we just want you to leave, we don't want you here, and he started swearing,

01:49so I said, why are you upset?

01:52So I took out his phone and started taking our photos, so my niece was upset, I said

01:57don't take our photos, why are you taking our photos?

02:00So I started joking, I said, no let him take our photos, he's never met beautiful African

02:04women before, so he said, do you want me to say cheese for you, things like that, still

02:12trying to, you know, let him feel, well, let's crack on, and then he went on swearing,

02:19and I said, at that time my niece was already very upset, was shaking, because she just

02:26came down as a student for a master's, she's actually based in South Africa, she's married,

02:31and she was like, no I can't handle this anymore, this is my taught experience of people, you

02:36know, discriminating against me, so I said, don't worry, you'll be fine, then he kept

02:42on, I said, okay, you have your phone, I'm going to take my phone now and start recording

02:45you too, and I said, listen, I'm a social media person, I'm going to make you popular,

02:49I'll put you on social media, and I told him, I said, people like you should not be in England,

02:54I said, because I've lived in this country since 2008, I don't think I've experienced

02:57this kind of hatred from anyone, of course I've been through discrimination, but it's

03:02not as hard as this.

03:03The few times I think I've experienced it was when I was on the street, because my first

03:07job in this country was as a CEO, parking attendant in Kingston and Chelsea, and you

03:13know, people don't like us, people don't like tickets, so we were putting tickets up, hey

03:17black monkey, go back, you know, things like that, okay, you're going to get a ticket anyway,

03:21so I said, aside from that, I've never experienced things like people walking up to me and telling

03:25me go back to your country, no, I said, it's been about 10 years now I've experienced this,

03:29I said, I moved down this way because I've always wanted to leave the countryside, and

03:33I live in Redford, I said, they're lovely people, people see you in the market, they

03:38say hello to you first sometimes, you know, they try to know you, you know, they tell

03:42you if you need anything, come around, you know, they've been very lovely people in Redford,

03:45and I'm really happy.

03:46I said, but coming to WorkSop, I said, I think you are not representing WorkSop well, so

03:53I said, well, if you feel that bad, because she calls me mommy, that's my niece, I said,

03:58listen, if you feel that bad, this isn't a hate crime, you can report it to the police,

04:02I said, yes, I want to report it to the police, okay, I said, call 999, so we called the police,

04:09yes, we were really attended to, I think about three days after they took speech from us

04:17over the phone, and then three days after, a police officer came to my house to take

04:22proper statements from both of us, and he said, don't worry, and then we showed him

04:28our recording, we sent it through email, I said, don't worry, I'm good at catching

04:32people, I'm going to get in, there are cameras all over the town centre, I said, of course,

04:35I saw the cameras, so that would be nice, and then they called us up on Palm Sunday,

04:40we had just stepped out of church, and they said, oh, because my niece, they called my

04:45niece's name, I said, oh, are they, guess what, I got him, I said, oh, brilliant, and

04:52he asked, he said, do you want to press charges, and I looked at my niece, I said, do you want

04:58to press charges, he said, yes, I want, I said, come on, the spirit of Easter, today

05:04is Palm Sunday, where Christ is, and the spirit of Easter says, you know, it's about forgiving,

05:09so let's forgive him, I said, boy, I want to meet him, I said, I need to educate him,

05:14to tell him, listen, go outside your shows, I said, I'm sure he's never been to Africa,

05:17I said, when we, I come from Nigeria originally, I said, when we receive whites, not just British,

05:26whites, Asians, everyone, I said, we treat them like kings and queens, no matter, you

05:31know, your status, no matter whether you're poor or rich, we always want people to feel

05:37welcomed, you know, I said, so that's the way we want to be treated in other people's

05:42places too, I will actually invite him to Nigeria, if he's ready to go, you understand,

05:46let him feel how we treat people, so that he will be able to understand that, no, what

05:52we're doing, you know, eating on people is wrong, you know, and the officer said, okay,

05:58that's fine, that's fair enough, we would grab a meeting, tell him this is what he wants,

06:05and then that was how I got introduced to Isha, and Isha took up the case, and it's

06:08been a win-win for everybody, it's been, we've actually become kind of friends after the

06:14whole meeting, you know, and that's it.

06:16How did that meeting go?

06:18Oh, it was really emotional at some point, because he was almost crying, to be honest,

06:23I felt for him, it was like, he's never been like that before, he doesn't know what came

06:28over him, and he's really sorry, he was almost crying, and I had to like, you know, soften

06:36the whole situation, because I started, because I joke a lot, I'm not too serious about things

06:41sometimes, so.

06:42My niece actually said, well, she didn't know the police was going to take her that far,

06:46so she feels safer, but, you know, before we had this meeting, there was a breakup,

06:55the riots, do you understand?

06:58That happened almost every, you know, city, and that, for the first time, that being in

07:05England, that got me scared, to be honest, it got me scared, there was nothing like that

07:09happening in Redford, no, but we were going to go to the beach during that period, and

07:15my work colleagues said, oh, you better don't go there now, that's my African work colleagues,

07:20you better don't go there, to the beach, you might be thrown in the water, I said, why

07:23would anyone throw me in the water, I'm not doing anything, they said, listen, they're

07:27beating up African-Asians and people, we've never seen this before in this country, but

07:31this is what is going on, I said, is this that bad now, you know, and really, I felt,

07:36oh, do I feel safe here now, and I don't know, I was like, no, don't worry, we won't go to

07:45the beach now, but let everything get settled, I said, with time, people will come back to

07:49their senses, and, you know, things will go normally, if you were in South Africa, they're

07:55used to those kind of things there, you know, that, but not here, I've never seen that here

08:01in UK, that was my first, I've seen people going on the street and say, leave our country

08:06and things like that, so I'm like, no, that's not normal, something is going wrong somewhere,

08:11but she said she feels safer with your involvement, with the police involvement, and she feels

08:18relieved at the end of the day.

08:19I really felt much better meeting him again one-on-one, I felt for him, to be sincere,

08:27I felt it was honest, I felt it was honest, and I felt, you know, he just vented in the

08:34wrong way, you know, so, yeah, it was much better for me, meeting him, if I never met

08:40him, I'd probably still be angry that I didn't have time to talk to him.

08:43It's actually a therapy, kind of psychological, that you have people there that are actually

08:51supporting you, do you understand, because this is a kind of, it affects your mental

08:57health when you're afraid, you develop phobia to go out because you're afraid somebody's

09:02going to talk to you and say, go back to your country, or give you some hate speech and

09:06swear at you, you know, so, but then, if I know, oh, I can always call the police and

09:11then they back me up and they recommend people to me and they really protect me, of course,

09:15you know, you have that confidence built back in you, I say, yeah, even though I'm not in

09:20my home country, yeah, but then, listen, these two, I still got, you know, they got my back.

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